Gear: Chapter 3

Summary

Podcast Summary: Articles of Interest — Gear: Chapter 3

Produced and Hosted by: Avery Trufelman
Date: November 5, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this episode, "Gear: Chapter 3," Avery Trufelman explores the fascinating post-war origins of American outdoor gear—from its military roots during WWII, through the personal story of gearhead Jerry Cunningham, to the boom of army surplus and subsequent innovations that demystified the outdoors for everyday Americans. Through interviews, archival stories, and visits to trade shows, Avery traces how climbers and campers like Jerry helped invent the modern outdoor industry, balancing function, comfort, family, and, eventually, fashion.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The WWII Backdrop: The 10th Mountain Division

• Setting: Americans fighting in northern Italy, 1944–1945, particularly through the Apennine Mountains—a battlefield dominated by mountaineering and skiing.
  • “There’s about as much concealment as a goldfish would have in a bowl.” (00:48, cited from an American army lieutenant)
• Skiers and climbers—like Jerry Cunningham—were specifically recruited for the US Army’s 10th Mountain Division.

2. Jerry Cunningham: Gearhead in the Making

• Early Innovation: As a teenager, Jerry makes homemade ski climbers out of pony skin because he couldn’t afford seal skin. He sold these to other local skiers.
  • “He’d go up the hill past these other people…He’d pass them, he’d say, hard, hard work, isn’t it?” — Pete Cunningham (03:32)
• Self-taught Maker: Designed and made his own climbing pack in high school, paid college tuition by climbing trees.
• Met his wife Ann—an outdoorsy tomboy—literally up a tree. Their honeymoon: tent and canoe on the Hudson River.
  • “For their honeymoon, Jerry and Ann were dropped off at the Hudson river with little more than a tent and a canoe. This was their idea of bliss.” (04:55)

3. The Military Gear Letdown

• Jerry enters the 10th Mountain Division, hoping for cutting-edge gear, but is disappointed:
  • “We had rucksacks that were miserable. We had £90 in those stupid things.” — Jerry Cunningham, oral history (07:12)
  • “I used to develop techniques for avoiding field inspection because I would not take what we were required because I couldn’t carry it, frankly.” — Jerry (07:27)
• Begins to mentally redesign everything—packs, tents, jackets—dreaming of lightweight, functional alternatives.

4. WWII Ends, Surplus Booms

• Surplus after WWII: The US government is left with millions of pieces of clothing and gear; new War Assets Administration tries to offload it.
  • “It would take 34,000...[warehouses] to accommodate the War Assets Administration’s total inventory.” — Quartermaster Review (18:16)
• Army–Navy Surplus Stores: Army surplus becomes a backbone of American wardrobes postwar.
  • “We all bought clothes at the Army Navy store…It was cheap.” — G. Bruce Boyer (19:22)
• Army surplus also seeds the recreational outdoor market, as returning veterans open stores and even start improving on army gear.

5. Jerry & the Founding of ‘Jerry’ (with a G)

• Unlike most, Jerry hates military surplus; craves lighter, better designs.
  • “He wanted nothing to do with military surplus.” — Rachel S. Gross (24:07)
• Jerry and Ann move to Boulder, Colorado, and begin manufacturing their own gear—reimagined backpacks, duffel bags, and the now-iconic zippered backpack with a rounded top.
  • “Jerry designed the zippered backpack with the rounded top, made of nylon. It’s the archetype of the backpack you might have worn to school when you were a kid.” (24:56)
• Collaborates and cross-pollinates with Roy and Alice Holubar, fellow outdoor pioneers, each specializing in different innovations (down sleeping bags, clothing, etc.).

6. Lightweight Revolution: Designs That Changed Everything

• Iconic Jerry Inventions:
  • The modern oval carabiner (1950) — “I was the first one to come up with that idea. I made them on my drill press.” — Jerry (33:21)
  • Drawstring clamp (cord lock, 1951)
    • “It’s basically a cord running through a spring loaded space...you release it by pressing down.” — Bruce Johnson (33:59)
  • The mass-produced “kiddie carrier”: the modern framed baby backpack — “He invented a better baby backpack.”— Bruce Johnson (34:23)
  • “Leave No Trace” camping ethic and booklet (early 1970s)—arguably coined by Jerry.
    • “Did your dad invent the phrase leave no trace?” — Avery
    • “Yes, he did.” — Pete Cunningham (36:21)
• From Macho to Family: Both Jerry and Holubar advocate for gear and ethics that make camping welcoming for women and families, not just tough guys.
  • “Wilderness camping is no longer just for the strong and rugged.” (35:08)
  • “We need better gear so that people are comfortable and their families can be with them.” — Bruce Johnson (35:29)

7. Surplus Stores and the Birth of Outdoor Industry

• Veterans and early shopkeepers sell army gear, then begin designing improved versions—REI and others trace their business to this surplus era.
  • “Before World War II, only a few cities had outdoor specialty stores. They were quite rare. But after the war, returning veterans used their special privilege to buy up a ton of surplus and open up shops all over the US.” — Rachel S. Gross (22:35)

8. Gore-Tex and the Ingredient Brand Era

• The invention and adoption of Gore-Tex—a breathable, waterproof fabric—fuels further advances.
  • “Expanded PTFE became porous... kept out large water molecules but allowed smaller sweat molecules to escape.” — Rachel S. Gross (50:51)
• First offered to the military, turned down, then embraced by outdoor companies, and eventually back to the military.

9. The Changing Outdoor Industry: From Innovators to Fashion

• Jerry’s and Holubar’s companies are eventually acquired by large conglomerates (Gillette, General Mills, SC Johnson, North Face). The focus shifts from innovative gear to fashion apparel.
  • “They didn’t seem to value his input anymore. Jerry told me about sitting around a conference room where nobody seemed interested in his concepts anymore. So he quit, which led to him just quitting the whole industry.” — Bruce Johnson (60:49)
• The “camp” aesthetic—gear turns into fashion objects, sometimes with less function.
  • “What is, what is this? What is this thing?” — Avery, regarding excess features on a modern Holubar jacket (59:27)

10. Jerry’s Legacy

• Jerry moves on to a quiet, inventive life in Arizona, building sailboat hardware and writing pamphlets on environmentalism until his death in 2010.
  • “It was by any measure a good life. It just saddens me that I knew nothing about it. His legacy was lost so quickly.” — Avery (61:43)

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• “There’s about as much concealment as a goldfish would have in a bowl.” — Army report on Apennines (00:48)
• “He’d go up the hill past these other people…He’d pass them, he’d say, hard, hard work, isn’t it?” — Pete Cunningham (03:32)
• “We had rucksacks that were miserable. We had £90 in those stupid things.” — Jerry Cunningham (07:12)
• “We all bought clothes at the Army Navy store…It was cheap.” — G. Bruce Boyer (19:22)
• “Jerry designed the zippered backpack with the rounded top, made of nylon. It’s the archetype of the backpack you might have worn to school when you were a kid.” — Avery (24:56)
• “Did your dad invent the phrase leave no trace?” — Avery
  “Yes, he did.” — Pete Cunningham (36:21)
• “Would you believe these packs weigh 20 pounds for Jerry and about 12 pounds for the others?” (43:31)
• “If you look at the offerings of all the major companies, they’re full of clothing and just apparel.” — Bruce Johnson (60:20)
• “It was by any measure a good life. It just saddens me that I knew nothing about it. His legacy was lost so quickly.” — Avery (61:43)

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Important Segments & Timestamps

• 00:00–07:00 | The 10th Mountain Division, Jerry Cunningham’s outdoor skills and military experience
• 07:12–10:54 | Jerry’s disappointment with military gear, seed of future innovation
• 14:57–22:35 | The explosion of army surplus, birth of the army-navy store phenomenon
• 24:07–33:39 | Jerry’s company, Boulder’s outdoor scene, Holubar partnership
• 33:40–36:21 | Jerry’s key inventions & “Leave No Trace”
• 41:30–44:22 | The army trade show; civilian tech inspiring military gear
• 50:30–54:00 | Gore-Tex invention and its journey from outdoors to the military
• 55:51–61:43 | Industry consolidation, Jerry’s fading influence but lasting legacy

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Final Reflection & Tone

Avery Trufelman brings her signature warmth, wit, and curiosity to the episode, blending personal stories, expert interviews, and quirky cultural observations. The tone is both nostalgic and critical—honoring innovation, lamenting the shift from genuine gear advances to fashion, and marveling at how much of what we use today goes back to people like Jerry Cunningham and the world that WWII shaped.

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For Further Exploration

• Listen for Jerry’s and Holubar’s original catalogs—contrasting styles reveal much about the evolution of “outdoor culture.”
• Track “Leave No Trace” from a single booklet to a core American ethic.
• Notice the ongoing interplay of civilian and military technology, with innovations bouncing between the two.

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“His legacy was lost so quickly. Even though his brand, Jerry with a G, is still around… it was hard to explain to [my fiancé’s sister] why I suddenly got so emotional over some cheap pants that she bought at Costco.” — Avery Trufelman (61:43)

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Transcript

[A]

They say that in the army the biscuit's mighty fine but one rolled off the table and killed a friend of mine oh, Lord, I wanna go but they won't let me go oh, oh, oh hey. Chapter three. Italy was not going down without a fight. The Second World War was raging on, and the Americans and the Allies had taken Rome in June of 1944. Great. But the Germans were still clinging to their last stronghold in northern Italy, and they were not letting it go. By the winter of 1944, the Allied 5th army was getting tired. They'd spent months fighting their way through the Apennine Mountains, and it felt absolutely Sisyphusian. As soon as they made their way up one massive ridge, they got to the base of another, and the Germans held the high ground, peering down, unafraid to shoot. As one American army lieutenant wrote in a report, there's about as much concealment as a goldfish would have in a bowl. The mountain range was an ingenious natural defense. The Germans, after all, were masters of skiing and mountaineering culture. They felt safe in these mountains. But the Allies had a little trick up their sleeves, because Americans know how to ski too. Many are world famous skiers and mountain climbers, many are amateurs, and many are greenhorns. The 10th Mountain Division was the US military's fighting force on skis, which was admittedly unusual in the 1940s. Ski resorts were not really a widespread thing. Yet an American with ski experience was a very particular kind of American. An American like Jerry Cunningham.

[B]

He probably learned to ski before he was in high school, but when he was in high school, he would ski regularly.

[A]

This is Pete Cunningham talking about his dad, Jerry Cunningham.

[B]

He was born and raised in Utica, New York.

[A]

Utica is pretty close to Vermont.

[B]

It's up there, and there were a few little ski places around there, but.

[A]

This is before they had anything to help you get up the mountain.

[B]

There weren't any toes or lifts or anything.

[A]

After Jerry skied down a hill, he'd have to take his skis off and walk back up. Or the other option is he could leave his skis on and just slowly herringbone walk his skis in a V shape all the way back up.

[B]

It's faster than sidestepping, but it's, oh, my God.

[A]

Not fast by any standard.

[B]

No, not fast.

[A]

But when he was a teenager, Jerry heard that over in Europe, where ski culture was more robust, they had this nifty invention called ski climbers, which were simple. They just attached ski seal skin to the bottom of skis. With the fur against the grain of.

[B]

The mountain, so they would slide forward. But the minute the skis started to move backwards, the hairs would all go out and grab the snow.

[A]

So you could just put these things on and walk up the hill.

[B]

Well, dad had heard about that. I mean, he's in high school. He was like 16 years old or something like that. And he said, I'm going to make a pair of those.

[A]

Teenage Jerry couldn't afford seal skin, but he found a local tanner who would give him a bunch of scraps of pony skin, even though pony hair does not work the same because it kind of sticks out in all directions, Swirls.

[B]

And things like that. So he cut up all these scraps and sewed them together with the hair all going the same direction.

[A]

Arduously, Jerry makes his own ski climbers, and immediately he takes them to the slopes, and they work. Jerry can walk uphill.

[B]

He'd go up the hill past these other people that were herringboning their way up. He'd pass them, he'd say, hard, hard work, isn't it?

[A]

Of course, this looked like magic to the skiers struggling behind Jerry.

[B]

And they'd come up, they said, how do you do that? He says, I just happen to have an extra pair here. And he sold them for about $8 a pair. He paid for all his skiing by Mitten rose climbers.

[A]

Clearly, Jerry Cunningham had a knack for gear. He was good at learning about it, good at making it. He was handy not only with a needle and thread, but just about any material he could get his hands on. He loved to improve his experience of being outdoors in any capacity beyond skiing. He loved to be outside in all kinds of ways.

[B]

Dad was also a rock climber when he was in high school, so he designed a climbing pack and made it and used it.

[A]

During his brief stint at college, Jerry paid his tuition by putting his climbing skills to work. He trimmed the massive trees on campus.

[B]

And we're talking about turning 30, 40ft off the ground. We're not talking about just a few. A few feet up.

[A]

And one day, Jerry climbed up to a high, high limb and found there was already someone sitting up there.

[B]

There's mother sitting on a limb.

[A]

Jerry met his future wife, Ann, not only his spiritual match, but his physical and energetic match as well.

[B]

Yeah, she loved to climb trees. She was very much of a tomboy.

[A]

For their honeymoon, Jerry and Ann were dropped off at the Hudson river with little more than a tent and a canoe. This was their idea of bliss. Basically just them and the elements they needed nothing more.

[B]

The river really flooded. I think a lot of their beer got swept away.

[A]

That didn't bother Jerry and Anne. What abruptly ended their honeymoon was when Jerry's dad came to find them.

[B]

Grandpa knew approximately where they were. He hiked through the forest and everything and found them.

[A]

There was mail for Jerry.

[B]

Dan's draft notice arrived saying, hey, you're drafted.

[A]

So this gives you an idea of the kind of guy who was assigned to the 10th Mountain Division.

[B]

He got assigned to the 10th Mountain Division because he was a skier and a climber. And the 10th Mountain Division was just filled with all these skiers and climbers.

[A]

By the way, alongside Jerry Cunningham in the 10th Mountain Division were some of the von Trapp children, like the von Trapp Family Singers, who the Sound of Music is based on both Warner and Rupert.

[B]

Dad knew both of them. It was funny because everybody thinks that the oldest child because of the Sound of Music, was a woman. But it wasn't. It was the two older brothers.

[A]

The Austrian Von Trapps had settled in Vermont. So you bet they knew how to ski. And all of these skiers and outdoorsmen from all over the United States were gathered together in Colorado.

[B]

They got sent to Camp Meal in Colorado.

[A]

Jerry was not looking forward to combat at all. He was an extremely reluctant soldier. In fact, he specifically requested to be a medic in the division so that he wouldn't have to fight. However, as you might imagine, there was an element of the military that Jerry was looking forward to. The gear, of course. He was a lifelong gearhead. Jerry wanted to see what this military grade outdoor equipment would be.

[B]

He went into the 10th Mountain Division expecting the best of equipment and it was awful.

[A]

The uniforms of the 10th Mountain Division were not top notch. Their field jackets were some of the clunky mission specific field jackets before the invention of the all purpose M43.

[B]

The tents were canvas, heavy canvas mostly.

[A]

It was just so heavy.

[B]

They were pretty horrendous.

[A]

As Jerry said in an undated oral history from the Outdoor Recreation Archive, well, God, when I got into the army ski troops, we had rucksacks that were miserable. We had £90 in those stupid things. Myself and a lot of the other guys who were in the early 10th Mountain Division who had been climbers and skiers were really pissed off at this junk we got. I know I used to develop techniques for avoiding field inspection because I would not take what we were required because I couldn't carry it, frankly. Jerry started to imagine what better stuff he could make, not just how he could improve These heavy rucksacks and plastic coated tents. But how he could entirely reimagine them, Scrap em all, start again from first principles.

[B]

Dan says, what's our goal? What's the purpose of this item? The purpose of the item is to give human beings a shelter from the wet, the cold, the wind and so on.

[A]

This is Jerry's solace. This is how he spends honestly a lot of his time. During his deployment in the Second World War, Jerry is constantly dreaming of new kinds of tents, new shapes of backpacks, new fits for jackets. All stuff he was mostly imagining for his life back at home as a civilian.

[B]

Dad thought when we get out of here, this is what I'm going to do, is make these things and make camping and climbing better for other people.

[A]

But first, Jerry had to make it through his military service alive. He and the whole 10th Mountain Division were given a clear mission. They were to conquer this Apennine mountain ridge in Italy. They were to swoop in silently through a narrow pass and then climb up the sheer vertical face of Riva Ridge, which the Germans believed was unclimbable. There's a lot of lore around this particular mission of the 10th Mountain Division. It's said that for weeks and weeks the 10th Mountain Division secretly scouted roots, silently installed pitons and ropes and anchors on Riva Ridge. And that when night fell on February 18, 1945, 700 soldiers swung into action scurrying up the steep mountain, taking the Germans entirely by surprise. It's said that the 10th Mountain Division held off Nazi counterattacks for five whole days, ultimately helping to push them out of northern Italy once and for all. And that by the way, after the war the Veterans of the 10th Mountain Division came home and started all the ski resorts and ski schools and ski camps that seeded the modern American ski industry. But Jerry Cunningham would not have bragged about the heroism of the 10th Mountain Division.

[B]

Dad did not share a lot with us kids. He was suffering from post traumatic stress from World War II.

[A]

Jerry was sent back to New where he was hospitalized. This hospital is one of the many for the care and treatment of the psychoneurotic soldier. Born and bred in peace, educated to hate war, they were overnight plunged into sudden and terrible situations.

[B]

And he got released from the memo hospital. But he never recovered from it.

[A]

These are the casualties of the spirit, the troubled in mind. When Jerry got out of the hospital, he and Ann moved into his parents attic back in Utica, New York. And there Jerry remembered the visions that kept his spirits afloat in Italy. He remembered all the designs that he had dreamed up.

[B]

He actually came up with a logo while he was in Italy, actually sketched it out.

[A]

He had imagined an image of a mountain, and over it, as though the mountain had already been conquered and claimed floated his name. Jerry spelled with a G. He told Ann, this is what I want to do.

[B]

They figured out what they were going to make and they started producing things.

[A]

And some of the things they produced are all around you to this day. But I'll tell you about them after the break. When I'm at parties, after I get through the mortification of being like, yes, I'm a podcaster. People are like, you live on that. The answer is mostly. But yeah, for a big project like this, what I'm doing now, this gear series, like, yeah. And the only reason I'm able to do this is because of Radiotopia. What's Radiotopia? Basically, they sell my ads and these really cool advertisers. I only shill for products that I believe in and I like and I stand by. Radiotopia helps me do that and they give me the money up front and they pay themselves back with the ad money they make. And the nice thing about this model is we live in this world where I feel like every podcast you like is like, okay, if you like this now, you have to give me $5 a month. But I will ask you this one thing. Maybe donate once. And donate not just to me, but to Radiotopia. And it's not just giving to articles of interest, it's giving to a bunch of other shows. So Radiotopia is a collective. They're a non profit collective. And the money from donations doesn't go to Radiotopia, it goes directly back to shows. And the cool thing is like, we pool it, we share it. It's this collectivized model. I'm so proud to be a part of Radiotopia. It's so stupid. For the longest time I was giving $5 a month to Radiotopia and they were like, stop giving money to Radiotopia. Like, we're just giving it back to you. Head to Radiotopia FM donate. That's Radiotopia FM Donate. Gifting season is ramping up. And I think the best gifts are the ones that I'm so excited to give because I can't wait to see the look on their faces. The granddaddy of great gifting is Macy's. They've been doing it for 167 years. The reason that Macy's has stuck around is their curation and their personalized guidance. These days it's all too easy to just click a button online and buy stuff. But Macy's originated as a department store, and they know what it's like to put thought and energy and excitement into the ritual of gift giving. Shop@macy's.com or in store. Articles of Interest is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. You chose to hit play on this podcast today. Smart Choice. Make another smart choice with Auto Quote Explorer to compare rates from multiple car insurance companies all at once. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates not available in all states or situations. Prices vary based on how you buy. Even after the 10th Mountain Division had that heroic, legendary mission in Italy, it didn't look like that was going to end World War II. It seemed like the war was gonna drag on and on and on. I mean, you and I, people of the future, know that the war is gonna end soon. But at the time, they do not.

[C]

We know now how World War II ends.

[A]

Journalist Charles McFarlane with the Droppings of.

[C]

The atomic bombs on Japan. But you know, no one was planning for that.

[A]

The Manhattan Project was obviously a secret. The vast majority of the United States military didn't know the atomic bomb was being developed the let alone that it was about to be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

[C]

So the government was still producing clothing for the idea of a war dragging well into 1946, if not 1947.

[A]

There was a huge ramp up of supplies and clothing in preparation for an invasion of Japan, which was expected to suck up a massive amount of lives and supplies. But the war's end cannot be anticipated while it's still being bought. The Quartermaster Corps is charged with assuring the successful operation of the army of the United States by providing food, fuel, clothing and equipment at home and abroad.

[C]

You have basically 12 million Americans in uniform and each of them is given clothing for all four seasons, from socks to underwear to boots to hats, not.

[A]

To mention all the M43 jackets and backpacks and tents and gear. So great is the extent of the Quartermaster operations at over 25% of the cotton textile industry is now producing for the Quartermaster Corps.

[C]

These garments were all made through clothing companies in Brooklyn, in Philly, North Carolina, Massachusetts.

[A]

And these factories are all inspected and regulated by the Quartermaster Corps. We have come a long way from the shoddy uniforms of the Civil War.

[C]

These clothes were designed to fit well and they were made to a very high standard.

[A]

It's sturdy, hardy clothes and gear, even if real gear nuts like Jerry Cunningham would argue that this gear was too sturdy and heavy. But for the average American soldier who grew up in the Depression, this military issue wardrobe was a massive windfall for.

[C]

A lot of these people. They never had this much clothing before in their lives and never had such well designed and well made clothing either. This really changed the way American men viewed their wardrobe.

[A]

Apparel Arts, a trade magazine for tailors, could see the writing on the wall again. No one thinks this war is ending anytime soon. And already this magazine is talking about how the war is preparing their future customers.

[C]

The title is Meet GI Joe Civilian. And it's like, how are we going to prepare for this flood of new consumers who are going to be buying clothes for the first time, who have come to expect a very high quality of fit fabric and variety?

[A]

Every now and then I think about this old film that I once saw of an atomic bomb test in Nevada, where engineers dropped an atomic bomb on a row of ponderosa pine trees. And the pine trees rock back and forth and back and forth and back and forth really quickly and violently, like their trunks are made of rubber. And they're rocking back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. And then suddenly they calm down, erect again, and they gain their composure. Everything's completely tranquil. And then boom. In a blink, they're obliterated, cut down as though a massive laser rippled through them. That's what the United States government dropped on cities full of people. In August of 1945, the nuclear era arrived. Japan surrendered, and the war suddenly ended. Yet it is to be remembered that practically all supplies procured by the quartermaster can be used in a world at peace. They will be available for various purposes, but for what various purposes? There was so much stuff. It was all for a giant war that was supposed to go on for years and years. Even before the end of the war, the United States government claimed it had 16 million pounds of surplus clothing. Not to mention 7 million tubes of toothpaste, 25 million folding chairs, and 17,000 homing pigeons. A new agency called the War Assets Administration was put in charge of overseeing the sale of all surplus property. And this new agency was helmed by none other than former European theater chief quartermaster Kerner's nemesis, General Robert McGowan Littlejohn. And he had his work cut out for him. To quote a 1947 article from the Quartermaster Review, Imagine a warehouse capable of holding a million dollars worth of property. It would take 34,000 such buildings to accommodate the War Assets Administration's total inventory.

[D]

So you know what are you going to do with all this mountains of stuff? Apparently there are warehouses all over the place. Chock a block with here.

[A]

This is menswear icon G. Bruce Boyer.

[D]

I'm G. Bruce Boyer, a fashion journalist and author of several books on fashion.

[A]

Bruce has the most impeccable taste. I mean, he was the fashion editor for Town and Country and GQ and Esquire, for crying out loud. He is unafraid of a jaunty scarf or an ascot or a layered sport coat. And yet, Bruce is just a blue collar guy from central Pennsylvania, South Allentown. It's not like he grew up surrounded by the fashion industry or getting bespoke su. Bruce was just able to develop his own style from the time he was young.

[D]

When I was a kid, I grew up in blue collar neighborhood. We all bought clothes at the Army Navy store.

[A]

Everyone's. It was cheap, you know, army surplus stores were rare oddities before World War II. After World War II, they explode. They are everywhere because it is so easy to buy up large amounts of cheap inventory. In just one month, according to a January 1946 Newsweek article, the War Assets Administration sold off 4 million pairs of cotton and wool socks, 1,895,000 pairs of work clothes, 10,000 khaki shirts, 884,000 navy raincoats, 5,000 parkas. I could keep going. This was all in one month. It was all for a song. The War Assets Administration could not get rid of this stuff fast enough.

[D]

I knew guys that bought socks and underwear and everything, everything there. I'm sure I bought a pea coat there.

[A]

So many Americans learned how to dress from military surplus. It helped foundationally create what we still to this day consider good classic style.

[D]

The stuff that I remember from the army and Navy stores was absolutely first quality. The cotton that they used in coats. You don't even see it anymore today.

[A]

So it wasn't like you were dressing up like military. You're basically getting the essentials and then changing them.

[D]

Yeah, exactly.

[A]

This was not about looking military. Like college students, whether or not they were on the GI Bill, were wearing khakis to class. Farm workers and auto shop Mechanics were wearing M43 jackets as workwear. This was all about turning surplus clothing into normal, everyday, practical clothing.

[D]

My uncles were all in the war. They didn't talk about it. It had anything to do with the war. They didn't want to dress like that.

[A]

Bruce was a toddler when the war ended. It was really easy for him and for so many other Americans to take these garments away from Their context, especially when so many elements of the surplus store were just mysteriously intriguing.

[D]

They sold cups, saucers, anything that an army would use. Knives, ammunition, carryalls. I have a friend who swears and he doesn't lie, so I believe him. He said his father went into an army and Navy store and bought a flamethrower. They sold all kinds of military surplus there.

[A]

And this is where a lot of Americans would get their first tents, their first sleeping bags, their first affordable gear. How common were the military surplus shops in Allentown?

[D]

We had, I think maybe three.

[A]

That's kind of a lot.

[D]

They had just made so much of this stuff. They would take care of the draft for 15 years. I mean, they had tons and tons.

[A]

There was just so much stuff to get rid of. Initially, in the immediate aftermath of World War II, military veterans got priority access to surplus before anybody else.

[E]

The post World War II era. A lot of surplus resellers are families or couples who make use of veteran connections to gain access to military surplus goods.

[A]

Rachel S. Gross again author of Shopping all the Way to the Woods Basically, before World War II, only a few cities had outdoor specialty stores. They were quite rare. But after the war, returning veterans used their special privilege to buy up a ton of surplus and open up shops all over the US and they stocked their shelves with M43 jackets and military packs and thick military tents. And before long, a number of these shop owners start making their own gear themselves.

[E]

And they slowly grow single company stores based on that initial retail success. So this is the first round of technological improvements that I see right after the war.

[A]

Still, in the late 1940s and 1950s, there's this direct link between companies who are starting to sell military surplus and beginning to make their own gear alongside it. One great example is rei.

[E]

Rei, the Seattle based outdoor company, also was a surplus reseller.

[A]

Although REI had already started in 1938, offering military surplus was a great way for this scrappy young outdoor company to very quickly expand their offerings. An early member of REI's co op was a veteran, and this allowed them access to very cheap surplus tents and backpacks. So you might be thinking, ah, veteran and expert skier Jerry Cunningham must have followed a similar strategy for getting his dream gear business off the ground. But no, Jerry hated the military gear. He wanted nothing to do with military surplus.

[E]

Some of the first improvements on military surplus come from people who were ski troopers in the 10th Mountain Division, Jerry Cunningham included, who saw the ineffectiveness of what they were being issued by the US Military.

[A]

When Jerry Cunningham started his company Simply called Jerry with G. It was beyond scrappy. He had made his way out of Italy, out of the mental hospital, back to his parents attic in Utica, New York, and he was still only 23 years old. He and Ann were eking out a living on Jerry's veteran adjustment allowance, but decided they would sew a batch of some of the climbing packs that Jerry had designed.

[B]

Are you familiar with the climbing pack?

[A]

That's Pete Cunningham again, Jerry's son. And believe it or not, you actually probably do know this backpack Jerry designed, or some version of it, not really.

[B]

Triangle, but has a rounded zipper over the top.

[A]

Jerry designed the zippered backpack with the rounded top made of nylon. It's the archetype of the backpack you might have worn to school when you were a kid.

[B]

And it has a separate bottom compartment so that everything doesn't fall all the way down to the bottom.

[A]

Jerry took out an old tread sewing machine and rejiggered it with a motor. And he and Ann cranked out about 20 climbing packs, along with a number of rucksacks, backboards, duffel bags, and nylon rope. And then with their products in tow, they headed out West.

[E]

In 1946, he goes to Boulder, Colorado, with his wife Ann, because he wants to become what he says is the L.L. bean of the U.S. west.

[A]

Jerry and Ann originally were going to drive to California, but they never made it to their destination because Colorado is.

[E]

Where he had done his training with the 10th Mountain Division at Camp Hale.

[A]

They stopped to visit Jerry's old tent mate from the 10th Mountain Division, and they just fall in love with Colorado. They spend most of their savings on a rural plot of land outside of Boulder. And this just feels like fate, because.

[F]

When they bought their land in Colorado, up in the mountains, right out the door, they could see a mountain that was shaped just like what he had imagined his logo to be.

[A]

This is Bruce Johnson, author of a number of books about the outdoor industry, including a few on Jerry Cunningham.

[F]

I like history and I like gear. The gear historian label sounds just fine to me.

[A]

Jerry and Anne Cunningham get settled in the area around Boulder, Colorado, and very quickly they come to rely on a couple named Roy and Alice Holubar.

[F]

The Holubars helped Jerry build his house. When they moved to Colorado, Jerry and his wife were interlopers, you might say.

[A]

So Roy was from Colorado.

[F]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

But Alice wasn't.

[F]

Alice Freudenberg. She was from Germany, although she lived there a long time, too.

[A]

Roy and Alice Holubar had known each other since high school.

[F]

He was hiking up the Colorado Rockies and got sheep fever, which almost killed him. He couldn't go to school for most of a whole year, during which time Alice would come by his house and cheer him up and help him out with his studies. And so, even though I think they were originally a year apart in school, ended up graduating at the same time.

[A]

Roy graduated valedictorian. Alice was right behind him as salutatorian. But all his life, Roy Holubar kept a souvenir of his childhood illness.

[F]

He was bald because of it the rest of his life. So he liked to wear hats.

[A]

Roy Holubar preferred jaunty feathered Tyrolean hats from his wife's native Germany.

[B]

Knew the Holly bars, and I met the Holly bars. They struck me as a child as very odd people.

[A]

Although Pete Cunningham will admit everyone was a little odd here.

[B]

I think my parents probably struck people as kind of odd, too.

[F]

The couples were quite different dispositions. Jerry was kind of an introvert, whereas recreation for the Holly bars was they'd have these big social nights and they'd be doing a lot of dancing and singing, and that's what they loved. But Jerry and Ann were real different. They never did stuff like that. That wouldn't have been. Jerry's seen it all.

[A]

Well, the funny thing Jerry calls Holly Bar conservative.

[F]

Jerry was very creative, very rebellious. He wanted things his way. And I can see the Holly Bars being conservative in that sense.

[A]

I mean, Roy Holubar made a living as a math professor and Jerry was a college dropout. You don't get more diametrically opposed than that. But both couples shared a burning love of the outdoors. So Jerry heard that these curious neighbors of theirs, Roy and Alice Holubar, had a little side hustle, selling Indian rugs and aluminum dishware and various imports from Europe out of their garage. And even though Jerry Cunningham was not one of those veterans who sold surplus to the public, he did see an interesting business opportunity to be a middleman. Jerry asked the Hollyw bars if they would be interested in buying some military surplus stuff. And they were. In that oral history, Jerry remembered going to Denver to pick up a big shipment of military surplus ice axes. It was such a big shipment, his dad came out to Colorado to help him pick it up. As Jerry remembered, his dad was shaking his head because he couldn't see who the hell would buy ice axes. You know, of course, I took them all over to Holly Bar and he bought every single one of them.

[F]

Jerry supplied surplus stuff to the Hollyubars.

[A]

In return with the money he made from selling Holly Bar that initial run of surplus ice axes, and Jerry bought a drill press. This allowed him to start getting into metalwork, experimenting with new shapes of pitons and carabiners. The two couples both started their businesses in 1946, and they each gave each other a kickstart, in a way, thanks to military surplus. Although to be clear, neither business was planning to make a ton of money.

[E]

There's a handful of people who do climbing and mountaineering. Maybe it's 10,000 people total, but that's it. And so it seemed rather foolish for Roy Holubar to quit his day job teaching math. And so it was a side project.

[A]

For a long time in the tiny burgeoning outdoor industry around Boulder, Colorado, it was these two couples, Jerry and Ann Cunningham of Jerry and Roy and Alice Holubar of Hollyubar.

[F]

Interestingly, with the twin companies. Jerry Holubar, you call them the twins. Well, yeah, in a way. They're not twins exactly, of course, fraternal twins. Yeah, they were a really fertile pairing. And although they made some of the same products, they specialized, you might say.

[A]

Holubar became known for its European style down garments and down sleeping bags. I think they're really sleek and beautiful. And in their catalog you could also still buy lederhosen and alpine hats and some of the yodelehihu stuff. Although I think the copy in one of the later Hollyubar catalogs will give you the best idea of their vibe.

[G]

We are looking at a Hollyubar 1962, 1963 catalog.

[A]

This is Chase Anderson, one of the co creators of the Outdoor Recreation Archive. This is the incredible library in Logan, Utah, that has almost all the catalogs of every outdoor company. This is a later Hollyw Bar catalog.

[G]

And it says for this, our 15th annual catalog, we thought you'd bear no malice if we should introduce ourselves. So here are Roy and Alice. We're just a family business, a mountain loving couple who want their friends and customers to keep their muscles supple, to climb friskily but un riskily, to camp dryly, walk spryly, to eat amply, sleep uncrampily.

[A]

I am sparing you the majority of the poem. It goes on and on, but you get it. It's cheesy.

[G]

So look through the book to find what you've sook, then enjoy the mountains, every cranny and nook. I feel like I read a little bit of Dr. Seuss today.

[A]

Slash like a corny Christmas card. Jerry's catalogs, in contrast, have these notes that are like terse, intimate, Emails you'd get from your dad. There's like a weirdly personal note from Jerry each time. Like in this one on the COVID of the 1958 winter catalog. It says, not much to say this time. The new page of ski touring equipment, while not complete, will bear witness to the fact that I've been working on it. Even though it's a full year late. Jerry has this curmudgeonly mad scientist thing going on. We have our own laboratory facilities for quantitatively testing weight porosity, tear strength, abrasion resistance and water repellency of various fabrics. Jerry's catalog has no cutesy rhymes and no military surplus. This is on the very first page in the 1955 Jerry catalog. And there's a table comparing Jerry products to army products. Get a load of this. It says, no more army surplus. Instead, Gerry Cunningham pioneers a bunch of gear that revolutionizes the outdoor industry. I'll try my best to give you just a few examples, But I honestly could have made a whole series about Jerry.

[F]

1950. Jerry reconfigures the climbing carabiner to create the modern version.

[A]

And that modern carabiner is just like what we think carabiners look like. That sort of egg like shape.

[E]

Yes.

[A]

Bruce showed me an old carabiner one in the shape before Jerry changed it.

[F]

See, there you have your traditional carabiner shape.

[A]

Just the perfect oval, as Jerry himself said. I had a good design which is followed now. It puts most of the strain on the solid part and takes the load off the gate. I know I was the first one to come up with that idea. I made them on my drill press. I put probably about $5 into each one that I sold for a dollar fifty. Now that's just like the shape of all carabiners. Ready for another Jerry innovation from the 1950s?

[F]

1951 invents the drawstring clamp, later to be known as the cord lock.

[A]

It's what tightens the drawstring on your hood or your waistband. It's what allows for a really good adjustable fit.

[F]

It's just basically a cord running through a spring loaded space.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[F]

That you can release it naturally clamps down, and you release it by pressing down.

[A]

I think it's on my raincoat that I was wearing today. That's just everywhere.

[F]

They're everywhere.

[A]

He never patented it, but this is my personal favorite invention and the one that I think is the most illustrative of the whole sea change that Jerry was creating.

[F]

Family was very important to him. He had three kids, so he invented A better baby backpack.

[A]

The baby backpack, or as Jerry called it, the kiddie carrier. This one he did patent. Jerry really helped make it possible for you to bring your baby into the.

[F]

Woods, which introduced all sorts of people who grew up and remembered being out of doors in great places.

[A]

Yes, papooses and similar technology have been around for eons. But now here was a mass produced version for the gear era with padded nylon shoulders, adjustable seats, and storage underneath that had been tested to perfection on Jerry's own children.

[B]

So I have a picture of mother and dad with one of each of us in the very, very earliest kitty characters. And we were probably less than a year old anyway.

[H]

Wilderness camping is no longer just for the strong and rugged. Jerry Cunningham has devoted his life to making it an enjoyable experience for the entire family.

[B]

We had our own packs. I have another picture. We're about four years old and we got backpacks and ropes tied to our backpack and mothers holding one of each of our hands. And we're heading up the middle.

[F]

Wow. One of the big revolutions that Jerry was an originator of was this whole move away from it's a macho male thing. We need better gear so that people are comfortable and their families can be with them.

[H]

Wilderness camping is a real vacation for mother because there's no housework on a wilderness trip. Even husbands like to try their hand at cooking over an open campfire.

[A]

The end of the war ushers a boom time for the American family vacation. And Jerry, and to a degree, a holubar, were creating new ways of looking at nature by creating new gear.

[H]

Each member of the family carries only the barest necessities for comfort, and each takes care of his own needs.

[A]

It was about coming in gently and leaving gently with lightweight, minimal gear that made life comfortable and barely left a mark. Did your dad invent the phrase leave no trace?

[B]

Yes, he did.

[A]

It was a new kind of camping, which eventually, after a long time, even the military would get the hang of after the break, before there was scrolling through pictures, there were shop windows. That's really how everybody knew what the new merchandise was. And the big pioneer of the holiday window display was Macy's. Macy's has been transforming shopping into an experience much more than a transaction for over 167 years. They've always set themselves apart by their curation and personalized guidance and their careful gift wrapping and their human touch. And they've been continuing their traditions, like their store windows, because gift giving can be magical. Shop@macy's.com or in store. My sister is One of the best dressed people that I know and her secret is the RealReal. I go on the RealReal a lot.

[E]

And I've probably gotten most of my shoes from the RealReal.

[A]

My sister and I have developed this little love language where we send each other links from the RealReal and we're like, what do you think of this?

[E]

I send it to you and I'm like, should I get this?

[A]

And you are very intentional of what you say yes to. And I remember the things I didn't.

[E]

Buy that you told me that I should have gotten.

[A]

Like that SC103 skirt. It's gone. Oh, I know. That was so good. The RealReal is the world's largest and most trusted resource for authenticated luxury resale with thousands of new arrivals daily. No one does resale like the RealReal. And this month you can get an extra $100 site credit when you sell for the first time. Go to therealreal.comarticles to get your extra hundred dollars. Therealreal.comarticles that's therealreal.comarticles when I had my first job and I didn't know anything about anything, I was guided through the dark by Gusto. Gusto is an online payroll and benefits software built for small businesses. It's all in one remote, friendly and incredible, incredibly easy to use so you can pay, hire onboard and support your team from anywhere. And I mean, I was working on a small team and Gusto helped us with automatic payroll tax filings, simple direct deposits, health benefits, commuter benefits, workers comp 401k. Gusto made it all really simple. I mean, if you're a small business, you want to focus on doing the thing your business does. You don't want to spend all this time running the business. Gusto saves business owners so much time. Businesses of all sizes in all 50 states. Try Gusto [e-mail] articles and get three months free when you run your first payroll. That's three months of free [e-mail] articles one more time. Gusto.com articles the entire military orchestra is here, complete with a harp. Oh, they're about to play again. They actually sound great. In a huge conference hall filled with easily thousands of people, there were representatives from over 90 countries and 21 Chiefs of Army from all around the world. South Koreans, Japanese airborne divisions. I was the minority of people not in uniform. I can't believe they let me in here. This was the annual meeting of the AUSA conference. To put it simply, the United States Army Conference and Trade Show. Welcome to the 70th. Yes, the 70th seems unbelievable. 70th annual meeting. A strong army will deter our adversaries. And if they try to do our nation harm, they'll be defeated. There's a lot of pomp and circumstance. And there was an inspirational rap by some soldiers in uniform. The rapper is asking people to raise their hands and no one is raising their hands. And then the whole ceremony briefly came grinding to a halt while two protesters who held up anti war signs were kicked out. Just hang in there for a minute. We'll get this situation under control. And then the word. Few updates about the state of the army. The army not only surpassed our goal to recruit 55,000 new soldiers this year, we also far exceeded our goal to send 5,000 into the delayed entry program. And then we were all released onto the vast show floor. Welcome to AUSA 2024. The exhibit hall is now open. There were exhibits and showcases by major brands you definitely know and use. Phone carriers, car companies, consulting firms, airlines, tire manufacturers, governments of countries, all showing off their defense capabilities. Tons of tanks, more tanks than I've ever seen. Bullets were arranged in vitrines like jewelry. There were demonstrations of drones and bomb sniffing robots and remote missile commands that you could play with, like video game consoles.

[B]

Okay, I'm shooting a laser at the target.

[A]

So on the ground, the target sees a laser.

[C]

I see.

[A]

He doesn't see the laser. Okay, okay. And among all the guns and prototypes for driverless tanks were clothes displayed like any other cutting edge technology. May I just ask about some of the capabilities of these pants? I know you're pulling my legs here.

[F]

Is this a prank that you know?

[A]

No, no. I'm really a fashion journalist. It's genuine. Other clothing vendors were more game to talk shop at the military trade show. One of the items would be a.

[E]

Three in one jacket where they're having to pack less.

[A]

That's a poncho right here. And then you can make it as.

[B]

Big as or small as you want.

[F]

It's lightweight.

[A]

We love it. These are clothes that are lightweight, packable, and easy to carry. These are clothes that Jerry would have loved to have when he was in the 10th Mountain Division. But they had to come to the civilian world first.

[H]

Today is climbing day. Jerry and Ann hope to climb the highest peak in the region. Ann skirts the slippery edge of the crevasse while Jerry prepares to jump.

[A]

This is a clip of a promotional video that Jerry Cunningham had made of him and Ann testing out gear together. Both Jerry and Ann were side by side going peak for peak, often with their three kids in tow.

[H]

Once across the snow bridge, Jerry belays Ann over to his side.

[A]

Jerry was convinced that everyone, even people who were unaccustomed to the outdoors, even parents of 4 year olds, would be able to get outdoors. And it would be possible by making everything extremely light, the whole lightweight.

[F]

And I could slash in there family.

[A]

Backpacking gear historian Bruce Johnson.

[F]

Again, because you have to be light enough to be able to go out in comfort backpacking, nobody should have to carry more than £20 to go on a weekend trip. So Jerry, he had tents and things that were for serious climbers, but his emphasis was really on lightweight family. And he was a pioneer in that, really ultralight pioneer.

[H]

Would you believe These packs weigh 20 pounds for Jerry and about 12 pounds for the others? Even if you spend your work days in an office, you can carry this much on a weekend without special conditioning.

[A]

Lightweight gear was Jerry's obsession. This was the reaction to what he'd expect experienced in the 10th Mountain Division when he was forced to carry those clunky packs with 90 pounds of stuff in them. And after the war, Jerry realized that carrying super heavy packs was part of what made recreational camping so inaccessible in.

[F]

The U.S. camping was a thing that tough macho people did. My pack has no suspension, no nothing. You just cram 50 pounds in it and it breaks your back, your kidneys. And that was good enough. So people like Jerry come along and they start thinking comfort people need to enjoy doing this.

[H]

While they rest, Jerry gets a drink and admires some of the scenery that is the reward of the wilderness traveler.

[A]

If the outdoors was going to be more appealing and easier to more people, they needed to have better, easier, lighter stuff. But let's be clear.

[E]

A lot of the narratives I read, especially if they come from outdoor companies, like to suggest that new stuff is responsible for inspiring new activity.

[A]

Rachel S. Gross again.

[E]

And by the way I frame that, you can guess that I don't believe that that's true.

[A]

Sometimes you read these corporate histories that are like, ladies didn't used to hike till we made our lightweight pink ladies hiking boot.

[E]

This narrative is especially pervasive when it comes to talking about the role of women in participation in outdoor sports. In other words, new lightweight stuff made it easier for women to participate, therefore they did. And I just don't buy it. I don't see any evidence to suggest that women were barring themselves for participation because backpacks were too heavy. And then once backpacks got lighter, then they're like, ah, now this sport is.

[A]

For me, Alice Holubar and Anne Cunningham and many, many other women were outdoor enthusiasts long before the lightweight revolution. Clunky gear hadn't really stopped anyone who really wanted to go outside. But lightweight gear was fantastic. And the Hollyw bars got into the lightweight game, introducing their jackets and sleeping bags made of Royalite. What is Royalite, Roy?

[F]

Alice? Lightweight.

[A]

And so did it mean any kind of material? No, it was just. They just called their stuff Royalite.

[F]

Uh huh. Those first lightweight down bags that she created were made initially out of parachute cloth from the military. Well, where did she get it? Well, from Jerry. Ah.

[A]

Alice Holyabar would prove to be a preternatural wizard with quilted down. She experimented with new shapes of jackets and sleeping bags and took them to new levels of lightness and comfort.

[F]

Truly backpackable down sleeping bags. It wasn't too big, it wasn't too heavy. It was wonderful. You looked forward to crawling in. Right.

[A]

And she also had designed them so they could zip together, right?

[F]

Yes. For couples, yes.

[A]

The gospel of lightweight comfort spread as Jerry and Holly Bar both grew bigger and bigger. Although both companies started their businesses as catalogs, then as niche pilgrimage stores in Boulder, they became major brands. Over the course of the 1960s, High.

[F]

Bar had two stores, one in Boulder and one in Denver, whereas Jerry had two Boulder stores and a store in San Francisco. And then during the 70s, Holly Bar greatly expanded its network of stores and other brands beyond.

[A]

Jerry and Holly Bar take up a mission of ultralight, comfortable backpacking.

[B]

There have been many, many contributors to lightweight, convenient backpacking equipment and so on.

[A]

But Pete Cunningham is convinced in his totally unbiased opinion that so much of this ultimately comes from his dad.

[B]

A lot of different companies had a founder who was to certain extent trying to build on what dad did or imitate what dad did.

[A]

Because perhaps even more influential than Jerry's designs were his booklets.

[F]

He was really committed to the idea. You don't just make gear and sell it. You educate people. Behind you. Here you have some of his booklets that he wrote. Food Packing, Backpacking, how to Enjoy. Oh, my God. How to Camp and Leave no Trace.

[A]

Did he invent that? Leave no Trace?

[F]

He invented the concept, for sure.

[A]

Jerry wrote that booklet in 1970, the year of the first Earth Day.

[F]

If you read the booklet, he talks about how people need to leave behind this old ethic of go out to the woods, hack down a tree, leave a big campfire. Bigger the better. Pee all over the place. Your tin cans, just throw them in the brush. He had the values you got to have a whole set of rules here.

[H]

A wilderness campsite should still look like wilderness after you leave it. Four people spent the night here, but they left no sign of their visit.

[A]

Jerry instructed on how to pack light.

[F]

What we would nowadays call ultralight backpacking.

[H]

Food should weigh less than two pounds per man per day.

[A]

In his 1967 book, how to Keep Warm, Jerry offered truisms like cover your head when cold, avoid sweat, keep your torso warm.

[H]

The outfit you see here will keep you warm when the temperatures drop below freezing and only weighs five pounds.

[A]

And where would he distribute these?

[F]

Everywhere he could get to. They were free. So he had a big network of people who were selling his stuff nationwide, and he'd go around the US Giving talks, distributing booklets.

[A]

And throughout his whole career, Jerry tried to get his word out directly to the US Military.

[F]

Jerry was a consultant for the Army Quartermaster Corps. The Quartermaster Corps had a strong interest in how much insulation does it take to keep our soldiers warm and dry out of harm's way.

[A]

And in this way, Jerry did achieve his original dream of being the L.L. bean of the West. He joined the long line of outdoorsmen who consulted with the Quartermaster Corps.

[F]

Eventually, the army put out contracts for bidding about a suit. Not a sleeping bag, a suit. Almost a suit you could wear. It was to be in all the airplanes, and some of the planes were.

[B]

Now flying over the North Pole because this was during the Cold War and they wanted survival gear in their planes. It would help if they had to crash land on the Arctic ice that they'd be able to survive.

[F]

And it had to be a certain small size. Jerry won. With this thing. You could put in a. I think it was a number 10 can, all mashed down.

[A]

As the military and civilians alike got more and more interested in lightweight, compact outdoor wear, exciting new materials arrived.

[E]

Wilbert gore worked for DuPont in the Teflon division, the nonstick pan coating. And he essentially saw Teflon as having a lot of promise that Dupont wasn't pursuing.

[A]

In 1958, Wilbur Gore left Dupont and.

[E]

He started his own company, W.L. gore and Associates. And he started to pursue new kinds of applications for polytetrafluoroethylene PTFE.

[A]

In 1970, Wilbur's son Bob Gore realized that when you take this material and stretch it out or expand it, Expanded.

[E]

EPTFE is what they call it. Expanded PTFE became porous, which meant that through testing, they found out that it kept out large water molecules but allowed smaller sweat molecules to escape. In other words, it was waterproof and Breathable at the same time.

[A]

This is the invention of Gore Tex.

[E]

Not exactly by accident, but it was a side project of the gors, in part because they had a lot of interest in outdoor sports themselves. They were campers and hikers as well.

[A]

Although they weren't initially planning to become a fixture of the outdoor industry.

[E]

In fact, one of the first places they turned to when they realized the potential of expanded polytetrafluoroethylene was the US Military. And the military said, no, thank you, we're not really interested in this product. And so they turned instead to outdoor companies because they thought that would be a fine next step.

[A]

A fine next step.

[E]

In theory, Gore Tex is not immediately embraced by all outdoors people. And that's because like surplus before it, like so many other technologies, it's not perfect and it, it actually leaks.

[A]

So it's not an immediate triumphant arrival story. But eventually Gore Tex tinkers and improves, and by the 80s, it becomes a trusted fixture in the outdoor industry.

[E]

Eventually it became one of the most prominent and recognized waterproof brands.

[A]

It is a material brand, a brand within a brand. Just like its former parent company, DuPont was once prominently featured on advertisements for the Buck Skein jacket, Gore Tex is prominently featured on the very product itself.

[E]

The Gore Tex embroidered logo on a particular jacket or tent became important to consumers.

[A]

Gore Tex and the many ingredient brands that came after it became certificates, hallmarks of the sort of light, easy camping that Jerry had advocated for.

[E]

People are attached to the idea of what Gore Tex can do for them. It signals safety. It signals kind of extended extreme environments that they now have access to, including the military.

[A]

Gore Tex becomes widely incorporated into military gear in the 80s, and they were there at the AUSA military conference. Gore Tex had a booth on the trade show floor. So Gore works with brands that will get a trademark license from Gore and they built to our standards. The Gore Tex representative was talking about their military contracting brands in the same way they talk about their outdoor brands. So if they're building a Gore Tex jacket, we test it for waterproofness and.

[H]

Breathability and design and make sure it.

[A]

Meets all our quality standards. So it's all good quality Gore Tex. Gore Tex is Gore Tex. And yet the standard issue military stuff is not as fancy as you might imagine.

[G]

Gore Tex is not a super loved item in the Marine Corps. It will protect you from water, but it's not insulated.

[A]

Oh, this is Marine reservist Alex Dragone. Sure, he's issued some high quality Gore Tex stuff, but soldiers don't get like the most deluxe Gore Tex jacket on the market, and they might not even use what they're issued.

[G]

There's also Gore Tex pants, which are probably one of the least used items in the Marine Corps. Space is a premium. Weight is a premium. And even, you know, Gore Tex doesn't weigh a lot. Ounces equal pounds, and pounds equals pain.

[A]

Even though extremely lightweight, high tech, advanced gear exists, service members don't get all that stuff. And sure, some of the logic is that the American taxpayer pays for that, so a degree of frugality is good. But also, Alex says some of the logic is that service members should be prepared to go without the nicest gear.

[G]

If you can have guys ready to survive with the least, like, the lowest common denominator of material, I'd rather be trained on, like how to use the least luxurious item.

[A]

Still, the lighter, nicer, more comfortable gear exists. Even if it's not being given to soldiers, they can still buy it. They can, in fact, buy it right there on the military base. I was talking to Alex at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn. And on that base, there is an exchange.

[G]

So we're at an exchange right now.

[A]

Which is like a store, a store that sells everything. There's like a whole north face section. There's an Under Armour section walking by.

[G]

The tech section now.

[A]

Oh, you can buy bikes, you can buy alcohol.

[G]

All right, let's see. So military clothing.

[A]

There's additional uniform materials, patches, fatigues, backpacks.

[G]

But that's not the stuff you're issued. So that's just, like, extra that you might want in the field.

[A]

Any extra gear a soldier might want to buy?

[G]

Sometimes I would buy boots, and I have one that's like a lightweight athletic boot. The lightweight ones, they're called Danner reckonings.

[A]

But if Alex and his colleagues want to get gear, they don't only have to shop at the military base.

[G]

Yeah, sometimes you'll either come to an exchange or you'll go to an REI and you'll get something special.

[A]

Either works. Yeah. Then what? What happened to Jerry? Why don't we see Jerry around so much anymore?

[F]

You don't. They just got in a financial bind. At one point in the 60s, mid-60s, it got bought out there.

[A]

It says, Copyright 1970 by Colorado Outdoor Sports Company Division of Outdoor Sports Industries, Inc.

[F]

They had essentially bought up Jerry.

[A]

Once the outdoor industry became popular enough and profitable enough, there was this sort of arms race.

[F]

Big companies were just snapping up little companies right and left, and not just in their original field of endeavor.

[E]

A good example of this is that Gillette Gillette, the razor company, had been looking around for outdoor companies.

[A]

Gillette purchased a DIY make your own outdoor gear company called Frostline in 1978 for just under $6.55 million.

[E]

Gillette wasn't just looking for an outdoor company. They were looking for one that was good at sending out catalogs and had a robust mailing list. Similarly, General Mills bought Eddie Bauer in the 1970s as well.

[A]

And S.C. johnson, maker of floor wax and household cleaners, bought Holubar.

[F]

Employees that I've spoken to basically say they didn't understand the business that we were in. And so they failed. They failed to market it right. They failed in a lot of ways.

[A]

And then the North Face, which had started in 1966, buys Hollyubar from SC Johnson. In 1981, North Face came in and bought it.

[F]

And for a while you'd have a label that said Hollywood and then it would also say North Face on it. Then North Face had it for years just sitting in the basement.

[A]

The North Face starts phasing Holly Bar out until the early aughts when the North Face sold Hollyubar to an Italian holding company. And then Patrick tried to revive it. I'm Patrick Nebbiolo. I am the owner as well as the sole administrator of Holubar. Holubar was reborn as high end chic outdoor wear. Outdoors in us is completely different from outdoor in Italy. In Italy is very posh. Outdoors is like not what it is. Here is a real lifestyle. And that's what Holo Bar has to be, in my opinion. And that's what I'm trying to do. Although it was really hard for Patrick to do that. We opened a big flagship in New York. Unfortunately, that was literally December 24, 2019. You know, a few weeks later, we had to shut down all the stores in New York. And since I spoke to him, Patrick no longer owns Holly Bar. The brand has bounced along to its next owner and its next life and its next chance at revival. I wish them better luck. Bruce Johnson was really rooting for that Holly Bar comeback.

[F]

Here, I'll show you Holly Bar from Italy.

[A]

I mean, that's a pretty cool jacket. And it's got the old Holly Bar.

[F]

Logo, Holly Bar buttons.

[A]

It looks like you've worn this jacket.

[F]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

So you like it?

[F]

Yes. Is it truly a design that Alice would have had? No.

[A]

Wait, why not?

[F]

Well, it's kind of campy.

[A]

How perfect that particular duality of the word camp. Susan Sontag famously called camp the love of the unnatural of artifice. And Exaggeration. And so you can see what makes camp wear campy, right? When it's artificial and exaggerated, it's when it's trying too hard to look useful. And to Bruce, this Holubar revival jacket just had too many bits and bobs on it. What is, what is this? What is this thing?

[F]

I've always wondered.

[A]

Oh, that's just some like gear looking stuff.

[F]

You can put your binocular strap in there. I think the purpose was supposedly something like that.

[A]

This, this to Bruce is a tragedy that befalls a lot of brands when the going gets hard. They move from gear to fashion. Not actually innovating, just making clothes.

[F]

What makes money? Apparel that wears out or goes out of style. Right? You buy a quality Hollywood bar backpack, it's with you forever. One sale, you can't run a company. You can't. You make and sell one pack and you never see the customer again. If you look at the offerings of all the major companies, they're full of clothing and just apparel.

[A]

You say this with disgust.

[F]

Well, not entirely, but that's the major source of their incomes. Not the tents, not the sleeping bag. It's stuff that people wear that goes out of style or wears out and then has to be replaced. It's just the way it is.

[A]

And that's what happened when Outdoor Sports Industries Inc. Swallowed up Jerry. This new parent company immediately gave up on gear.

[F]

It all got dropped and they just shifted into your average down jackets and downhill ski jackets. And Jerry became known for that. Jerry lost control of his own company. They didn't seem to value his input anymore. Jerry told me about sitting around a conference room where nobody seemed interested in his concepts anymore. So he quit, which led to him just quitting the whole industry. And when he dropped out, that was it.

[A]

I mean, do you think he was a bit foolish for not patenting more of his inventions?

[F]

You know, the patent process is super long involved and it's not sure of success each time you do it. So I respect it. I don't think money was a big motivator for Jerry.

[A]

Jerry moved to Arizona where he lived a whole second life. He built a sailboat hardware business. He mapped out sailing routes, routes along the sea of Cortez. He and Ann built an off the grid dome. And Jerry continued to publish pamphlets about environmentalism for anyone who would read them. He died in 2010. It was by any measure a good life. It just saddens me that I knew nothing about it. His legacy was lost so quickly. Even though his brand, Jerry with a G, is still around. It's out there in the world. It's been purchased a number of times. At one point, it was a brand best known for baby backpacks and cribs and baby accessories. And while I was reporting this, I tried to reach out to the company, and it changed hands again. But I had a sighting only a few weeks ago on my fiance's sister's cargo shorts. There it was, Jerry with a G. It was just hard to explain to her why I suddenly got so emotional over some cheap pants that she bought at Costco. Articles of Interest is made by Avery Trufelman. The story editor on this season is Alison Barringer. The story consultant on this season is Charles McFarlane. And this episode in particular owes a massive debt to the extraordinary research that Charles did in his master's thesis. Thank you so much, Charles. The fact checker on Gear is Yasmin Al Syed, and the engineer on Gear is Jocelyn Gonzalez. The music on Articles of Interest Always is by Ray, Royal and Laloton. And the theme songs are by Sesame. The distributor of Articles of Interest is Radiotopia. And special thanks this particular episode to the Outdoor Recreation Archive. What a wealth of resources. Thank you. Thank you also to Pete Cunningham. It was an honor to get to know your father posthumously. Thank you to Drew Haupt for craft services and mental health provision. I mean it. And thank you for listening. For images of what I saw at the military conference, Cheapers creepers, go to articlesofinterest. Substack. Com.

[F]

Radiotopia.

[A]

From prx.