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:
“...to many a mother’s heart has come the disappointment of a loss of power, a limitation of influence when early manhood takes the boy from the home, or when even before that time, in school, or where he touches the great world and begins to be bewildered with its controversies, trade and economics and politics make their imprint even while his lips are dewy with his mother’s kiss.”
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“Professors of literature, who for the most part are genteel but mediocre men, can make but a poor defense of their profession, and the professors of science, who are frequently men of great intelligence but of limited interests and education, feel a politely disguised contempt for it; and thus the study of one of the most pervasive and powerful influences on human life is traduced and neglected.”
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