Columbia Sportswear
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The Columbia Sportswear Company is an American company that manufactures and distributes outerwear,
sportswear Sportswear or activewear is clothing, including footwear, worn for sport or physical exercise. Sport-specific clothing is worn for most sports and physical exercise, for practical, comfort or safety reasons. Typical sport-specific garments ...
, and
footwear Footwear refers to garments worn on the feet, which typically serves the purpose of protection against adversities of the environment such as wear from ground textures and temperature. Footwear in the manner of shoes therefore primarily serves ...
, as well as
headgear Headgear, headwear, or headdress is the name given to any element of clothing which is worn on one's head, including hats, helmets, turbans and many other types. Headgear is worn for many purposes, including protection against the elements, ...
, camping equipment, ski apparel, and outerwear accessories. It was founded in 1938 by Paul Lamfrom, the father of Gert Boyle. The company is headquartered in Cedar Mill, an
unincorporated area An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either hav ...
in
Washington County, Oregon Washington County is one of 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon and part of the Portland metropolitan area. The 2020 census recorded the population as 600,372, making it the second most populous county in the state and most populous "Wa ...
, in the
Portland metropolitan area The Portland metropolitan area is a metro area in the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington centered on the principal city of Portland, Oregon. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) identifies it as the Portland–Vancouver–Hillsboro, ...
near Beaverton. Columbia's rapid sales growth was fueled by its jackets, which featured breathable waterproof fabric and interchangeable shells and liners.


History

Columbia Sportswear began as a family-owned hat distributor. Former chairwoman Gert Boyle's parents, Paul and Marie Lamfrom, fled
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
in 1937 and immediately purchased a Portland hat distributorship. The company became Columbia Hat Company, named for the nearby
Columbia River The Columbia River ( Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia ...
. In 1948, Gert married Neal Boyle, who became the head of the company. Frustrations over suppliers influenced the family to start manufacturing their own products, and Columbia Hat Company became Columbia Sportswear Company in 1960. In 1970, Neal Boyle died following a
heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...
. Gert and son Tim Boyle, then a
University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc Nike, Inc. ( or ) is a ...
senior, took over the operations of Columbia, rescuing it from bankruptcy. Gert Boyle served as company president from 1970 until 1988 and additionally became chairman of its board of directors in 1983. She remained chairman until her death in 2019. Tim Boyle succeeded his mother as Columbia's president and CEO in 1988 and continues to hold the position in 2019. Columbia became a publicly traded company in 1998. It acquired footwear maker Sorel in 2000 and Mountain Hardwear in 2003. In 2006, Columbia acquired the ''Pacific Trail'' and Montrail brands, and in 2014 they acquired
prAna In yoga, Indian medicine and Indian martial arts, prana ( sa2, प्राण, ; the Sanskrit word for breath, " life force", or "vital principle") permeates reality on all levels including inanimate objects. In Hindu literature, prāṇa is ...
. In 2001, the company moved its headquarters from
Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...
to a site in an
unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to: * Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality * Unincorporated entity, a type of organization * Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...
part of Washington County, in the Cedar Mill area and just outside the Beaverton city limits. The site on NW Science Park Drive has a Portland mailing address, but is not in Portland. In 2007, City of Portland officials attempted to convince Columbia Sportswear to move back to Portland, but the company ultimately rejected the idea due to the increased corporate tax burden such a move would entail and decided to expand its existing headquarters instead. In 2001, it was the largest American retailer of ski apparel based on
gross revenue In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods and services related to the primary operations of the business. Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some companies receive revenue ...
. On June 15, 2008, Columbia Sportswear announced a three-year sponsorship of the cycling team formerly known as ''Team High Road'' and before that ''T-Mobile'' and ''Team Telekom''. The sponsorship began on July 5, 2008, with the start of the
Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...
. The team's name was "
Team Columbia A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to infor ...
". The sponsorship included both the men's and women's teams, and ended at the end of 2010. On August 4, 2010, Columbia Sportswear Company signed an agreement to acquire OutDry Technologies S.r.l., which owns the intellectual property and other assets comprising the OutDry brand and related business, via a cash purchase from Nextec S.r.l., based near Milan, Italy. The transaction was expected to close during the third quarter of 2010, subject to customary closing conditions, and is not expected to have a material effect on the company's 2010 operating results. In March 2015, Bryan Timm was named president of the company, taking over that position from Tim Boyle, who remained CEO. In May 2017 it was announced Timm would step down and the duties of president would revert to Tim Boyle. On November 3, 2019, chairwoman Gert Boyle died at the age of 95. Tim Boyle was named as Acting Chairman of the company's board of directors. In October 2020, the company announced that alpaca wool would no longer be a part of their collections, including their other brands PrAna, Mountain Hardwear and Sorel.


Locations

Columbia Sportswear distributes its products in more than 72 countries and 13,000 retailers. Columbia also operates its own chain of retail stores, including its flagship store located in
downtown Portland Downtown Portland is the city center of Portland, Oregon, United States. It is on the west bank of the Willamette River in the northeastern corner of the southwest section of the city and where most of the city's high-rise buildings are found ...
, Oregon.


Financial information

As of November 17, 2022, the company's
market capitalization Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders. Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by t ...
is about $5.03 billion, with 2021 net revenue of $3.13 billion. As of 2018, 40% of Columbia's business came from abroad.


Stock exchanges

Columbia Sportswear Company is publicly traded on
NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...
with ticker symbol COLM.


Trade and tariffs

The clothing business in the US is still largely subject to what remains of the
Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act The Tariff Act of 1930 (codified at ), commonly known as the Smoot–Hawley Tariff or Hawley–Smoot Tariff, was a law that implemented protectionist trade policies in the United States. Sponsored by Senator Reed Smoot and Representative Willi ...
, passed in 1930. Since 2001, Columbia has paired its designers with teams of trade experts in a process the company calls "
tariff A tariff is a tax imposed by the government of a country or by a supranational union on imports or exports of goods. Besides being a source of revenue for the government, import duties can also be a form of regulation of foreign trade and poli ...
engineering" in order to reach lower tariffs,
tax A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...
es, or
duties A duty (from "due" meaning "that which is owing"; fro, deu, did, past participle of ''devoir''; la, debere, debitum, whence "debt") is a commitment or expectation to perform some action in general or if certain circumstances arise. A duty may ...
. For example, Columbia applies a very thin layer of fabric to the soles of its shoes since tariffs on fabric soles are lower than those on rubber soles; the fabric wears away within days. For similar reasons, jackets are
waterproofed Waterproofing is the process of making an object or structure waterproof or water-resistant so that it remains relatively unaffected by water or resisting the ingress of water under specified conditions. Such items may be used in wet environme ...
and filled with at least 10% down.
Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
is Columbia's largest supplier, and 25% of the company's footwear originates in
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. Columbia has operated in China since 2014 as Columbia Sportswear Commercial (Shanghai) Company as a joint venture with Swire Pacific Limited, reaching a total of 86 Chinese retail stores by 2017. In 2018, Columbia announced it would buy out Swire's remaining 40% stake by 2019.


See also

*
List of companies based in Oregon This is a list of companies based in Oregon. Oregon is the ninth largest by area and the 27th most populous of the 50 United States. The gross domestic product (GDP) of Oregon in 2010 was $168.6 billion; it is the United States's 26th wealthies ...
*
List of outdoor industry parent companies The following list is of outdoor brands that are owned by another entity. The brands listed are those specific to the outdoor sporting goods industry. Parent companies may own other brands that are not listed because those other brands are not m ...


References


External links

* {{Running shoe brands 1938 establishments in Oregon 1998 initial public offerings American companies established in 1938 Camping equipment manufacturers Cedar Mill, Oregon Clothing brands of the United States Clothing companies established in 1938 Companies based in Washington County, Oregon Companies listed on the Nasdaq Eyewear brands of the United States Manufacturing companies based in Oregon Mountaineering equipment manufacturers Outdoor clothing brands Shoe brands Sporting goods retailers of the United States Sportswear brands Family-owned companies of the United States