Eddie Bauer

Hello, Everyone. I am new here as a member, and I had a few questions. I understand that many don’t discuss EB. It seems from the limited info out there, people opinions are mixed on their gear. While I can afford pretty much whatever gear I want, I don’t think blowing exuberant amounts of money is necessary. I have always been “thrifty” if you will. Many folks can’t afford Patagonia, Arc’teryx, Canada Goose, or FF. So, with all the great deals EB provides, and it’s list of Alpine climbers, Rock Climbers, and other athletes, what do the members on here think of their stuff? I own a bit of it, along with many other brands. I’ve read a few things where people have said the quality is similar to Patagonia.

Anyhow, I don’t want to start an argument. I’m hoping for some friendly discussion, and maybe some info others new to climbing could benefit from.

Thanks for any info!

Cheers

Less about brand, more about what material do they put in it and on it, and how do they design the article of clothing (helmet compatible hood, two way zipper, etc)

Google Andy Kirkpatrick and look at some his blog/article posts and his idea of clothing and such. He discusses it in great detail.

Hope it helps, cheers!

Some of their First Ascent stuff is pretty darn good. Their customer service is clueless. As a company they don't give a f*** about climbing. It's inexpensive.

In my mind other than the price there is no comparison to those other companies:

FF: made in the USA by people paid a living wage. Of course it's going to cost more. 

Patagonia: good customer service, they care about the environment. Most of their stuff is excellent, a lot is fairly innovative, some is the gold standard (fleece, base layers)

Arc: truly exceptional quality gear more often than not. 

Whether any of that is worth paying extra for (and how much) is totally up to the individual. Probably EB gear isn't going to deny you any sends.

I own a bunch of EB stuff that I climb in. I love it! It flexes well highly durable. Especially the first ascent pants line. The unlined ones are good for spring, summer, and fall. The fleece lined ones are awesome during the winter. They serve me really well when ice climbing. 

gumbie gene wrote: Less about brand, more about what material do they put in it and on it, and how do they design the article of clothing (helmet compatible hood, two way zipper, etc)

Google Andy Kirkpatrick and look at some his blog/article posts and his idea of clothing and such. He discusses it in great detail.

Hope it helps, cheers!

Thank you for this. I will look into this!

i have like 6 pairs of the guide pro pants / shorts. EB does 50% off regularly.

only thing is the zippered pockets come unstitched after awhile. i just sew it, but EB does do lifetime warranties like the old REI.

I've bought quite a few pairs of the eb guide pro pants, mainly because they come in long and are cheap. They fit well, but the durability is pretty terrible compared to a similar patagonia pant.  

I’ve broke 2 of their softshell FA jacket zippers in the alpine. (That sucked both times.)

Their ultralight FA down jacket hoods don’t fit over helmets.

I can’t really understand how this gear is made for the alpine. It seems like very little actual testing has gone into it. At this point, I just save my money and buy something high quality once. My Arc’teryx jackets are expensive, but I haven’t had a complaint about one so far. The best use case for the FA gear IMO is for folks who want to do friendly stuff every now and then and don’t need to put the gear through the ringer. I’d recommended it to folks who, say, want to bucket-list Rainier. 

I use their FA Guide Lite and FA Guide gloves and love them.  Their durability is top notch.  Had a couple OR gloves fall apart through the same amount of wear, but the EB ones are still going strong.  

I have FA softshell pants and they are fantastic! I also wear some EB casual clothes (flannel etc..) with no complaints.

My favorite khakis/casual pants. Have them in multiple colors and fits. Good quality, good fit, good price when they are on sale (almost always). But I don't climb in them. 

bought an EB FA down storm hoody, and thought the quality of hems and stitching were laughably poor, especially when i compared similar stitching from my OR and Patagonia down pieces. It was priced cheap though so maybe you get what you pay for. IMHO not the type of quality you want to rely on for long/remote missions.

I have the downlight alpine, which I got for not much over $100 shipped. Feels fairly durable, decent loft in the body but the sleeves seem to have very little down in them. Unfortunately I got it about the time winter stopped in the southeast so haven't gotten to test it much. May end up returning it and going another brand. 

My partner had a mid-weight down jacket & that thing bled feathers worse than any other down jacket I've ever seen.  He sent it back & the second one did the same thing.

I feel like eb makes the whole spectrum of stuff - from really terrible to actually very good, however it shouldn’t be too hard to discount the really terrible stuff just by looking. The few eb items I’ve had have been very serviceable. If they have a product you might like, i’d certainly check it out.  

Thanks to everyone who has responded so far. So it seems EB has mixed opinions, but there are some really positive ones. I’ve had great luck with the few pieces of EB I own. Hopefully they continue to improve the FA line. Patagonia is still a pinnacle when it comes to quality, warranty, and the environment. Never considered Carhartt, so that is a different one. Arc'teryx is excellent, but the price is not. High quality comes with high price?

I’ve been trying to post on here, but it seems like the forum limits you.

Thanks for keeping it friendly everyone!

Cheers.

Sent from my iPhone

Bought a bunch of EB first accent clothing along with a ton of their casual wear. After a few months I threw out about $800 in clothing and started over. Every basically just fell apart and all the zippers failed. It wasnt worth trying to warranty anything, I'd stay away from that shit.

Sean Onasch wrote: Bought a bunch of EB first accent clothing along with a ton of their casual wear. After a few months I threw out about $800 in clothing and started over. Every basically just fell apart and all the zippers failed. It wasnt worth trying to warranty anything, I'd stay away from that shit.

Really? That’s crazy. Haven’t heard of anything that crazy. Will keep that in mind. 

The OP sounds like a focus group survey for EB...  hmmmm

Kyle Tarry wrote:

I wore an EB jacket (essentially equivalent to the Nano Air) on Liberty Ridge, including leading all the ice pitches.  It seemed to work just fine.

Mine's also been on countless ski tours and lots of pitches of ice and mixed, and doesn't show any abnormal wear.

The jackets actually feel quite nice.  They have just failed on me too many times for me to give them another shot, and it doesn't seem like I'm the only one in that boat either.  Basically, IMHO it is disposable gear.

Cory F wrote: The OP sounds like a focus group survey for EB...  hmmmm

I was just gonna say that... pretty transparent... But hey if they do something about it I guess I wouldn't have any complaints.