1972 Chouinard catalog

[Tom Dunlap]

Ivon set the standard for gear catalogs. His catalogs were as much about education as selling gear. He influenced Don Blair when he made his first, and only, catalog in '86. That of course lead to Arborist Equipment which started out as the second catalog. Personally, I'm glad that Don went the extra distance and wrote the book.

Now, Sherrill has kept up the tradition of putting together an educational catalog. Right now, Tobe and Sean are buried in the catalog. Anyone who has waited to get there's after hearing that "They're in the mail" knows that this is a part of the annual arborist season.

Read the intro where Ivon writes about clean climbing.

http://climbaz.com/chouinard72/chouinard.html

 

[cory]

Great post, Tom. The Sherrill catalog and staff are awesome...I'm embarassed to say how much I've learned about my profession from...a catalog.

It's cool to see the original Chouinard catalog...many of the subsequent Patagonia catalogs are amazing and inspirational(in fact many of their best photos and writings were compiled into a book). But all things must pass and I find most of their recent catologes are kind of unintentional parodies of their earlier pioneering efforts.