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Darwin
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Aug 31, 2011 - 12:05am PT
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EBs were awesome.
When I was a Valley noob, Peter Haan insisted we drive down in Peter's weird VW bus (doors on either side) to Robbins' shop in Modesto to get my(our?) first pair. Then he taught me to use an awl and sat their while I sewed on the suede patches.
Then I could climb better. Really, more than any other shoe, they seemed to make the difference for me. I missed Fires, because I hurt my shoulder and stopped climbing just before they came out.
Darwin
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Marlow
Sport climber
OSLO
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Jan 31, 2015 - 11:04am PT
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EB (Edouard Bourdonneau) Super Gratton
These boots have had some wear but there is still plenty left! These are a piece of climbing history! 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 standard" of climbing rock shoes. 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 as "to scratch" . The "super gratton" is the best edging shoe you can climb with. (described by Colin on eBay)
- 1947: Pierre Allain, renowned French climber who frequents Fontainbleau Forest boulders, outside of Paris, experiments with lightweight kletterschuhe
- 1949: PA teams up with Emile Bourdonneau, a fellow climber, whose family own a shoe factory
- 1950: First commercial slipper-style rubber rockclimbing shoe is produced under the joint collaboration. Shoe has the appearance of high-top basketball shoe with lacing to the toe, and a fully randed sole. Colour was navy blue cotton canvas with white suede leather reinforcing. The initials "PA" are stamped in a circular leather inner ankle pad.
- ????: Pierre Allain takes his name to the French mountain boot company, Galibier, who produce the PA with black canvas and red suede leather. Emile Bourdonneau retains rights to produce the original shoe, which is technically superior to the new Galibier PA, but now brands it “EB.” [Super Gratton refers to an exceedingly fine edge that almost required scratch the rock surface to find.
Described on inov8.au.com: http://www.inov8.au.com/compass/ebsupergrattonhistory.html |
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Jan 31, 2015 - 11:12am PT
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I was personally fitted for my first pair by Bruce Carson at Royal's shop
where I had hied myself tout de suite after being shown how it was properly
done on the Apron by Ellie Hawkins. I tried to keep up with her in my RR's.
I mean, I didn't embarrass myself except in terms of effort expended compared
to her waltzing matilda like on the light fantastic. Talk about getting religion!
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jgill
Boulder climber
The high prairie of southern Colorado
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Jan 31, 2015 - 03:53pm PT
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Chouinard introduced me to Zillertal klettershue in the 1950s. They were excellent for edging. Wonder what their history is?
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Jan 31, 2015 - 08:13pm PT
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After mountain boots, I started with Soldas, a strictly East Coast phenomenon made by Gino Solda. The shoes found their way to Camp and Trails in NYC because Hans Kraus was friendly with Gino Solda.
The shoes were crappy in every imaginable way. Next came Zillertals (I skipped Krohhofers), then Spiders, then RD's, then EB's, then RR's, then Fires, then a host of short-lived brands I can't remember, black and yellow, pink and green, etc. etc. The next advance was slip rather than board-lasting, and then came various rand-tensioning schemes and finally downturned toes.
Sticky rubber was, of course...stickier...but the major contribution it made to technique was that you could move your foot considerably and not have it blow off a hold. With the old rubber, your feet had to be carefully placed and then not moved at all or you'd be off. Being able to move your feet while standing on them made the modern backstepping techniques effective and opened the door to much more sideways-facing climbing.
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Eric Beck
Sport climber
Bishop, California
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Jan 31, 2015 - 09:44pm PT
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I had always heard that EB was Ellis Brigham. Not disputing this thread, but where did this name come from?
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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In his book Camp 4, Steve Roper says that Ellis Brigham was the original designer of EB's, an assertion that appears to be wrong. Ellis Brigham was and is a major British climbing retailer, so when selling EB's the potential for confusion would be great.
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Spider Savage
Mountain climber
The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles
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Those of us who didn't get the memo on EB's were working with Galibier.
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Chief
climber
The NW edge of The Hudson Bay
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EBs….never put em back on after Fire's showed up.
Too scared to.
What about those Shoenard rigs?
Weinstein edged up the hardest Apron routes in the original dark suede ones (Diamond Points?) and I think Wunsch used them on Jules Verne.
Later Vasque made a tan version.
You could front point on dimes in those things.
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bhilden
Trad climber
Mountain View, CA/Boulder, CO
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Here's an interesting tidbit about EB's. Remember how, as you wore them, they seemed to curl up and get tighter and tighter? The problem was that they had a rubber barrier in the fabric which did not allow the shoes to breath very well. Also, they had a piece of uncured leather which ran the length of the shoe between the rubber and the insole.
As you sweated in the EB's the uncured leather got wet and subsequently shrunk causing the shoes to shrink as well. The reason why they manufacturer used uncured leather was because of import tariffs. I the leather had been cured (as was the case with fine European dress shoes) the leather would not have shrunk, but the tariff would have been much higher causing the price of the shoes to rise as well.
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