{"id":253,"date":"2026-11-06T13:02:16","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T10:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/?p=253"},"modified":"2026-11-06T13:02:16","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T10:02:16","slug":"archives-fuel-rei-co-op-and-beams-expedition-parka-collaboration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/?p=253","title":{"rendered":"Archives Fuel REI Co-op and BEAMS Expedition Parka Collaboration"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\tArchives have become a focal point in brand storytelling. That\u2019s how REI Co-op and Japanese brand Beams brought new life to REI\u2019s iconic 1986 Expedition Parka, staying faithful to the original while adding details that honor the co-op\u2019s outdoor heritage.<\/p>\n

\n\tFounded by outdoor enthusiasts Mary and Lloyd Anderson in 1938, REI Co-op has a long history to draw on. Its living archive, established in 2019, provides the brand a way to connect its history to its evolving product line. WWD has followed REI\u2019s evolution for decades: in 1978, its sister publication The Daily News Record, or DNR, described REI\u2019s Seattle store as \u201ca toy store for big kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a recent Zoom conversation with WWD, REI\u2019s Will Dunn, brand archivist; Scott Mosher, brand creative director, and Lauren Arthur, lead apparel designer discussed how the Beams collaboration and the archive continue to inspire product development and storytelling.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe interview excerpt below features Dunn, Mosher and Arthur, and has been shortened for context.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow did the Beams collaboration begin?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tScott Mosher:<\/strong> The first thing they [Beams] said when they came to us was, \u201cShow me the archive.\u201d <\/strong>It\u2019s cool to see your brand and your brand story through someone else\u2019s eyes. When I first met Keita \u201cGonzo\u201d Kobayashi, influential menswear buyer for Beams, he said, \u201cOf course we want to work with you. REI\u2019s the quintessential American outdoor brand.\u201d It never occurred to me to say something like that.\u2026I thought, we have been around a long time, and we have these pieces that are ubiquitous in the outdoors. This was an opportunity to shine a light on one of those.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tREI Co-op x Beams limited-edition 1986 Expedition Parka. Courtesy REI Co-op Brand Archive.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tHow does the archive help the team improve on those designs?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tLauren Arthur:<\/strong> Materials are where we\u2019ve made great advances in such a short amount of time. That changes where we might take an archive product today: Is this the best solution now, knowing what we know? We talked a lot about that with the Beams jacket. We made some unique choices as we were refining and tweaking. We absolutely have to take what is in the archive and ask, knowing what we know today, would this be the best way to do this?<\/p>\n

\n\tHow did the REI archive begin?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tWill Dunn: <\/strong>We started the archive project in 2019. Before that, it was a locked closet full of all sorts of things. The space was full of treasures. I got involved and eventually it lead to building the archive we have currently. As the manager of the archives and the co-op historian, I think of the archive as a stewardship of the equity we\u2019ve [REI] earned: finance stewards our money, and the archive stewards that equity. It\u2019s a big responsibility.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat is the oldest object in your archive?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tW.D.:<\/strong> Our oldest objects are from 1865. They\u2019re tintypes, a historic photographic process, from our cofounders, Lloyd and Mary Anderson. It\u2019s really something to zoom all the way out and look that far back and connect that to who Lloyd and Mary were in 1938, when they were creating a project like the co-op in Seattle, during a wild time in world history.<\/p>\n

\n\tL.A.:<\/strong> That\u2019s when Lloyd and Mary were helping to lead climbing classes, taking men and women up to take these courses when women weren\u2019t really allowed to be doing that. Also, people didn\u2019t really have extra money or spare time. I like to credit Mary for a lot of that. She was there leading the way. I love showing those early images of women wearing pants rock climbing, just being real punk rock in the 1930s.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tREI Co-op parka and 1960 REI Co-op catalogue entry. Courtesy REI Co-op Brand Archive.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tLloyd and Mary helped shape outdoor gear, and their products remain among the category\u2019s earliest inclusive designs. The team called this \u201ccooperative design\u201d: products made with users in mind that continue to evolve with the brand.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow has that founding history extended into educating your consumers?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tS.M.: <\/strong>Going all the way back, education has been a big part of the co-op. Even if someone wasn\u2019t born and raised in the outdoors, people could tell there\u2019s authenticity. Wherever we can bring education and inspiration together is where the magic happens.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat spirit of education was reflected in a DIY department, where customers could design gear based on what also sold in the store, as noted in DNR\u2019s 1978 article. At the time, the co-op had 800,000 members, today, membership ranges in the millions.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tREI Co-op catalogue, 1938. Courtesy REI Co-op Brand Archive and \u201cStocking the Good Life\u201d DNR, 1978. Fairchild Archive<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tThe term reciprocity matters a lot to how I think about brands and archives. What does it look like at REI?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tS.M.:<\/strong> We extend that to our members, the people who have really informed what we make and how we make it. We call that cooperative design here, but it\u2019s something that\u2019s always existed. We don\u2019t have professional athletes. We have the people who go out there. My favorite thing is when something is donated to the archive and it\u2019s been modified in some way by someone, and it\u2019s like, that zipper pull, that\u2019s really smart, what they did there. We do tons of field testing with people, but the archive is also a record of how people actually use things, and it\u2019s so informative.<\/p>\n

\n\tArchives easily tie back to understanding sustainability. How does that work at REI? And why is it important?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tS.M.:<\/strong> There\u2019s a big responsibility we have, because people trust us. They expect us to make decisions that are good for the environment. The Beams jacket is a good example of that. We could make that jacket as a stitch-for-stitch replica of exactly what we did in the past. Instead, we asked how we could make it look essentially like the jacket, but with 100 percent recycled materials. <\/p>\n

\n\tL.A.:<\/strong> We\u2019re a climate label certified brand now. Anywhere we can, we\u2019re trying to make it better. In some ways the customer wants what they want, and if we can give them what they want and make it better, I feel like they just say, \u201cThank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHow often do you bring the archive into your marketing campaigns? Does it depend on the object or product launch?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tS.M.:<\/strong> There\u2019s definitely a spotlight on it when we do a collaboration. It\u2019s some of the storytelling we\u2019re most proud of, because it references our history, where we\u2019re going, and how we\u2019re participating in outdoor culture.\u2026Anytime Lauren and her team dip into the archive for a collection, we almost always try to tell that story somehow. Some of the first fleece out there, the first zip-off pants: that\u2019s real history. Whenever we can say, \u201cWe\u2019re launching this new thing, and guess what? We\u2019ve been making these since 1990,\u201d people say, \u201cOh, wow. Cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tREI Co-op archives, Seattle. Courtesy REI Co-op Brand Archive.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tIf nothing else existed in your archive, which five items or garments could tell the whole brand story, could resonate across REI\u2019s identity and don\u2019t need to evolve?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tS.M.:<\/strong> I think you can really trace these through our history from product to product. Why do we still have this? Why is this the ultimate version of that thing? It\u2019s a pan. It\u2019s a chair. It\u2019s a simple summit pack that now people just use for everything. And then, of course, the half dome tent and the Magma sleeping bag. Maybe something will surpass these at some point, but these are top REI icons.<\/p>\n

\n\tOther historical objects Will Dunn shared include Mary Anderson\u2019s ice axe, catalogues and Freezer Fred, the wonderfully wacky thermoplastic test dummy that helped improve the Magma sleeping bag.<\/p>\n

\n\tBrand heritage feels like a powerful antidote to where we are culturally. Considering conversations around AI, why do archives matter to brand storytelling in this moment?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tW.D.:<\/strong> I don\u2019t think people understand that this is also an age of really accelerated forgetting\u2026so many primary sources only live in archives. They\u2019re really precious, and they teach us a lot about ourselves and the brand that we wouldn\u2019t otherwise understand.<\/p>\n

\n\tAvailable now, the Beams x REI Co-op Expedition Parka brings an iconic design into the present. It also reflects how REI\u2019s archive continues to inform the brand\u2019s next chapter, connecting its heritage with ideas and innovation shaping its products today.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Archives have become a focal point in brand storytelling. That\u2019s how REI Co-op and Japanese brand Beams brought new life to REI\u2019s iconic 1986 Expedition Parka, staying faithful to the original while…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wom.beauty\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}