The other day our mail person delivered the new Eddie Bower winter catalog and I have always considered Eddie Bower as a kind of north of Mason Dixon meets Connecticut kind of magazine that appeals to your 40 plus crowd and has some "adventuresome" clothes with the handy gadgets for all of us that need another gadget. Then I noticed my son had not only read through the magazine once he was going through it for a second time and not just quickly thumbing through the pages but actually reading about the products and then he says to me: "Is Eddie Bower a good company, because they have some cool stuff in this catalog" and I had to look through it for myself to see what 40 plus year old people were wearing that would have a high school kid thinking "neat."
The minute I open the magazine the feeling of "Columbia" brand came to my mind with new fancy words about techno-clothes and ways to make a ducks feather keep you warmer with NASA technology. Like the "Accelerant Jacket" that is like goretex, down, and something else that will keep you safe on top of a mountain during a hail storm. I was expecting the usual pictures of dudes raking leaves with his kids in a 100 dollar flannel or a mom and kids throwing snow balls at each other in ski pants and barn jackets but none of this was in the magazine so far.
Deeper I go and come across "synthesis" and how the new Eddie Bower jackets work better to do more for you. Then I started to notice the prices on these things and let me tell you if you are gearing up to go camping with all Eddies clothes you had better be bringing in some solid change because Eddie used to just be proud of his stuff and now he thinks you should consider him one of the prime providers of arctic wear.
I like how they did the picture above, which is what a normal person does. They buy one brand of jacket but get a certain brand of rope, boots, and snow skis. This kind of helps you match your Eddie gear with other brands. I still wonder when we moved from raking leaves and throwing snow balls at kids to traversing a mountain with your skis on your back? Did I miss a few catalogs or something? Where are the flannel lined denim jeans and fancy water bottles?
Look here they got an award from my favorite magazine (yes that was a joke) Backpacker for their new rain jacket that is light, filled with down, and does something 2.0. This now looks more like a winter Dallas jacket that I could wear (if money was no option). With all the new diabetes gear we carry, zippers and pockets are my new obsession and having them in the right place at the right size matters. have you seen the snow jackets that have a sun glasses pocket under your arm, I have one of these jackets and let me tell you the only thing that goes in the sun glasses pocket is my glucagon injection because anything else would be destroyed.
Now we are getting some cool things I that I truly have to agree with my son that are cool. Those gloves are definitely on my gotta get list. Then I saw the boots and those were on my must try on list then I noticed the pants and I just bought last spring a similar style and cut pair of nylon pants that look just like those and they are great outdoors jeans and fit like you were made to camp forever in them with all my diabetes pockets in the right places.
Don't ask me how I put the same picture on here twice but I did and I am a moron and don't know how to remove it so enjoy this one more time. Why is the WD-40 can in the picture, like anyone that is buying this stuff needs to know about WD-40. We do get our first glimpse of flannel and a snow shovel so there is a tie in to the old magazines.
This is the bold claim of the year: Gear of the year, I don't think so. Not saying this is not good stuff or is not worthy of gear of the year award but give us some time to adjust to your new ways Eddie before telling us you now have moved your tents and backpacks from the camping isle of Target to above and beyond everyone else. Maybe two or three years and we will give you this award but let it sink in first. The tent also has me as not being gear of the year because any tent that is dogie door enter and leave is not engineered right. The new best in tents always have a side door so you can roll out of the tent instead of crawling on your hands and knees like a dog (get it that is why I call them dogie door tents with a head or foot entrance).
The back of the magazine finally is pure Eddie that we all know and love, flannel, flannel, and more flannel. I just wonder where are the blue jeans and barn jackets? Eddie does make the best flannel on the planet.
Back to those boots I saw earlier and I read how they have all sorts of this and that in them but most important is they are a three season boot which is what we know and love in the great state of Texas. A four season boot would cause you to get blisters in the summer from all the insulation. The bad thing though is they have my kryptonite of a soul the Vibram soles. I am working on getting over my issues I have with them from 14 years ago but it is hard and these boots look sweet, don't they have diabetes written all over them.
In the end Eddie is not the same Eddie I used to know just a short time ago with a wife and kids, a house and pets, but is now younger and more adventuresome. I don't know if the new Eddie will be touching my skin any time soon but I do have some items on my want list, do he does have my attention.
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