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GREENSBORO — VF Corp. became one of several suitors Thursday bidding for Eddie Bauer, the Bellevue, Wash., outdoor clothing chain that filed for bankruptcy last month.

VF, the Greensboro-based apparel giant, wants to buy the Eddie Bauer brand name, trademark and Web site but not the company’s retail stores, said David Pollack, a Philadelphia bankruptcy attorney involved in the case.

The auction began Thursday morning in New York.

“They’re here to bid on the intellectual property and not for the stores,” said Pollack, who represents shopping centers where Eddie Bauer operates stores. “They think the intellectual property is pretty valuable, as do other people.”

The amount of VF’s bid could not be determined.

A VF spokesperson would not confirm that the company had entered the bidding.

However, Cindy Knoebel, vice president for financial and corporate communications, said the company had notified the bankruptcy court in Delaware on Monday that VF wanted to be a “party of interest,” which would allow the company to receive information on the case.

“You can register as a party of interest and make a bid or not make a bid,” Knoebel said. “But I have stopped beyond that in terms of whether we were considering or have made a bid.”

The Seattle Times cited sources this week who speculated that VF wants to convert Eddie Bauer into a Web-based business.

Eddie Bauer, founded in 1920, employs more than 8,000 people in the U.S. and Canada. It operates about 370 stores, including one at Friendly Center in Greensboro, one in Burlington and one at Hanes Mall in Winston-Salem.

Knoebel said Thursday that an initial winner for the brand’s assets could be selected as early as today.

A winning bid could cost more than $200 million for everything, according to published reports.

Analysts say VF’s interest in Eddie Bauer makes sense.

“It’s still a well-known brand with a good following,” said Dave Remick, director of The Mercanti Group, a boutique investment bank with offices in New York, Los Angeles and Minneapolis.

“I can definitely see why they would be looking at it. Absolutely.”

Remick said the company would fit nicely into VF’s outdoor group, which includes brands such as The North Face.

“They can clearly afford to make the acquisition,” Remick said. “If nothing else you control a brand that is in your space as opposed to a competitor having it.”

VF has reported that at the end of March it had $276 million in cash and equivalents and that by the end of 2009 that total could exceed

$600 million.

Knoebel said the company remains interested in acquisitions, particularly in the outdoor and action sports niches.

“We have had tremendous success in that area,” she said. “We continue this year to look at additional opportunities. But it has to be the right brand at the right price.”

Whether Eddie Bauer fits that bill remains to be seen.

According to Bloomberg News, VF’s competition includes:

• New York-based, Iconix Brand Group, which owns and licenses such brands as Danskin and London Fog.
• Golden Gate Capital, which paid Talbots $75 million last month for women’s clothier J. Jill.
• A joint bid from Toronto-based private-equity firm Hilco Consumer Capital and Boston-based liquidator Gordon Brothers Group, which teamed up in the past two years to buy Sharper Image, Bombay Co. and Linens-n-Things.

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or don.patterson@news-record.com