Outdoor sports challenge human limits; outdoor field testing challenges the limits of gear.
When it comes to “field testing,” Columbia, which has always advocated “Tested Tough—play it for real,” has been committed since its founding in 1938 to seeking out the most extreme and harsh environments possible to test the performance of outdoor gear. This obsession with challenges is rooted in the environment of the Columbia River in Portland, Oregon—the birthplace of Columbia. With its distinct four seasons, the area often experiences biting winds, torrential rain, and fierce snowstorms in both winter and summer. It is precisely this ever-changing climate that provides the perfect conditions for Columbia to conduct field tests.
After Gert Boyle became chairwoman, to ensure that products remained robust even in extreme environments, she would often take her own son, Tim Boyle (CEO of Columbia), directly to unexpected testing locations to put him through “brutal torment.”
For example, making him sit in a snow pile for dozens of hours;
Burying him under an ice rink and driving over him;
Transporting him asleep to the wilderness and abandoning him;
Throwing him into a fully automatic car wash and blasting him continuously;
“Perfect? How is that enough?” was Gert Boyle’s catchphrase, and everyone at Columbia—from the CEO to the employees—took this as their standard, tirelessly raising the difficulty of testing. As a result, there’s no such thing as the craziest test at Columbia—only crazier ones. From polar regions covered in ice to forests drenched in torrential rain, the more daunting the field, the more excited they are to test there.
Today, to test a new spring/summer product—the “Outdry Extreme Technology Lightweight Waterproof Jacket”—Columbia’s testers went as far as scouting every river, lake, stream, and waterfall across the country, inviting netizens to vote on the most perilous location, and then tested the jacket’s waterproof and abrasion-resistant properties in wild ways.
The winding channel of the deep creek canyon rafting featured rapid currents, where two testers spent half their bodies immersed in water, battling fiercely against the “attack squad.” In what should have been a completely drenching rafting trip, they successfully kept the litmus arm bands dry and unchanged in color, earning the #TestedTough—play it for real stamp of approval.
Later, the testers headed to the Hidden Dragon Hundred Waterfalls to take on the freezing cold springs—getting drenched by the rushing waterfall waters, yet the matches in the waterproof jacket’s pockets remained dry and were eventually successfully ignited.
But even one certification wasn’t enough—Columbia continues to create more wild tests around the world, providing truly rugged gear for genuine outdoor enthusiasts.