[HN Gopher] Eddie Bauer, venerable outdoor apparel retailer, dec...
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Eddie Bauer, venerable outdoor apparel retailer, declares
bankruptcy
Author : mgh2
Score : 59 points
Date : 2026-02-09 18:14 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.cbsnews.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.cbsnews.com)
| ramesh31 wrote:
| Just private equity doing what they do. It will live on as a
| zombie brand for cheap crap into eternity.
| notatoad wrote:
| i think calling this another victim of PE is missing the point
| a little bit. i guess Catalyst Brands is technically PE, but
| they're not just a finance company treating these brands as
| assets to be milked and stripped for parts before they're
| killed.
|
| Catalyst is a joint venture of Brookfield and Simon Property,
| both of which are shopping mall companies. Their other brands
| are all shopping mall fixtures. The story here isn't private
| equity doing the normal private equity thing, it's that
| shopping malls are dying.
| basch wrote:
| >Its e-commerce and wholesale operations are not affected by
| the filing because they are operated separately.
|
| >The bankruptcy doesn't affect Eddie Bauer stores in markets
| outside the U.S. and Canada.
|
| So its physical US locations declared bankruptcy.
| bell-cot wrote:
| One data point - in my local Simon Property shopping mall,
| the Eddie Bauer store closed down a few months ago. A new LL
| Bean store is "coming soon".
|
| In retail, a certain rate of chain/brand churn is what you'd
| expect. If the public feels that some chain or brand is
| iconic, or has been around forever - that does not magically
| protect the underlying corporation from missing the boat on
| marketplace changes, or having its management go downhill, or
| the founder selling out to PE, or whatever.
| A_D_E_P_T wrote:
| > _The story here isn 't private equity doing the normal
| private equity thing, it's that shopping malls are dying._
|
| That's true, but to me the more interesting question is: Why?
|
| In Europe and Asia, indoor shopping malls are thriving.
| They're all over the place, and very popular. This place is a
| stone's throw from where I live, and it's _always_ crowded:
| https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shopping_City_Seiersberg
|
| When I go to the US, indoor malls are either depressing ghost
| towns, or they're luxury-only complexes with a heavy security
| presence and a seemingly-intentional lack of amenities. (Like
| a Starbucks that only has three tables despite ample interior
| space, nowhere else to eat, etc.)
|
| What's driving the weird variance in shopping patterns?
| Naively, I'd expect shopping malls to be _more_ popular in
| the US, as Asia and Europe also tend to have "shopping
| districts" inside their (usually walkable) towns that often
| function, effectively, as open-air malls.
| ghaff wrote:
| In the US, my observation is that some relatively-highend
| shopping malls are reasonably successful in some cities.
| But, near me, there's basically a dead mall that used to
| have Sears, Macys, and Penny as anchor tenants. All gone. I
| do have big box complexes (including around dead mall) that
| have some stores that seem to be pretty successful--
| supermarket and DIY.
|
| But I don't know the last time I was in an indoor mall. In
| Asia and some areas of Europe, at least, I do think you
| have multi-floor complexes where you have pretty good
| eating but that doesn't tend to be the case in the US.
| svachalek wrote:
| Yes - Valley Fair in San Jose is thriving even as all the
| other area malls turn into mausoleums. It would be
| interesting to study why. My guess is conspicuous
| consumption, people who want to be seen wearing certain
| brands want to be seen buying them too. For anything more
| pragmatic, it's just to easy to click Amazon.
| ghaff wrote:
| I assume Santana Row is still doing OK as well although
| that's not really a classic mall. And a lot of Vegas
| malls seem healthy though it's been a few years--even if
| I sort of half joke I couldn't afford to buy anything at
| a lot of them.
|
| As you say, there's always Amazon for a lot of things I
| might have bought in malls. I still want supermarkets and
| big box DIY stores but I don't really need to go into
| malls for those.
| tmp10423288442 wrote:
| One reason is that Valley Fair is the closest there is in
| the Bay Area to a good East Asian mall. For example,
| their recent expansion brought in a good variety of
| restaurants, particularly Asian restaurants, that attract
| the wealthier Asian residents of Silicon Valley (plus
| Whites, who in the Bay Area are pretty Asian in habits).
| These bring in a crowd of regular visitors that will
| stick around to occasionally shop at the expensive
| stores, even if they don't love conspicuous consumption
| enough to buy there all the time. Also a decent number of
| more youth-focused stores that draw in all demographics -
| after all, everyone in the younger generations loves
| anime and K-pop.
| structural wrote:
| 1. Americans got a bit poorer due to inflation.
|
| 2. Brand quality went down to equivalent or less of no-name
| dropshipped goods in order to keep similar dollar prices
| for goods.
|
| 3. Cost of real estate spiked incredibly, putting even more
| pressure on retail margins.
|
| 4. American logistics is seriously good, in cities 24-hour
| delivery can be common even for small or inexpensive
| things.
|
| 5. Once there wasn't a quality or convenience reason to
| prefer the shopping mall, many were already struggling
| quietly, they just hadn't run out of cash yet.
|
| 6. The pandemic happened right as all these things
| converged, accelerated all of them, and wasn't really
| recoverable.
| pixl97 wrote:
| >I'd expect shopping malls to be more popular in the US
|
| What you may be missing is how much retail shopping space
| the US has. It's something like 10x the sq/ft that Germany
| does for example. This leads to massive amount of
| cannibalization as trends shift. The entire mall has to be
| able to generate enough revenue which is much easier with
| luxury complexes.
|
| So, while malls are popular, the costs of indoor air
| conditioning and massive competition with online shopping
| and strip malls between the shopper and the indoor mall
| make it a difficult market.
| smelendez wrote:
| And we have giant "big box" stores and overnight delivery
| that together are good enough for a lot of purchases.
| Some huge portion of the American public belongs to
| Amazon Prime and/or Walmart+ and/or Costco.
|
| A lot of malls are basically surrounded by discount box
| stores like Walmart and Target, along with specialized
| ones like Barnes & Noble, Old Navy, Homegoods, DSW
| (shoes), and dozens of others at various price points.
| Even though walking through a mall is more arguably
| pleasant than driving around an arterial road and
| sprawling parking lots, you'll find better selection and
| often better prices at the box stores than the smaller
| mall storefronts. Sometimes you will find local
| independent stores setting up in malls, but I think rents
| make that hard.
|
| And then thanks in part to obsolescence and
| disinvestment, going to the mall as an outing also
| doesn't really make sense anymore except as a rare
| novelty. The food options are typically pretty bad and
| overpriced by today's standards, restrooms are usually
| down a long and dirty hallway, etc.
| themafia wrote:
| > it's that shopping malls are dying.
|
| They've been dying for decades. The owners have just decided
| to stop trying to save it and instead hollow it out and sell
| it all off.
| medion wrote:
| Or re-surfaced down the track as some kind of heritage outdoor
| brand.
| ratrocket wrote:
| I'm not positive, but I think they've already run _that_
| playbook once or twice. They are IN the cycle.
| qrush wrote:
| Where else will finance bros get quarter zips from??
| xnx wrote:
| Fratagonia?
| 0_____0 wrote:
| They don't allow embroidered company logos unless you're a
| B-corp or a non-profit, IIRC. If you see someone wearing tech
| swag with logos on Patagonia, it's either old gear or someone
| in their company is a major asshole.
| bigfishrunning wrote:
| So buying a shirt and having it embroidered elsewhere is
| assholery? Why should Patagonia have control of merchandise
| after they sell it?
|
| Makes me want to have some Patagonia stuff altered on
| principle...
| 0_____0 wrote:
| Allegedly it was to keep people from trashing the
| garments when they left the company. I have a few nice
| jackets I really don't wear because I don't represent
| that organization, and they are way less valuable at
| thrift.
|
| The rules are if you want to get bulk discounts from
| Patagonia, you're right that you can just buy the clothes
| and do whatever to them, you just pay retail.
|
| The assholery aspect is more personal to me I think. I
| like that even though they're not exactly a grassroots
| cottage gear maker anymore, that Patagucci actually
| enable and encourage secondhand use via their worn gear
| and repair programs and messaging. I try to give space to
| people and orgs who are trying to do things thoughtfully,
| so if someone goes out of their way knowingly to
| disrespect that thoughtfulness, yeah I find that
| distasteful.
| leetrout wrote:
| It's Patagucci, thank you.
| darth_avocado wrote:
| Finance bros moving on to Patagonia is probably the reason
| they're filing for bankruptcy
| jancsika wrote:
| Patagonia stopped doing custom logos on those pieces a few
| years back:
|
| https://www.businessinsider.com/patagonia-no-longer-
| adding-c...
|
| I'm not sure if that put a dent in the finance bros' style.
| Finance bros can of course still buy a bunch of the vests and
| have a third party do the custom logo for them.
| xnx wrote:
| It amazing that even 25 years after mainstream ecommerce that
| we're still seeing the effects work their way through retail.
| Good reminder for anticipating how and when other majorly
| disruptive technologies like autonomous vehicles and AI will have
| impact.
| x0x0 wrote:
| It's not really ecommerce. it's PE parasites selling the brand
| equity.
|
| The article doesn't really mention: Authentic Brands Group, an
| asset-light PE org, bought it in 2021; a company called Outdoor
| 5 LLC now licenses Eddie Bauer's e-commerce and wholesale
| operations; and we're well deep into enshittification. You can
| find widespread complaints of bad product quality. Note that
| ABG wasn't the first PE company to own them, but they seem to
| have accelerated the enshittification / are doing a bust-out:
| turning them into a bottom-dollar contract manufacturer scam
| before people broadly realize the brand name no longer merits
| the quality reputation it has/had.
| nickff wrote:
| These brands are being bought by PE because their business
| models are under attack by low-cost competitors on one side,
| and e-commerce on the other. They no longer have a way of
| differentiating themselves and winning customers, so they
| become less valuable, and Private Equity investors buy them
| out at a 'salvage value'. PE often pursues risky strategies
| in an attempt to make the brand profitable again, and these
| strategies often fail. Stories like EB's are not ones of PE
| buying and destroying otherwise successful companies.
| ghaff wrote:
| It's very popular on here to attack PE--which I'm not going
| to especially defend. But it's also the case that PE also
| tends to come in when a company is already troubled in some
| manner. One answer I guess, is just go out of business on
| your own which many companies do.
| rwmj wrote:
| Private Equity has been buying up vets in the UK and
| jacking up prices massively, causing all sorts of knock-
| on negative consequences. Vets in the UK were not failing
| before.
|
| Unfortunately our competition authorities are toothless.
| Their proposed remedy is that vets will have to publish
| prices on their websites from now on. Woohoo.
|
| https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8j3020kl04o
|
| https://archive.ph/ikhpP (link to FT.com)
| xnx wrote:
| > One answer I guess, is just go out of business on your
| own which many companies do
|
| Yes. One of the genuine services (in an economics sense)
| PE provides is to do the dirty reputation-ruining cash-
| grab tricks that original founder/owners don't have the
| stomach for.
| emacdona wrote:
| First, I agree with everything you've said.
|
| But my question is, how long has this been going on for? I'm
| in my late 40s. I remember as a kid thinking Schwinn bicycles
| were the "cheapo" brand. My father, however... would would be
| in his 90s now... remembered them as a top tier brand.
|
| I have this theory that the reason a lot of prices on goods
| we've loved our whole lives don't keep up with inflation is
| because brand loyalty has SUCH power that it's worth it for
| people to buy and enshittify those brands -- so that they can
| sell them to us as we age at the prices we are used to paying
| for them.
|
| They make newer "luxury" brands to sell to younger people who
| are still deciding what a "reasonable" price to pay for
| something is.
| darth_avocado wrote:
| Chapter 11 seems to be like a fashion trend these days. Everyone
| is doing it, sometimes multiple times in a very short time. It's
| nothing more than accounting tool to restructure debt while being
| able to operate the company. Not saying it's a good thing, but it
| isn't as serious as it once used to be.
| slfnflctd wrote:
| You know, I'm past middle age, have seen this brand everywhere
| for many years, and I only just now read about the individual
| Eddie Bauer for the first time. Interesting dude.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Bauer_(outdoorsman)
| criddell wrote:
| On some podcast I was listening to one of the hosts described
| her father as an avid _in_ doorsman. I thought that was great
| and am happy to have a new way to describe myself. :)
| S_Bear wrote:
| I used to have a 'Rugged Indoorsman' shirt. Loved that one.
| havblue wrote:
| I remember back in high school, everyone would have an Eddie
| Bauer backpack except the random person with a Jansport. People
| would always insist on how you had to take advantage of the
| quality guarantee:
|
| "You have a bent zipper and a small tear after lugging your books
| for years? Great! Take it to the store and argue with them that
| it's defective until they give you a new backpack!"
| madcaptenor wrote:
| LL Bean used to have a similar return policy but people started
| abusing it; now you only have a year.
| ghaff wrote:
| A number of outdoor sports retailers that used to have no-
| questions-asked return policies and internal repair
| departments have dropped them. I have known people who
| basically had a practice of indefinitely returning worn out
| clothing for replacement. I did return a jacket to Patagonia
| a number of years back and they gave me a decent credit but,
| in my defense it had basically completely delaminated.
| criddell wrote:
| When LL Bean ended their lifetime return policy, their CEO
| wrote this:
|
| > Increasingly, a small, but growing number of customers
| has been interpreting our guarantee well beyond its
| original intent. Some view it as a lifetime product
| replacement program, expecting refunds for heavily worn
| products used over many years. Others seek refunds for
| products that have been purchased through third parties,
| such as at yard sales.
|
| People were buying old items on eBay and returning them to
| the store to get a brand new item.
| ghaff wrote:
| I think that's increasingly true. A lot of people want to
| game the system and you mostly don't want to place the
| burden of what's reasonable on a low-paid customer
| service worker. So you set reasonable and (mostly firm)
| time limits and let the processes take their course.
| Should be some wiggle room of course. But it's not
| reasonable to offer lifetime replacements unless people
| are willing to pay the 2x to 3x prices that implies--
| which very few will.
| Eddy_Viscosity2 wrote:
| Bad faith actors ruin everything good eventually. From
| small things like return policies for retail chains, to
| the political process of an entire country.
| D13Fd wrote:
| I sent an Eagle Creek suitcase in and they honored the
| warranty even though it's maybe 15 years old. They sent it
| to a repair place who actually fixed every single issue
| with it (first a broken wheel, then later a torn pocket,
| broken buckle, and missing zipper pulls). I honestly can't
| believe that the repairs are cheaper than just replacing
| it, but it has worked out really well. It's a shame more
| places don't do that.
| bitwize wrote:
| I still main a Jansport backpack for taking my laptop in. It
| has minor wear and tear but works great after >10 years.
| headsupernova wrote:
| I'll miss their medium-tall size if they're truly gone! Kind of
| the holy grail for tall skinny people. Anyone have
| recommendations of brands with similar fits?
| xzez wrote:
| I'm the same size. They still have tall variant tops but tall
| bottoms/pants seem to have been gone for a while now.
| Wistar wrote:
| I was an Eddie Bauer XLT guy for years until they suddenly made
| them way too skinny. Best fitting shirts ever. I am wearing one
| of the old ones right now. Land's End Tall sizing is a good fit
| although some of their fabric quality is a bit iffy--especially
| the colorfastness of their dyes. I have had two of six shirts
| be unable to endure professional stain spot removal by a dry
| cleaner. The greens and grays seem to be the most fragile.
|
| I have always meant to take one of the few remaining right-
| fitting Eddie Bauer shirts to a tailor to see if they can be
| used as a pattern to make more shirts.
| kQq9oHeAz6wLLS wrote:
| Buy many now; they don't spoil. Keep them in the closet and
| pull out a new one when the old one wears out.
| ajcp wrote:
| -> Its e-commerce and wholesale operations are not affected by
| the filing because they are operated separately.
|
| Eddie Bauer the brand is not going bankrupt; the company that
| runs the brick-and-mortor stores in North America as Eddie
| Bauer is. So if you get your Eddie Bauer from anywhere that
| isn't an Eddie Bauer store you should be fine.
| khimaros wrote:
| what will we keep our ready power tucked in our vests under now?
| nradov wrote:
| Not really a surprise. The people who buy outdoor apparel to
| actually spend time outdoors, like for hiking / hunting / fishing
| / skiing, long ago moved to other brands that were more
| technically advanced and focused on their specific activity. That
| left only the casual fashion consumers who are notoriously
| fickle, and Eddie Bauer failed to keep up with fashion trends.
| The products aren't bad necessarily but they're nothing special,
| you can get essentially the same stuff from a dozen other brands
| now.
| calmbonsai wrote:
| I used to be an Eddie Bauer customer, but the quality of even
| their basic clothes (think business casual "docker" pants)
| rapidly diminished and their technical/functional gear was never
| remotely in the same category as Patagonia or Arc'teryx.
|
| I still hold out hope for Patagonia in the post Yvon Chouinard
| era.
|
| Their quality and customer service remain top-tier. Hell, they
| repaired my puffy jacket's zipper for free--hopefully it will
| have another decade of hard use.
| josefritzishere wrote:
| Tariffs again. I know it's not the only a contributing factor but
| it's self-inflicted damage.
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