Columbia Sportswear is Oregon (Blog #17)

Oregon has birthed many great brands. Nike, Pendleton, and many other great companies have been founded here in this beautiful state, but no brand is more Oregon than Columbia Sportswear. The brand is perfect for every Oregonian, every situation and for anything you could possibly need. Sure it may not be as flashy as Nike, but Columbia is more rugged and helps prepare you more for the outdoors.

They are leaders and innovators and that is one of the keys for them being leaders in the outdoor gear industry.

Their motto is “Trying Stuff since 1938” and this is very fitting. When you are trying to hike up Mt. Hood you need the Omni-Tech jacket that uses silver dots in the lining of the coat to make sure that you keep in all your body heat.

They also do cool advertisements. One of my personal favorite campaigns focused on Chairwoman Gert Boyle. She is one tough mother, and the campaign showed her off in a great way. It was a great use of using the face of the company in a great way. You never see Phil Knight in Nike ads these days, but Columbia threw Gert into their ads and it worked out great.

Check out Columbia’s latest winter gear here so you can be ready for the cold winter ahead. http://www.columbia.com

Enjoy some more Columbia ads as well.

Nike Oregon Shoes: From Athletes to Pop Culture (Blog #1)

Every University of Oregon student is blessed with having the most generous “Uncle”, Phil Knight supporting our school making sure that we have the best uniforms and greatest apparel. While most of the best gear has been going to the athletes, Nike has been starting to give more gear to students via the Pit Crew. Last year NIke offered students 2 jackets, 2 different types of sweat pants, and even a custom Oregon Air Jordan shoe. There were only 300 pairs of these Jordans made, and rather than ending up on the feet of Oregon students, they ended up on eBay. These shoes would have retailed for about $150, but ended up selling anywhere from $1200-$2000. These kids were cashing in rather than wearing the free gift. Tinker Hatfield was the designer of these shoes, and he was furious when he heard that the students were selling the shoes rather than wearing him.

The Oregon football team also gets player exclusive Jordan shoes that are meant only for the players. These shoes feature custom details and are never sold in stores. Interesting enough, these shoes became so popular the internet started going crazy and celebrities have added the Oregon Jordan sneakers to their shoe line up. These shoes have now become a part of sneaker culture. Popular artist Drake enlightened the internet with a picture of his shoes one night with the caption “Father Duck” and it racked up 113,856 likes. Drake is from Toronto Canada, but is still showing love for the Ducks. Dwayne Wade and Lebron have also been spotted wearing various pairs of Oregon shoes. NIke has changed the sports apparel industry in so many ways,  it will be exciting to see what happens next.