EMS Eastern Mountain Sports | Retail Brands | Sports and Leisure

EMS
equipped
August 30, 2004

You may think about putting your brand on top of a mountain; but EMS does it, literally, every day. Founded in 1967, Eastern Mountain Sports has grown from a small store outside Boston to a nationwide retail network.

If you don't have one of those 80 stores in your neighborhood, a visit to EMS.com might be your only contact with the outdoor lifestyle brand (and maybe your only contact with the outdoors).

The first impression is created by striking green accents on a black background, and a large picture of a wannabe Indiana Jones—fully equipped with all the modern, lightweight, waterproof climbing gear—occupying the middle ground of the screen. It connotes all the right beliefs you may attribute to EMS: rugged, confident, prepared for a challenge.

The range of products and services, as displayed in the navigation menu, nicely reinforces the brand positioning: camping and hiking, canoe and kayak, climbing, cycling, fitness, and travel, as well as links to climbing and kayaking schools.

Throughout the site, pictures of outdoor activities lighten the browsing experience, while again reinforcing the brand positioning.

Interestingly, such a strong impression is created with a relatively lightweight website design. It shies away from Flash and fancy dhtml menus, and even the navigation buttons are plain html links. Unfortunately, EMS' server seemed to be pedaling hard at the time of this Webwatch review, causing the site's response time to be uncomfortably slow.

Regardless of this handicap, the site represents an interesting no frills e-commerce set up that takes full advantage of the imagery surrounding its brand. It proves that with some passion, anybody can climb a mountain.

*Due to the constantly changing environment of websites, some reviews may no longer reflect the current website for this brand.


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