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Ed Bannister
Mountain climber
Riverside, CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Sep 2, 2009 - 02:12pm PT
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i thought it would be fun to have some old tidbits of gear history passed on, so who knows what EB stood for, and where they were made?
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Edouard Bourdonais
Probably spelled incorrectly, but it was the dude's name.
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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bourdonneau.
after he and pierre allain split, allain began to make PAs.
Then Rene Desmaison did RDs.
etc. etc.
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Prod
Trad climber
A place w/o Avitars apparently
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Ed Bannister?
Prod.
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Prod
Trad climber
A place w/o Avitars apparently
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Gots to be fast in these parts eKat
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Ray-J
Social climber
east L.A. vato...
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Super Gratton!
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Xavier LEGENDRE
Sport climber
Marseille
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EB stands for Edouard Bourdonneau , the french master boot maker , who , together with Pierre Allain , manufactured the first climbing shoe in 1947 .
During the fifties , he created the brand EB which became the "gold standards" of climbing rock shoes in the sixties and seventies .
The brand died in 1986 after the arrival of the spanish made"Firé " and its sticky rubber which rendered the "old" EB obsolete .
But , in 1992 , with a new owner , EB started again to manufacture climbing shoes ( although very different from its ancestors...)up to this day ...
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Ray-J
Social climber
east L.A. vato...
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Kat,
It's french code for:
"Badass rock shoe designed by master French bootmaker".
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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"gratton" in climbing slang is a hold.
as in, "Those petits grattons on the traverse were sick, yo."
i've also heard folks use it as a gerund.
"gratton" in a different context is a crispy bit of fried pork, bacon, duck or goose fat.
mmmmmmmmm, bacon
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Xavier LEGENDRE
Sport climber
Marseille
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A "gratton " was the name given by Fontainebleau climbers for a very tiny edge you literally had to " scratch" the rock to find .
The verb "gratter" is translated by "to scratch" .
The "super gratton" were the best edging shoes you could climb with during two decades .
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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The english cognate is probably "to grate"
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matty
climber
po-dunk
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FA = Fred Astaire?
Wow, he did a lot of routes, with a lot of different partners too. I see FA all over the place.
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Ed Bannister
Mountain climber
Riverside, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 2, 2009 - 02:57pm PT
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Xavier and the rest for that matter are correct, but we can add that Ed, as I like to call him, had a Father who owned a shoe factory, so the opportunity was there for a climber to say Dad I want to build a shoe.
Mike Sturm, who originated the Eiger brand in the US was designated as the sales rep for EB in the US. Mike also happened to be the buyer for Liberty Mountain Sports.
Mike had a sweet deal, he wrote the orders for all US import of EBs, then he was paid a 10% sales commission for selling them!
The commission checks were deposited into a Swiss account.
Mike lived like a king twice a year as he traveled to Europe on Liberty's expense account to visit ISPO in Munich, and then supplemented his lifestyle with the Swiss account as he visited various manufacturers such as Edelrid, Stubai, CAMP and Bonaiti.
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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All I knew was Super Grattons were far superior to the standard grattons (which were apparently before my time).
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Howie
Trad climber
Calgary, Alberta
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The first models of the blue and white rock boot that appeared in the UK were in fact named PA after Pierre Allain. The letters PA were stamped on the small circle of white suede leather as were the EB's.
Only after the blue and white PA disappeared did the EB emerge.
PA's also re appeared in red and black I think.
In the UK when EB appeared in blue and white it was thought at first that Ellis Brigham, a gear store and whloesale supplier in Manchester, had had his name put on them. This was seemingly untrue but I'm sure they rode the wave for sometime.
As a matter of interest the MOAC chock was named after Ellis Brigham's wholesale store - MOuntain ACtiities.
Howard.
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philo
Trad climber
boulder, co.
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I got my first pair of EBs in the early seventies at the Rock and Snow shop in New Paltz.
The clerk kept asking how they felt and exchanging them for smaller sixes till I said "they hurt like hell and I couldn't walk in them". "Perfect" he said "Will that be cash or charge" he quickly added.
Once I got past the bleeding cuticles those babies could really climb.
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GDavis
Trad climber
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Essentially Buttscooting. At least thats what people climbing them seem to be doing.
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Mike lived like a king twice a year as he traveled to Europe on Liberty's expense account to visit ISPO in Munich, and then supplemented his lifestyle with the Swiss account as he visited various manufacturers such as Edelrid, Stubai, CAMP and Bonaiti.
thanks for that detail. tell us more about gear marketing in the 50s and 60s, if you have the time.
interesting period, between the army-surplus days and the emergence of so many north american makers.
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ydpl8s
Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
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IMHO You never could really edge with EB's, it was more a matter of "smearing" on the edge. That's why I preferred RD's, they had more of a corner for edging (for an friction shoe). Of course if we're talking edging, Shoenards were the answer, not so good on friction though.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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My first friction shoes were RD's. I eventually had them resoled with some high tech groovy rubber like green eye or something....
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