Goose down jackets have become the go-to layer for everyone from early-morning commuters to high-altitude alpinists. It turns out that we owe the development of the first down jacket patented in the United States, the Skyliner, to a brush with death during one of Eddie Bauer’s winter fishing trips.
In January 1935, Eddie invited his friend, Alaskan fur trapper Red Carlson, to join him on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula to fish for winter-run steelhead. The mile-long trek through the dawn’s falling snow took them down a steep canyon where they set up on the bank of the Skokomish River.
Within a few hours, they’d caught a hundred pounds of steelhead and were preparing to make the strenuous climb out of the canyon. The two wore the era’s standard heavy wool mackinaw coats over their lighter wool shirts, but they quickly shed the dense jackets to avoid overheating as they climbed.
Eddie sent Red ahead with the bulky coats and the rest of the gear while he shouldered the 100-pound bag of steelhead and started up the cliff in just his base layers. Red soon outdistanced Eddie and headed back to the car.
Meanwhile, Eddie was struggling under his heavy load and fighting to maintain his footing on the snow-slick ground. His fish- and sweat-soaked shirt began to crust with ice before he had even reached the top of the climb.
Exhausted from the effort and cold, and starting to feel the effects of hypothermia, Eddie struggled to the top, leaned against a tree, and quickly fell asleep standing up. Moments later he snapped awake, realized how dire his situation had become, and fired off three shots from his pistol to signal to Red for help before falling back asleep.
Listen to Eddie tell the story in his own words
In this interview, Eddie Bauer recounts the story of the inspiration of America’s first patented down jacket, the Skyliner.
On the drive home—between musings on the quality of the fishing and what might have happened had it been a solo trip—Eddie began scheming a better winter-weather jacket. “What we needed,” Eddie realized, “was something that was warm, but at the same time lightweight and breathable enough to wear during strenuous activity.”
Design inspiration came from an unlikely place—Eddie’s uncle had served in the Russian army during the Russo-Japanese War in Manchuria and Eddie remembered his stories of soldiers huddled in down feather-stuffed coats to protect them from the bitter winter. Fortunately, Eddie had been working with feathers for a decade as part of his Tackle Maker business.
He had found his innovative insulation.
Eddie quickly designed a pattern for a quilted jacket, bought several pounds of goose down, and asked a local seamstress to build a sample based on his pattern.
He took the finished prototype to his friend, renowned mountaineer and fellow outdoor gear maker, Ome Daiber. Immediately upon donning the jacket, Ome realized the massive potential of such a warm, breathable, and lightweight jacket and offered on the spot to begin manufacturing what Eddie called the “Blizzard Proof Jacket.”
Within a year, orders outstripped Ome’s capacity to produce the jacket, so Eddie formed his own manufacturing business—Arctic Feather & Down Co.—and ramped up production. He changed the name to the Skyliner, and the first of many iconic Eddie Bauer down jackets was born.
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