Wednesday, January 19

cb sports -update

At one time based near us in southern Vermont, CB Vaughan's line of sportswear was simply called CB Sports. Mentioned them forever ago and still like mining the late 70s-early 80s style on these ebay finds. Cut to the waist with chevron stitching and often using corduroy... these worked even better on women. They also did plenty of pullover windshirts/windbreakers too in simple red/blue combos.









After this initial period they jumped in hard on the 80s yellow/purple/lime surf inspired styles. Not all terrible, just prefer the above. Then they opened their own stores selling CB and other brands. By about 2006 they were no longer manufacturing their own items but there still existed CB Sports stores that sold general skiwear, those folded in 2008-ish.

Article from People magazine in 1982;
In spite of the recession that has frosted this year's market, the 40-year-old Vermonter [CB Vaughan] expects his Bennington-based company to gross $12 million. His CB logo has become the lift-line equivalent of the Lacoste alligator...

C.B. has taken some spills on the way to the top... Vaughan found himself in a confrontation with the Department of Labor. At issue was his practice of employing ski cap knitters who worked at home, treating them as independent contractors rather than paying them a minimum hourly wage. Vaughan, backed by many of the craftswomen, led a two-year defense of "cottage industry."

Anyway, the news is that as of November 11, 2010 CB Sports has relaunched. Don't know the structure of the company (imagine CB Sports in name only?) and not wild about these v generic offerings. Some of the Penfield stuff from last few years has a little CB-vibe to it. CB Sports would be wise to look at their own archive... hello_is_this_thing_on...