Interesting History site about outdoor gear with photos

[Terry Trimble]

I was looking around the net to see what happened to my favorite company "Sequel" They made a great hat called the Ratt Cap that kept your noggin cool and sun off your neck and face also bomber rain gear made in the USA. They went out of business because they felt they could not compete with the other manufactures.

I also found this link called compass history of gear inovations.
http://homepage.mac.com/inov8/Compass/compassbrands.html
Enjoy,
Terry

[Erik Basil]

Yeah, that's a cool site! I found that when I was goofing off one day and wanted to figure out who bought Wilderness Experience. I still use a WE hat I bought off the rear loading dock, seconds-sale.

[Terry Trimble]

Living in the Los Angeles area Wilderness Experience was what every backpacker wanted in the early 70's I only own a brief case with a Wilderness Experience logo, I bought on close out.

Then I moved to San Diego county in the late 70's and had enough money to get rid of that piece of crap noisy Camp Trails hunter safety orange external frame pack from boy scouts. I found the Eagle creek factory in Solana Beach on Cedros St.. that became a Adventure 16 store.

I bought my first internal frame pack a Eagle Creek pack I went on a trip that weekend. Then a week later I was on delivery job down in MIssion valley I saw the Original Adventure 16 store from I-8 freeway. I was walking up to the stairs to A-16 and Wayne Gregory had his door open on his Gregory pack factory and I went in he showed me his packs explained how they worked.I did a slap to my fore head, I could have had a Gregory pack instead of spending my hard earned money on Eagle Creek pack.

Now that buyers remorse back then if it was used once retailer would not take it back. But I did really enjoy my Eagle Creek pack it went on many backpack trips in southern California. Okinawa, Japan jungles for fun and the wild coast line of Okinawa looking for unknown surfing spots and catching wild shrimp by hand to put in my top ramen like noddle dinner I bought from Okinawan grocery store.
Then my little brother was able to use it backpacking with his friends.
Terry.

[Nick Gatel]

Interesting site. I did not see a link for Trailwise or the Ski Hut though. Very influential outfit in the 50's and 60's.

Oh, and the A16 store near San Diego! What a treat every visit to them was. They made a lot of gear to upgrade the Kelty External packs. Very popular were their hipbelt and should strap upgrades, along with a Kanagroo pocket that attached to the inside of the packbag with velcro.

Here is a picture of my Kelty Serac next to a Gregory Whitney 95. Somewhere up in the rafters of the garage is a 60's vintage Kelty D4 pack.

[Erik Basil]

Some brands just vaporize and others live on, like the gear, even after they don't really live on. I guess Kelty's still around, but surely there's a pile of older companies that didn't make it onto that website, at least YET, eh?

Wilderness Experience was between my house and the machine shop I worked at, so if we weren't over at Marantz trying to score deals at lunch, it was at WE. A-16 used to be pretty exotic and too far across the Valley, but I still carry a wind-chill factor card in my wallet from Little Stone's Wilderness Shop in Reseda –a key place for great gear, especially climbing gear and MSR stoves. I bought my XGK on the advice of this guy named Royal Robbins that was in the store one day with Bob Kamps, both heroes of mine at the time.

[Eric Blumensaadt]

Remember Holubar? Good stuff in the '70s.

[Nick Gatel]

Here is an interesting read (IMO)

http://www.mchalepacks.com/history/index.htm

[Mary D]

Here's a lot of info on Holubar:
http://www.oregonphotos.com/Holubar1.html
I remember visiting them in the mid 1950's, when everything was sewn by Alice Holubar in their basement in Boulder, CO. I frankly don't remember much about the gear.

The same site has lots of info on the history of gear from 1935 (invention of nylon) on:
http://www.oregonphotos.com/Backpacking-Revolution1.html

The site also has a lot of info on Gerry. All four of my children were hauled around in one of the earliest Gerry Kiddie carriers!

All these sites mentioned are fascinating reading, IMHO!

[Hikin’ Jim]

Hey! That's a cool history of gear site. Thanks.

HJ

[John S.]

Sequel was gone somewhere around 2005 or so.

Confirmed…
"2005 closes Sequel, as unable to remain manufacturing in USA, and compete with rest of industry who have moved offshore

Jeremiah St Ours (aka JSO) rides a motorbike 114,000 km (over 2 years) from Alaska to South America"

Desert Rhat
http://homepage.mac.com/inov8/Compass/pictures/image1435.jpg

[Alex H]

NM

[Hikin’ Jim]

That's a shame about Sequel. I have a fleece of theirs that I bought around 1986. Still going strong although it looks a little tatty now (just a little). :) Really quality stuff.

HJ

[Terry Trimble]

I lived in town called La Crecenta, ca. on the side of the mountain range base of the Angeles national forest.
The premier backpack,Rock climbing, Sking shop was Sports Chalet on foothill blvd. in La Canada,ca about 4 miles from my house when it was owned solely by Norbert Olberz. Before it became a corporate multi chain store.
My friends and I would make journeys to look at backpacking gear we could not afford down on our bicycles or skateboards around when we were 9 years old to the small original store then.

Then in 1974 Norbert Olberz bought the Grocery store across the street to make a super sports shop. The store had a fiber glass rock climbing rock. Two Business offices hanging walls opposite from each other that had a micro Ski Gondola lift that ran on cables from each office to pass important papers back and forth between the two offices.

Equipment wise they had about 25 different hiking boots , every kind of backpacking gear you could want it was Backpacking Nirvana. Sports chalet made a gear junkie I wonder if their is rehab clinics for Backpacking gear junkies.

Even though I moved to north San Diego county to visit my Grandparents in La Canada ,I was always dropped off at Sport Chalet by my parents to full fill my mega gear junkie needs. After a while Sports Chalet lost it's mountain only sports way getting in to way to many sports and clothing store items and Sports Chalet lost it's charm.

That why I was so happy to find Adventure 16 when I moved San Diego county and it stuck with it mountain roots.. If your a women go to their Oceanside store they have clearance center packed with awesome deals for women backpackers.

The original owner Ralph "Andy" Drollinger was innovator in the backpacking industry invented the first dome tent and other packs.
Aventure16 history Link:http://www.oregonphotos.com/A16-pg1.html
Enjoy,
Terry
Ps: Erik that's cool you met Royal Robbins one of my teenage heroes.Learned how to free rock climb from his first book.

[Hikin’ Jim]

Yeah, I remember the old Sport Chalet too. It was really something. I remember as a kid seeing the JMT painted on the wall above the cash registers. Pretty cool. They finally moved out of that store a couple of years ago.

HJ

[Michael Shearer]

So maybe swooping in on a 12 year old thread isn’t bad if the thread is about A16 and Little Stones…

I had a wind chill card too, but it disappeared a _long_ time ago. I bought 22′ of 1″ tubular webbing for a swamy belt at Little Stones, and 25′ of static rope to “practice prusiking” in a tree in the backyard. I still have a box of ancient climbing equipment I can’t part with and a lot came from those two stores.

Good times. Glad I stumbled on this thread.

[Michael Shearer]

<p style=”text-align: left;”>Oh one question, been torturing me for years… Any other Vals out there remember what the original store at Tampa and Nordhoff – that eventually turned into Sportsmart – was called? I bought an external frame Kelty there, which replaced the canvas boy scout pack I had previously.</p>
Gotta say, as I’m pushing 60 I’m really happy all this stuff got lighter!

[Author]

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