'Classic casual' look failed to grow sales, so Eddie Bauer is returning to its roots
But when Shea walked into the renovated Eddie Bauer store in Bellevue Square last fall, she found a new, dressier line of clothes more suited for a stroll downtown than a trek up the trail.
"It just totally turned me off," said the Issaquah woman. "There are so many stores that are selling this kind of stuff ... it wasn't what I was looking for when I shop Eddie Bauer."
Shea wasn't the only customer miffed by the "classic casual" look Eddie Bauer introduced in September in hopes of meeting baby boomers' wardrobe needs for work, weekends and nights out.
Monthly sales fell by as much as 25 percent at established stores, and a survey found customers weren't sure what Eddie Bauer stood for anymore.
So, after spending the past year trying to branch out beyond its outdoor image, the Redmond-based retailer has jettisoned its dress-casual campaign and is out to reclaim its outerwear heritage, led by a new management team.
Earlier this month, newly appointed Chief Executive Fabian Månsson, 38, said his first task would be to re-establish Eddie Bauer's authority in the outdoor-inspired apparel category.
One of Månsson's key lieutenants in that mission is Engle Saez, 46, the new chief marketing officer, a former Starbucks executive whose apparel-industry experience includes Timberland and AtlanticRancher, a Massachusetts outerwear retailer that went out of business in 1999.
As Saez sees it, Eddie Bauer got off track in the mid-1990s by trying to chase Banana Republic, Abercrombie & Fitch and other hot apparel brands, then miscalculated with the dress-casual theme. Customers perceived it as a "slick urban" look, he said.
"Eddie Bauer just forgot about who they were, forgot about who brought them to the wedding," Saez said. "They were following (other) brands and just forgot about the fit and the style and the emotional needs of its core customers."
This fall, customers will see clothes more in line with Eddie Bauer's outdoorsy image, with a particular emphasis on washable suede jackets and skirts, down coats and leather jackets.
Instead of targeting price-sensitive "mall rats," Saez said, it will gear its offerings toward quality-conscious customers willing to pay more for durable, functional clothes.
The Spiegel Group, Eddie Bauer's parent company, has a lot riding on the turnaround of its star subsidiary. Spiegel, based in Downers Grove, Ill., has been plagued by sliding sales and last month was delisted from the Nasdaq stock market, in part because of late regulatory filings.
When Eddie Bauer overhauled its apparel mix in the past, Saez said, it "was always on the hunt for that next great place to be."
"This time, it's going back to a place (where) the brand has a tremendous amount of authority, where consumers expect the brand to be," Saez said. "It's a place of familiarity."
To press home the outdoor theme, Saez has banned models from Eddie Bauer's catalog covers, which will instead feature photos of American landscapes. Ads will use quotes from the original Eddie Bauer, who founded the company as a sporting-goods store in downtown Seattle in 1920.
Robert Spector, a Seattle author and retail expert who wrote the 1994 book "The Legend of Eddie Bauer," said the company is realizing it needs to stop imitating and give customers a distinct, reason to shop there.
"What sets Eddie Bauer apart from J.Crew and all the other (retailers) out there is, there really was an Eddie Bauer — he was an authentic character, a Pacific Northwest original, a person of the outdoors," Spector said. "To capitalize on that image will be an effective way of separating Eddie Bauer from all the other retailers out there who are selling polo shirts."
Shea, the longtime customer from Issaquah, said she's willing to give Eddie Bauer another look but doesn't know whether she'll become a frequent shopper again.
"If I walk by and it looks intriguing again, I'll go back," she said. "Whether I'll keep shopping or not depends on whether they have what I'm looking for."
Jake Batsell: 206-464-2718 or jbatsell@seattletimes.com