Early Winters
Early Winters, begun in 1974, was the result of Nicolai's invention of an integrated, double-wall mountaineering tent called "The Omnipotent." The Omnipotent's design came to Nicolai after a conventional A-frame tent with separate rain fly was destroyed by a storm in the North Cascades of Washington State. Nicolai almost died in the incident.
In 1976, Early Winters developed the world's first product made from Gore-Tex fabrics. This was a tent named by Ron Zimmerman, vice-president of marketing, the "Light Dimension." Sales of this innovative product allowed the company to grow rapidly. It soon developed other uses for Gore-Tex such as rain jackets and sleeping bag covers. The company's ground-breaking marketing via catalogs led it to be named Catalog of the Year by the Direct Marketing Association. Early Winters was sold to the Orvis company of Manchester, Vermont. It is now part of the Norm Thompson group in Portland, Oregon.
Read more about this topic: William S. Nicolai
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or winters:
““next to of course god america i
love you land of the pilgrims” and so forth oh
say can you see by the dawn’s early my
country ‘tis of centuries come and go
and are no more what of it we should worry
in every language even deafanddumb
thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry
by jing by gee by gosh by gum”
—E.E. (Edward Estlin)
“What calm catastrophe will yet assuage
This final drouth of penitential tears?”
—Yvor Winters (1900–1968)