Sierra Designs

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Background

Around 1963 George was working at George Rudolph's Trailwise/Ski Hut in Berkeley, California. Soon a fellow named Bob moved into town with job references from Holubar Mountaineering in Colorado... Bob got hired on at Trailwise, and they became co-workers. 

In 1965 Bob and George left Trailwise and set themselves up at 137 Tewksbury in Point Richmond as "Sierra Designs." Soon they were sewing day and night to create enough "product" to keep a roof over their heads. Times were tough for the next several years after their October 1965 official opening. Their very first catalog was produced the following spring and entitled the "66-67" catalog; George recalls that it was printed as a "very modest run of 2,000 copies." Their first and largest account was with The North Face retail store, for which they manufactured down items that were labelled "Made Expressly for North Face by Sierra Designs."

from Bruce Johnson's History of Gear

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All Stories

Story Organization
Archaic Technology 2 - Peter Langmaid on the Down Balaclava Sierra Designs
Archaic Technology 1 - Bob Woodward on the Cagoule Sierra Designs
Historic Sierra Designs Catalogs: An Introduction Sierra Designs
Martin Zemitis, Designer - Brief History and Introduction Mountain Hardwear, Sierra Designs, SlingFin, The North Face
Paul Kramer on Helen Li's essential role at Mountain Hardwear Marmot, Mountain Hardwear, Odyssey, Sierra Designs, The North Face, W.L.Gore and Associates
How did Sierra Designs name its sleeping bags? Sierra Designs
2nd Sierra Designs Catalog: Up in the Arctic, and Up in Smoke Sierra Designs
First Sierra Designs Catalog Complements Artful Gear Sierra Designs
Tales of the early days of Sierra Designs, from a kid's perspective Sierra Designs
Peter Langmaid: The Early Years of Sierra Designs Sierra Designs
Bob Woodward on Retail's Heady Heydays of Sierra Designs CML, Sierra Designs
Reba McWhorter, Seamstress to the Stars Sierra Designs
A Brief History of the Foundation of Sierra Designs Mountain Hardwear, Sierra Designs, The North Face, The Ski Hut - Berkeley, CA (dba Trailwise, Donner Mountain Corp), Trailwise
Kimiyo Galyen Intro Mountain Hardwear, Sierra Designs
Hundreds of Little Pins: Ingrid Harshbarger's Attention to Detail Mountain Hardwear, Sierra Designs, The North Face
We Stand Behind Our Warranty - SD Customer Service circa 1978 Sierra Designs
Martin Zemitis on MHW's founding. Mountain Hardwear, Sierra Designs
Paul Kramer - On Working with Ingrid Harshbarger Mountain Hardwear, Odyssey, Sierra Designs
Sierra Designs Employees in 1993 or so...perhaps late 1992 Sierra Designs
Jack Gilbert in western attire, quits Sierra Designs and the exodus to Mountain Hardwear begins. Mountain Hardwear, Odyssey, Sierra Designs, The North Face
Al Tabor Describes the Financial Problems at The North Face & Odyssey that Lead to Mountain Hardwear's Founding Easton Aluminum, Odyssey, Sierra Designs, The North Face
Paul Kramer - Last Days Sierra Designs Mountain Hardwear, Sierra Designs
Roberta Hernandez - Transition to MHW Mountain Hardwear, Sierra Designs
Roberta Hernandez - Halloween 1993 Mountain Hardwear, Sierra Designs
Mike Wallenfels - Halloween 1993 Mountain Hardwear, Sierra Designs

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