Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire the yupppy disease has hit LLBean....bummer

following in the footsteps of Eddie Bauer, which used to make good outdoor stuff, LLBean now has a line called "signature" for which I just got a catalog, featuring emaciated gay looking models wearing bastardized outdoor clothes and boots.

Bauer did this, Filson did it with their Lodge line and then sort of backed off. Hopefully this won't affect the regular Bean stuff. Who are the marketing geniuses telling these old companies they need to change what has worked for a century or more?

You buy stuff based on the models and the catalog?

Intersting, I"m weird but I buy it based on if its going to do what I want, don't care if its a gay guy or a lumberjack wearing it.

Of course if it fails, they learn right quick by loosing the company which would suck.

Now if I could just find Bean used to have wading boots light weight, with good traction and a twist lock cable to snug them up... man if I could find those back.... they are super for coast hunts in AK

It is easier to look outdoorsy than to be outdoorsy.

They know their market... I figure some women will buy their husbands/boyfriends LLB clothing based on this.

LLBean used to buy stuff there but I saw this coming in the 90's and stopped just about the same time I abandoned Bauer's

I know what you are talking about. At least Cabelas uses clothing models that look like normal, attractive, heterosexual people. Of course if they picked their intended customer (like maybe 20 random Campfire members) to model their stuff, nobody in their right mind would buy it!

Last time (about 5 years ago) I was in Freeport, Maine at LL Bean it was filled with yuppies then.....

I guess I've always thought of llbean, eddie bauer and pier 1 imports in about the same way.

If that says anything?

Just got an order in from Duluth Trading- both the Mrs. and I are very pleased, with price & quality. Bean, Bauer, Orvis, even Filson a little, have sold out to modernism. Boots/shoes, we go to Sierra Trading Post first. Everyday wear, gonna give the folks at Duluth a good try.

Eddie bauer was up front on cold weather gear 40 years ago. The Trans Alaska Pipeline construction consumed thousands of their expensive down garments.....I still have Kara Koram pants...but they started into decline after opening stores. They really have no outdoor gear anymore.

I got a cap from Duluth Trading for Christmas that I really like.

L.L. Bean has been yuppified for some time, but the gay-looking model theme that Steve descibed seems to be something new.

Eddie Bauer went yuppie even sooner than Bean, and even started marketing to the teen to 20-something mall crowd. I remember when they were Eddie Bauer Expedition Outfitter, and sold serious quality gear. I still have some of it from the 1960s.

Paul

LL Bean has just about completely forgotten about their heritage and who/what made them great! Their gear used to be top notch and the warranty was the best I've ever seen! My dad swore by their Bean Boots and never wanted anything else. Now it's sad to walk through the Freeport store and look at all the imported crap they now sell!

I notice that awhile back L.L. Bean changed the name of their iconic rubber bottomed boots from the Hunting Shoe to Bean's Boots.

I guess they didn't want to turn off the anti-hunters among their clientele.

They do still put out an annual Hunting Catalog; I'll give them credit for that.

Paul

I dig Carhartt.

I still have some Eddie Bauer Pack boots and jeans, still going strong. Used to live near their outlet store. They started getting sissified over 10years ago. LL Bean about the same time it seems.

Follow the $$. The yuppie crowd is willing to pay an exorbitant, inflated price price so Bean is will to let them pay it. Most of us watch our fun money closely and aren't willing to pay inflated prices so they go to the market that will.

What the heck is pier 1 imports?

There is one in Roseville and Maplewood.

Pier 1

Duluth sells some nice stuff, but after breezing through their last catalog, every single item I saw said 'imported'.

There once was a day the LL Bean employees were given the opportuity to model for their various catalogs.
Since the design, manufacture, sales and marketing of the entire clothing industry has changed, LL Bean is only doing what it must to be a successful player in the retail clothing industry.
It fits the market perfectly. A trip to Freeport in the Summer proves it.

I wish them MUCH success in selling their clothing lines to the masses. Since it is quite profitable, it allows them to continue to sell high quality speciality items like fly fishing gear which carry a fantastic warranty.