Eastern Mountain Sports to Open New Store in Newton, MA This Fall

PETERBOROUGH, N.H. (August 22, 2007) – Expanding its presence in the Boston market, Eastern Mountain Sports, a leading outdoor specialty retailer that was founded in Wellesley, Mass., today announced it will open a new location in Newton, Mass., showcasing a new store layout that will also serve as the Boston headquarters for Eastern Mountain Sports Climbing and Kayak Schools. Opening this September, the store’s format includes a larger selection of outdoor apparel and gear, visuals designed to enhance and streamline the shopping experience and an in-store meeting location for Eastern Mountain Sports School programs.

“The Newton store will be the second Eastern Mountain Sports store in the area developed with our new, expanded format,” said Will Manzer, CEO and president of Eastern Mountain Sports. “It also increases our footprint in the greater Boston market to 22 stores, supporting our strategy to evolve the brand along the East Coast,” The Northeast is a vibrant outdoor community with outdoor athletes of all levels, ranging from weekend participants to devotees. We want to be their local solution for all gear, apparel and educational needs. On the education front, there is no better source than our Climbing and Kayak Schools. As headquarters for our schools throughout the country, the Newton store is unique with its easy access to the Charles River for paddling, Hammond Pond Reservation, a natural forest with large geological formations for climbing and Cutler Park for trail running and mountain biking.”

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The Newton location, 14,200 square feet, will be located at 300 Needham Street, a short distance from the Newton Highlands T station. It includes a 100 percent rain recharge system that captures all of the rain water that falls onsite. The water is then recharged into the ground, replenishing the ground water aquifer, stopping silt and overland runoff to the Charles River and reducing the warming of the river during heavy rains.

Since its inception, Eastern Mountain Sports has offered instruction for climbers, mountaineers, adventurers and all those who love the outdoors through its Schools programs. The programs are lead by expert, certified Eastern Mountain Sports instructors using state-of-the-art equipment and are offered in locations with optimal conditions. Eastern Mountain Sports Schools include EMS Climb, EMS Kayak, EMS Ski (alpine, telemark and snowboard) and EMS Mountain Biking.

The new Eastern Mountain Sports stores feature an experiential shopping layout with visuals designed to enhance and streamline the shopping experience. An interactive community area, or the “Hub” of the store layout, is a place to share community information, upcoming events and adventure planning information. A large selection of outdoor apparel and gear will also be available, including Eastern Mountain Sports proprietary products such as its outerwear layering system SYNC; Techwick, its proprietary, versatile, moisture management base layer, and the recently launched EMS® Workhorse Pack series for men and women. Like all other Eastern Mountain Sports stores, the new Newton location will include Foot Gurus, sales associates specially trained to analyze feet and custom-fit athletic footwear.

Founded in 1967 by two New England rock climbers and based in Peterborough, N.H., Eastern Mountain Sports is one of the nation’s leading outfitters of outdoor gear, clothing, footwear and accessories with 67 retail stores in 12 states. Eastern Mountain Sports designs and sells products for outdoor adventurers who participate in a variety of sports, such as mountaineering, backpacking, camping, hiking, adventure racing, climbing, kayaking, mountain biking and snow sports. Eastern Mountain Sports product and technology is tested by its product development and quality assurance teams in conjunction with the Eastern Mountain Sports Climbing, Kayaking and Ski Schools. More information is available at www.ems.com.

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