American Mountaineering Milestones: The 60/40 Mountain Parka, a 70s era icon

By Kalikiano Kalei

Introduction:

The ubiquitous ‘60/40’ mountain parka of the 1970s period is a milestone of mountaineering design and development advances that have occurred since the end of WW2. A product both of newer (post-war) materials technology and inspiration on the part of a small number of post-war mountaineers and climbing enthusiasts living in the immediate San Francisco Bay Area during the 50s and 60s, this essentially simple and basic design in protective apparel for outdoor applications has proven over the succeeding decades to be one of those brilliant, perfect-as-conceived concepts that although now far surpassed in a technological context by even more recent developments, has proven to be a timeless archetype well-suited for a broad spectrum of individuals who enjoy outdoor sports and activities of all kinds. So much so has its popularity spread, in fact, that its appeal has gone well beyond the mountain and backpacking crowd and on into the general fashion world as a genuine ‘original’ item of popular outerwear. It is the intention here of the author of this paper not to set forth a definitive history of the ‘60/40’ mountain parka, but rather to record some essential notes and backstory on the jacket and how it came to be and became popularized.

A brief capsular pre-history of protective mountain apparel

Until fairly recently (2003), there have been few if any books, let alone detailed papers, published on the specifics of protective apparel designed and produced specifically to shield mountaineers from the often extremely hostile environment they exist within when climbing mountains.

Depending upon a great many variable factors, including geography, longitudes, altitudes and regional climatic considerations, the sort of weather a mountaineer may experience can vary from significant heat all the way to substantially sub-zero conditions, often changing from one extreme to another in a comparatively brief period of time. Thus, the challenge has forever been how to best protect a climber from the effects of 1) wind (frequently a climber’s worst enemy), 2) extreme cold and 3) moisture (both weather-generated and bodily sweating effects) and heat build-up...not a simple proposition.

Prior to about the middle of the 19th century, mountaineering was virtually unknown and certainly didn’t exist as a sports or recreational venue. Mountain climbing was therefore an almost entirely new phenomenon when the Victorian English introduced it to the world in the 1850s. Prior to that time, although there had certainly been scientific expeditions dispatched to regions of severe cold (such as the Arctic polar wastes), ‘sport climbing’ as a purely recreational activity did not exist.

Therefore, when the Victorian mountaineers began their ‘gentlemanly ascents’ of the European Alpine summits, there was no specific kit (apparel) a climber could turn to for personal protection on those slopes…other than standard street garments or those sewn together from native materials (such as had been used for centuries by the indigenous tribes inhabiting the Earth’s surface lying above roughly 50 degrees North latitude).

The Aleuts and Inuits of Canada, for example, are renowned for their adept skill in sewing sturdy outerwear from sealskins and other animals hides that serve as admirable protection from extremes of severe cold. However, such clothing, while perfect for warmth from in severe cold, is not well suited for preventing the build-up of the bodily by-products of heat and sweat, such as would be typically encountered in climbing, simply because garments of that type do not ‘breathe’ and are not water-vapor permeable to any significant degree.

Although there is little direct evidence to suggest that the early mountaineers of Europe’s Alpine regions seriously considered adopting indigenous native Arctic garments for climbing, they were certainly aware of them towards the latter half of the century, as observations made on Arctic expeditions had revealed their usefulness to the native peoples as protection against severe cold. There existed, however, a certain distinctly Victorian bias towards their used by white Westerners.

In their fascinating book ‘Invisible on Everest’, authors Mike Parsons and Mary Rose go into considerable detail about the early Arctic explorers and their experience with ‘native’ clothing made from natural (animal) materials. To summarise rather quickly, the Victorian explorers, strongly influenced by predominantly colonial attitudes towards the white race’s ostensible superiority, dismissed these superb Aleut cold-weather protection garments as ‘déclassé’ and ‘unsuited for use by civilized men of science’ (or words to that effect), under any and/or all circumstances.

One or two exceptionally prescient western individuals did in fact perceive their utility and dressed accordingly despite convention, but their costumes were still relatively unsuited for all but the most severe (Arctic) conditions and certainly would not be practical for climbing protection that involved a relatively high level of physical exertion (with attendant heat-buildup and perspiration). Thus, the need remained for protective clothing that would beto a certain extent ‘breathable’, yet sufficiently water resistant for all but exceptionally heavy downpours.

As a result, Victorian Era climbers relied principally upon woolen clothing that retains warmth when wet and which dries relatively quickly. There was as well a vague awareness of the practicality of ‘layering’ and also of the usefulness of silk as an under-layer of material that both breathed and allowed moisture to pass through it.

In the mid-to late 1880s, therefore climbers typically wore slightly modified conventional streetwear which typically took form in woolen jackets and breeches, often used in combination with puttees on the lower legs and in combination with some form of early gaiter to seal the boot against scree and rock detritus. Under this, as the 1850s progressed, one or more layers of silk underwear were generally also worn.

There were some further attempts to develop a suitable wind-breaking fabric but for the most part the typical mountain ‘wind-cheater’ at the turn of the century consisted of a light, Arctic-style Anorak made of pure Egyptian cotton, which while poor at shedding persistent rain was quite good at allowing the wearers body to ‘breathe’ under exertion. By the time of the ill- fated Mallory/Irvine Everest summit attempt of 1924, these materials were still quite commonplace and used even in the highest, most severe altitudes of the Himalayas. The classic Anorak had a large central pocket on the front of the chest; it also featured a buttoned-front attached hood and a draw- cord around the skirt to help seal out draughts. [This basic style remains today almost completely unchanged, except for the use of jam-free plasticoil zippers and modern fabrics; they are now mostly favored by casual recreational types and are no longer considered suitable for serious mountain use.]

Efforts subsequently continued to devise or fabricate a more suitable fabric that would allow some breathability and wind protection. Among the potential candidates was tightly woven gabardine cloth but since pure cotton thread tended to swell when wet (thereby providing slightly more rain protection after a certain point was reached), nothing really replaced Ventile Cotton as a windbreaker material of choice and the style of such garments remained that of the relatively lightweight, Aleut-inspired Anorak. [There have been modified cotton garments of this type that are wax-impregnated; these have remained quite popular in Great Britain and the English Barbour Company has specialised in making ‘proofed’ garments of this sort for several decades. They have in past been especially popular with motorcyclists ad hunters.]

By the time the Second World War had ended, the rapid progress of materials technology undertaken by the military to clothe its soldiers had yielded several new types of synthetic polymer material, perhaps chief among them being Nylon (or Perlon, as the Europeans know it). This enabled lightweight windbreaker garments to be made, but Nylon was relatively impermeable to both ‘breathing’ and to the passage of water vapor (sweat/heat) and were more suited to less exertional activities than mountaineering (at least in terms of clothing and garment fabrication).

In 1946 a substantial number of ex-military ski-troopers were discharged and returned home, many of them keen to continue enjoying the sort of snowy, wintry activities they had been trained to survive and fight in as specialised mountain combatants. In the United States, most of these men were demobilised members of the famous 10th Mountain Division and a number of them went on to help further establish the fledgling American snow-skiing scene as one of America’s premier winter recreational pastimes.

Having been trained to both ski and climb in fulfilling their missions, it was natural that some of their number applied their ski-mountaineering skills to pure recreational uses. Some also found employment as guides and instructors while a fortunate few became outdoor recreational consultants This was the start of what in the America of the 50s and 60s became today’s popular sport-climbing and mountaineering. It is no coincidence that a significant concentration of these former mountain troops would soon be found in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is here that the story continues.

The US West Coast Mountaineering Epicenter

Back in 1935 (coincidentally, the same year that Nylon was first invented) a Berkeley school teacher named Georg Rudolf noticed that during the depression a substantial number of his Berkeley students were taking short trips to the near-by Sierra Nevada Mountains. Times were hard then for everyone and especially for ‘poor students’ (which they almost always were!). A weekend getaway was therefore a perfect and very inexpensive way to have fun with a relatively low-cost outlay. Those fortunate few who had cars would carry a load of their fellow students to the slopes for a few days of camping or Nordic-style skiing at lakes and various mountain locales. Some were also interested in what was at that time still a fledgling sport: downhill snow-skiing. Using long hickory skis equipped with rudimentary ‘bear-trap’ bindings (so-called because a fall could result in some sort or another of serious orthopedic injuries; the binding gripped the toe section of a boot and did not release in the event of a fall), a skier could generally find an inexpensive ‘donkey-engine’ operated rope-tow to take him up the hill for a downward run. Others preferred more traditional Nordic-style skiing, involving using climbing ‘skins’ to ascend a slope and then return downhill.

Rudolf himself enjoyed skiing in the Sierras and therefore he and his Berkeley ski-partner (engineer Philip von Lublein) sensed an opportunity to cater to those who were interested in trying out skiing themselves. They did this by opening up a small business they called ‘The Ski Hut’ at 1615 University Avenue in Berkeley. The capitalized cost of their start-up was only $750 and they stocked their shop with European ski gear to sell, while also offering waxing and ski-repair/maintenance services. Initially the shop was operated only a few hours each day, enabling both men to maintain their regular professional work.

Skiing had been an elite, up-scale sport for Europeans since the turn of the century but in America very few ski lodges existed. They were generally very small localized operations but a few up-scale resorts were soon developed. Among them was the famous Sun Valley Resort in Idaho, started by Union Pacific railroad magnate Avril Harriman (Jr.) in the 30s, and soon Sun Valley was hosting regular trainloads of Hollywood celebrities, brought from Southern California to his posh new resort on special train excursions. Given the glamour of Sun Valley, it was almost natural to soon find movies being made about both Sun Valley and the romantic charm of skiing in general (e.g. Olympic skater Sonja Henie), and this helped popularize the sport throughout American among increasing numbers of middle-to-upper class citizens. It was not long before the sport also caught the interest of younger people of more moderate means, as well.

At the university in Berkeley, despite their relatively modest means, students frugally would cut corners and could enjoy almost as much fun as their far more-wealthy counterparts by renting a set of skis, boots, poles for a weekend from Rudolf and von Lublein; thus it wasn’t long before skiing took off, both of the Nordic and ‘downhill’ variety. A complete ski-package would typically run only about $2.75 or so per day and many of the available skis and poles were actually surplus US Army issue in white painted hickory wood, which were cheaper yet to rent (the famous and innovative Head metal skis were still to come in the early 60s).

In Berkeley, ‘The Ski Hut’ quickly rode the wave-crest of this rising new California sport. By 1940 both von Lublein and Rudolf left their respective professional callings and operated the shop on a full-time basis, but by then the Second World War had begun in earnest and both men joined the US military forces, where their German-speaking skills undoubtedly proved quite useful.

At war’s end, in 1946 both men returned to Berkeley and reopened the shop. Unfortunately, merely a year later (1947) von Lublein was paralised in a ski- accident and this left the full responsibility for and operation of The Ski Hut to Rudolf. When the war had ended, widespread interest in skiing had burgeoned and the ex-10th Mountain Division soldiers quickly became catalytic proponents of the sport. They included conservationist Dave Brower of the Sierra Club, who was an enthusiastic ski-mountaineer and who lost no opportunities to promote and publicize the climbing aspects of mountain sports. [The Sierra Club published a classic early book on ski-mountaineering (in 1946) which was largely authored by Brower; it is today a much sought-after classic ‘bible’ on the sport as it existed back then].

With all the sudden widespread interest in mountain sports, the Ski Hut’s Rudolf soon established an ‘in-house’ brand (Trailwise) of mountain gear of all types, including purpose designed and fabricated mountain clothing, tents, sleeping bags, packs and miscellaneous items. Inspiration for much of it came indirectly from US Army equipment that had been developed for and used by the ski-troops but despite there being rather high-quality but cheap, lightweight ex-Army duck-down sleeping bags available at the several big surplus stores in the East Bay Area, the Trailwise brand quickly gained a reputation for designing and selling high-quality products that in every case were even better than the military originals. Utilising warm goose-down fill and making several lightweight models available in a range of attractive colors, Trailwise Nylon bags were considered the apex of anything available in that late-50s, early-60s era.

Beyond that, the Ski Hut itself became a magnet for just about any and all mountain climbing enthusiasts on the West Coast and a wide range of individuals who soon came to prominence in the climbing sub-culture gathered there. As such, The Ski Hut became a regular catalytic focal venue that spawned a whole generation of young climbers (such as pioneer 'big wall climber' Allen Steck) and the list of Yosemite rock climbers who cut their teeth there alone is stunning, to say the least!

Berkeley was also fortunate enough to have several small but challenging rock formations in several parts of the city which quickly became practice climbing venues. Across the San Francisco Bay, Mount Tamalpais, a lovely 3000-foot mountain that overlooks serene Muir Woods Redwoods also provided additional popular practice climbing locations, close by.

Rudolf’s The Ski Hut was therefore the seminal inspiration for a number of related mountain businesses and retail stores that developed in the East Bay Area, among them Sierra Designs, The North Face, the REI Co-op, Marmot Mountain Works, Snowline, Camp 5, and several others, all of whose brand names are to this day still instantly recognizable. And, interestingly, almost all of these businesses (with the exception of the REI Co-op) were established by former Ski Hut employees who had been ‘brought-up’ by Rudolf and nurtured by the Ski Hut!

[Note: Berkeley as long been a fertile breeding ground for enterprising new ideas, social trends and unique start-ups. The young partners (all students at the University of San Francisco) who started the now-massive STARBUCKS coffee empire in Seattle, in 1971, learned their trade in the original North Berkeley (Walnut Square) store of Alfred Peet, doing a short stint as lowly baristas for Mr. Peet at his original Walnut Square store and acquiring their knowledge the art of roasting coffee beans at Peet’s. In 1971 they took this knowledge with them to Washington State, where they started the early STARBUCKS corporation.]

[Note: I might also add here, as an indirect sidenote, that Georg Rudolf was gay, something that back in those days was still a closely guarded secret to be kept hidden from public awareness. I mention this here only because it is rather interesting circumstantial evidence of the fact that gay people are often possessed of imagination, creativity and enlightened aesthetic perception in excess of that of the average public.]

Highly respected George Rudolf passed away at the age of 90 in 1998, after an illustrious career pioneering a whole new era of mountaineering gear development in the 60s and 70s, serving as both the inspiration for and sponsor of almost all of the individuals who went on, after working for or with Rudolf as colleagues, employees and associates, to start their own mountaineering gear companies. In that capacity, he may be considered truly one of the post-war key founding fathers of the outdoor sports world that includes modern climbing, skiing, hiking and camping.

The Ski Hut gives birth to a litter of eager pups

As noted earlier, Rudolf’s Ski Hut/Trailwise endeavor served as the primary impetus for what was to follow, a period of exponential design and development in mountain gear that some have referred to as ‘The Gear Wars’. Not a few of the younger individuals who had been attracted to The Ski Hut (either as employees or as mountaineering/climbing enthusiasts) quickly developed into climbers of note but a good percentage of them also went on to found their own gear fabrication and selling operations, not least among them being The North Face, Sierra Designs and Class 5.

Sierra Designs in particular would soon seize the high ground and have tremendous impact on the climbing world with the introduction of a great many classic items of new and innovative mountain gear. It was Sierra Designs that produced a notable 4-season mountain tent that proved extremely popular among a wide range of climbers, from casual week-enders to serious expedition types (this was the renown ‘Glacier Tent’, a sturdy two-man high-altitude design used by both expeditions and weekenders). It was Sierra Designs that also pioneered what has become another classic item that quickly became their ‘signature’ product, the famous 60/40 Mountain Parka.

Ski Hut habitue (employee) George Marks, who began work at The Ski Hut in about 1962, met another mountain enthusiast there named Bob Swanson, who hailed from Colorado, where he had had a former association with Holubar Mountaineering. As co-workers at The Ski Hut, they quickly became close friends and two years later decided to leave The Ski Hut and start their own mountain gear design and fabrication business.

Moving to Point Richmond (a less expensive and far more affordable locale than Berkeley at that time), just slightly north of Berkeley, they began a small designing and manufacturing business they called Sierra Designs. It was a very modest operation at the outset and both men were kept busy continuously fabricating their gear offerings to meet the needs of their customers. It has occasionally been said that Sierra Designs was a true ‘family’ operation, in that family members would participate in the production to help Marks and Swanson keep up with demands.

At that point (late 60s), Sierra Designs’ most important customer was The North Face, with their principal site being in Palo Alto (CA), and North Face’s earliest down sleeping bags were made for North Face by Sierra Designs. These early products can be identified by their label, which states “Made expressly for North Face by Sierra Designs”. They are, as may be imagined, highly sought after by collectors of mountain gear today.

In 1968 Sierra Designs relocated back to Berkeley, where they occupied a store made out of an old warehouse towards the bay end of University Avenue and also introduced what would soon prove to be a ‘cult item’ among young individuals everywhere, their ubiquitous ‘60/40’ Mountain Parka. The original 60/60 mountain parka (about 1968) set the general standard for what was to follow, but it had only two flapped-pockets on the lower front and an attached hood (sewn-on). That design was quickly improved upon by including two upper chest pockets and a large internal zippered pocket (at the rear) which could be used to carry a sweater or similarly size clothing item. With Velcro closures at the wrists and on the pocket-flaps, along with a full-length plastic YKK zipper at the front, this slightly updated design would remain almost unchanged for several decades.

It is important to note, in the story behind the 60/40 ‘signature piece’, that this article of gear, that boosted Sierra Designs into its position as a well-known fixture on the US mountain gear scene, centers not merely on the distinctively innovative design, cut and style of the original parka, but perhaps most importantly on the fabric used for its fabrication, the so-called ‘60/40’ cloth fabric itself.

The 60/40 cloth story

As previously discussed, prior to the development of 60/40 cloth (a fabric composed of blended Nylon and cotton), English Ventile Cotton had served as the more-or-less standard lightweight Anorak/Parka fabric of choice up until roughly the early 50s. Given the ever-present need for a parka to serve both as a water-repellant, wind-resistant and yet water-vapor permeable barrier item of external clothing, there were few alternative alternatives. Various weaves of the new Nylon fabric posed a number of problems to active wearers, among them being excessive heat build-up, relative impermeability to air, flammability hazards (Nylon melts at a certain heat and can cause horrific burns) and only mild water resistance. Thus, the time was right for something new to come along. ‘Reevair’ was one such development, but it suffered from several less-than-perfect characteristics and GORE-TEX was still to be invented (or at least marketed). Enter ‘60/40’ cloth. [Note: At first, Sierra Designs offered their classic mountain parka in both Reevair and 60/40 cloth.]

60/40 cloth was the invention as some accounts have it, of co-developers Bob Marks and Thor Gustafson back in 1972/73. However, that is only half-true . The real story, as revealed by John Murphy of the Keystone Company, is as follows.

According to Murphy, Arthur Kahn Company owner Harold Marks and his sales manager Thor Gustafson originally had co-operatively developed the original 60/40 blended Nylon/cotton concept back in 72/73 at Keystone Mills in Hersey, PA. [Note: Here, I feel it would be more propitious and certainly more accurate to directly quote John Murphy in his explanation of how 60/40 cloth came to be.]

“Their (the Arthur Kahn Company) original big customer was the MacGregor Golf Jacket. It was an incredibly tightly woven cloth with a 70-denier bright nylon warp (Arthur Kahn Company had been a women’s sleepwear and girdle fabric company coming out of the late 40’s early 50’s.) They took one of their really wonderfully dense 100% nylon satin fabrics and put the finest cotton they could find in the fill instead of nylon. It was China Grove’s long staple, Egyptian cotton. (For the true textile cognoscenti — it was a 2 ply, 60/1’s, reverse twist, exquisite yarn — never really affordable and certainly never again spun anywhere except in England for Bond Street shirtings.) We quickly made some lower cost changes, but remained true to the original wonderfully bright shiny look with a pronounced ‘file’ across the fabric created by the heavier cotton yarn.

“In those days durable water repellants were just emerging out of the labs in Wilmington, DE. There was a precursor to Zepel®, but I can’t bring it up at the moment. Prior to the late 60’s, being outdoors in inclement weather was an awful experience. It did not take long in a steady downpour for the user to be soaked through.

“The first ‘miracle’ cloth for the outdoor world was an incredible cotton fabric out of England that came to be known as “Byrd Cloth” (a very famous guy took it to one of the poles.) [Note: Byrd Cloth is a type of fabric similar to Grenfell Cloth which was designed in the 1934 by Harris Thurston and heavily promoted by Antarctic explorer Richard Byrd.]

“The magic of this Pre-Fluorocarbon (as in “carcinogen”) fabric was that (in theory anyway) it’s outer 1/50th of an inch of cotton swelled up so much with the initial wetting that there were no interstices left for water to migrate through. It was one of the densest light weight cotton fabrics ever woven, Howe & Bainbridge of Boston (an Arthur Kahn nemesis) imported it for the few U.S. users that thought they could afford it.

“60/40 with Zepel torpedoed that idea for the next 30 years.

“Thor had shown it to George Lamb (Camp 7), The Holubars, SD, Woolrich and Eddie Bauer before Jack/Jules & I bought the company in 1975. But I believe that only SD and EB had really bought into it aggressively at that time.

“What you remember about my contribution was my first visit with Thor to Berkeley in 1975. (I was 35 years old — fit & tan & probably wearing one of my trademark suits, tie and French cuffs. (Can you imagine?? in Berkeley in the 70’s?) That changed pretty quickly! The Big Sur beckoned.

“One of the main topics of discussion that day was that our “RAMAR” — your ‘60/40’ cloth - was narrow. Keystone had ‘old’ looms. And they also had limited capacity for this exclusive construction for us. Demand was beginning to far outstrip supply in the market. I’m sure you remember that, coming into 1981-82 -83, we were on “allocation” to the market. All of our customers had to give us “blanket” griege goods orders — sometimes 6 to 9 months out! We were (believe it or not) dyeing . 40,000 yards per week and could not keep up. I finally convinced Milliken to weave it for us at 60”. That was the Murphy breakthrough. [Note: There were initially some difficulties encountered dying 60/40 fabric, but they were eventually resolved.]

“But, unfortunately for all of us, there were unforeseen seismic, sea change events coming that knocked our feet out from under us (as follows).

“1.) Greenwood Mills came out with a 65/35 poplin they called “Bayhead”. (Dull - awful BUT) their selling points were:

“2.) A much better price — tough to fight that off.

“3.) They made our customers believe that 60/40 had a “shrinkage” issue (huh? — . 600,000 yards per year for 10/12 years with nary a complaint??

“4.) W. L. Gore began flying “all” of our customers, First Class, to Asia to visit their new “Gore approved” factories in HK, TW and Singapore. While in Asia (it did not take a 185 IQ), all these U.S. based companies suddenly realized that it wasn’t only Gore-Tex garments that could be made for a third of the U.S. sewing costs or less.

“By ’86 we were in an enormous and unexpected downward spiral ($45,000,000 in ’86 — $24,000,000 in ’87)”

When Marks decided to introduce 60/40 cloth to the Sierra Designs materials roster, it seemed like the only really logical, up-and-coming contender for consideration as a suitable material to construct their mountain parka design from. Although the actual percentage ratio of Nylon to cotton was actually about 58/42 (there are some reports that state it was actually more like 62/38), Marks decided to simplify the name and called it ‘60/40’ for marketing purposes and thus the name 60/40 stuck and subsequently became an industry standard reference. In truth, the precise blend of these two fabric materials was subject to slight variability, over a period of time, but ‘60/40’ remains a very fair representation of the overall ratio.

A blended weave of these two materials had, in addition to breathability and a certain degree of water resistance, a very nice drape and a pleasant ‘hand’ (a term that refers to the feel of the fabric when worn). By contrast, GORE-TEX (still to come along later) had (at least in its earliest iterations) a rather ‘crinkly’, slightly noisy nature that gave it less aesthetic appeal. It was found that when a 60/40 blended weave was sprayed with an early silicone polymer coating (such as ZEPEL), it achieved a very high degree of water repellency that would withstand all but a stiff, direct and unrelenting downpour. Finally, 60/40 blends could (as the iconic Timex Watch advertisement out it) “Take a licking and keep on ticking” with regard to its ability to be treated roughly and allowed to become dirty, with no consequent reduction at all in its functional qualities.

[Note: As an example, I refer here to one of my own favorite Sierra Designs 60/40 mountain parkas in ‘International Orange’ that despite over 50 years of continuous use, never really needed a bath! Fairly recently I pulled it out of my closet and gave it a run-through in the washing machine, something it didn’t really need but still richly deserved after five decades of faithful service! I swear I could hear small shrieks of pure delight coming from inside the washer, while it was being washed!]

Thus, it was a combination of all these characteristics combined with the basic, functional and highly practical cut of the Sierra Designs mountain parka that assured its success and established Sierra Designs’ ascendent signature 60/40 mountain parka product throughout the climbing world.

Additionally, Marks cannily marketed the 60/40 mountain parka not just to the climbing/outdoor market but also to college age students, since it was an excellent ‘grab-jacket’ for all occasions and worked perfectly well as a protective outer-garment for casual activities as for serious protection on wind-swept mountain faces. Students quickly took to it like iron filings to a magnet and Sierra Designs began doing a land-office business in just this single product alone. Some (like me) were so enthusiastic about it (and how well it suited our college lifestyle) that we acquired multiples in different colors: one in orange for outdoor high-visibility on mountains and one in navy blue for casual use around Berkeley). At the time the parka was being sold in record numbers (early 70s) I was working at East San Francisco Bay Area hospitals as a cardiopulmonary technologist and most of my friends and acquaintances were therefore doctors, techs, and nurses. I wouldn’t be hedging a bet if I were to say that virtually all of them had a Sierra Designs 60/40 mountain parka in their closets, since it was as perfect for the half-sunny/half foggy and drizzly SF Bay weather as it was for weekend ski-trips in the Sierra Nevada!

The Gear Wars begin

Since all of the various west coast mountain businesses collaborated closely back in the 70s, due to the interaction of employees and idea exchanges, there was little confidentiality among them and it wasn’t long before all of them were producing their own versions of the Sierra Design classic 60/40 mountain parka. Copyrights notwithstanding (if any), some were out-and- out clones of the SD original. In my work as a protective apparel/life support researcher/historian, I have managed to acquire excellent examples of most of these copies and they include iterations by Eddie Bauer (Seattle), The North Face, Holubar, Eastern Mountain Sports, Frostline Kits, Woolrich, Columbia Mills, Marmot Mountain Works, Class-5, Snowlion, and a number of others. All featured the same basic pattern of two upper and two lower chest pockets, attached hood, fabrication of 60/40 cloth, plasticoil or YKK (polymeric) zippers, hood and waist drawcords, a thin inner (generally Nylon) lining, and either Velcro or snap fasteners on the zipper-fly and pocket flaps.

A few also incorporated what was a rather distinctive and proprietary SD feature, the back, zippered ‘stash pocket’, which made them real clones instead of merely ‘more-or-less’ outright copies.

With regard to Woolrich Woolen Mills of Portland, OR, an already long-established and financially well-off entity, litigation loomed over possible copyright infringement by that worthy firm, but Woolrich quickly retaliated by lining their 60/40 mountain parka with Woolrich plaid fabric…a combination that added a whole new dimension to the utility of the basic wind-shell design. For the record, it wasn’t long before Sierra Designs adopted the same approach and this in turn led to a number of ‘one-off’ developments involving available new insulating materials such as the 3M Company’s new lightweight Thinsulate, etc.

That led to everyone in the game ‘playing’ with the original SD 60/40 parka concept to come up with what were perceived as improved, ‘better’ iterations of the original concept. The entire field of mountain clothing at that point took off, as the lid blew off the former, fairly conservative business of supplying conventional sporting apparel and from that point to the present day, developments in the design and production of these highly specialised outer protective garments has gone stratospheric. Today it is an aggregate international multi-billion-dollar enterprise.

Surprisingly, Sierra Designs continued to produce the 60/40 mountain parka up through fairly recent times (2016), although the last iteration was offered as a ‘short-skirted’ version, rather than the full length skirt featured on the original.

Further, the original Sierra Designs company has been repeatedly sold/bought and/or taken over several times in recent history (it is now headquartered in Boulder, CO). As may be imagined, it presently carries on the famous name and continues to offer sports clothing, but the modern firm has little in common with the spirit of its precursor, founding innovators, back in Berkeley days.

Today and the future

Since those exciting days of the 1970s, advances in nearly every aspect of the sporting apparel world have rendered the original 60/40 mountain parka somewhat obsolescent in terms of its appeal to the majority of serious mountaineering people. Today’s cutting edge external protective garments have been designed, fabricated and produced to a high degree of specialised perfection. State-of-the-art mountain parka designs have generally done away with the old flapped patch pockets and now almost all feature diagonally slanted polymeric zipper closures that help assure their watertight integrity and the pockets themselves have been reengineered so that upper chest pockets are no longer really incorporated into the garments (with the exception of a cellular phone pocket, as is almost the universal standard on all men’s sports jackets these days). Hoods, depending upon the intent of the garment, are either attached or (more often) removeable and the choice of fabrics has gone on to favor GORE-TEX and its close relatives over 60/40 cloth.

All that stated, it may be somewhat surprising to find that the real, hard- core ‘fashionistas’ of the Millennial Generation are still as fascinated by the original 60/40 mountain parka now as they were back in the 70s and the design does indeed have a cult-following! This is particularly true in Japan, where almost pathologically obsessive Japanese ‘fans’ of certain classic western styles have driven up the cost of those genuine surviving specimens of the Sierra Designs 60/40 mountain parka to absurd heights. A good original specimen in larger sizes may today routinely command as much as US$500 or so, with some colors (especially the orange version) commanding particularly high prices.

The Japanese seem to have acquired a fairly large stock of the final Sierra Designs version of their 60/40 Mountain Parka (it varies mainly in that it features a zippered cellphone pocket on the left chest, in place of the original flapped-pocket and has a slightly shorter ‘skirt’ on it than the original archetype, resulting in brand-spanking-new examples being commonly available on Japanese markets and via internet sales venues) before it ceased production in 2016 but still at sky-high prices (US$500 or so each).

This sort of demand for the absolute original’s authenticity (a manic symptom that seems indigenous to the Japanese market) has in the past resulted in painstakingly authentic and absolutely accurate copies of certain iconic western designs (among them Second World War leather aviator jackets, just to name a single prominent example) and from my observations, the Sierra Designs 60/40 mountain parka might well in future fall into that category of ‘most desired copies’ that shall never cease having an appeal to Japan’s sartorial cognoscenti.

Summary:

It is an acknowledged fact among many design specialists that the passage of time occasionally demonstrates that occasionally a few artifacts of human culture are so ‘perfect’ in and of themselves that the first and original version remains the purest (i.e. hard to improve upon). This certainly was the case with the Japanese Nissen (Datsun) 240Z (Fairlady) motorcar, just to cite one excellent example, as succeeding yearly updated (restyled) versions consistently failed to match the original design’s clarity of vision and ‘purity’ of concept.

Similarly, the original (70s) version of the Sierra Designs 60/40 Mountain Parka (as it originally appeared with the four frontal pockets and constructed of 60/40 fabric) remains an iconic design that has never been exceeded from a purely aesthetic standpoint and it is likely to remain so forever, in my humble opinion.

To impermissibly paraphrase Hollywood Actor Curt Jurgens’ famous line to his U-Boat’s first mate in the 1950s underwater thriller, ‘The Enemy Below’, as Jurgens and his crew awaited depth charging by the Robert Mitchum-skippered American destroyer above, “They make ‘em good in Berkeley, Ja Heinie?”

Notes & References:

1) John Murphy on 60/40 Fabric (OverInUnder/Slow Social Media)

2) The Story of the Sierra Designs 60/40 Mountain Parka (OverInUnder/Slow Social Media)

3) Sierra Designs--another of the California group of Pioneers (Oregon Photos)

4) Berkeley Historical Plaque Project (Honoring Berkeley’s History)

5) The History of Gear Project Presents (Oregon Photos)

6) The Ski Hut (Trailwise) Berkeley CA (OverInUnder/Slow Social Media)

7) Invisible on Everest: Innovation and the Gear Makers, Mike Parsons and Mary Rose (book), 2003, ISBN 0-9704143-5-8.