Jim Kobs, Eddie Smith and Eddie Bauer are this year’s inductees to the Direct Marketing Association’s Hall of Fame.
Jim Kobs is chairman and CEO of Kobs Gregory Passavant, an agency he formed in 1989. Before that he was president of IBJ Consulting Group in Chicago. He was also chairman of Kobs & Brady, a DM agency he founded in 1978, which is now part of Saatchi & Saatchi. He has served on the DMA’s executive committee and board and is a trustee of the Direct Marketing Educational Fund.
Eddie Smith founded National Wholesale Company in 1952. National came out with its first catalog in 1976, and is today a multimillion-dollar mail order and retail business. He honed his marketing skills at Lexington Mail Order Co. from 1946 to 1952, and his honors include the DMA Award of Distinction.
Eddie Bauer (1899-1986) founded his first store, Eddie Bauer’s Sport Shop, in 1920 at the age of 21. An avid fisherman and hunter, he developed and patented the goose-down jacket, and launched the Eddie Bauer catalog in 1945. He retired in 1968 and sold the firm to William Niemi. The business was later sold to Spiegel and today distributes 120 million catalogs annually throughout the world.
The three will be formally inducted into the Hall of Fame during the DMA’s annual conference in Toronto Oct. 24-27. – BN
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