Columbia's rapid sales growth was fueled by its jackets, which featured breathable waterproof fabric and interchangeable shells and liners.[4]
History
Columbia Sportswear began as a family-owned hat distributor. Former chairwoman Gert Boyle's parents, Paul and Marie Lamfrom, fled Nazi Germany in 1937 and immediately purchased a Portland hat distributorship. The company became the Columbia Hat Company, named for the nearby Columbia River. 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.[5]
In 1970, Neal Boyle died following a heart attack.[6] Gert and son Tim Boyle, then a University of Oregon senior, took over the operations of Columbia, rescuing it from bankruptcy.[7][6] Gert Boyle served as company president from 1970 until 1988 and additionally became chairman of its board of directors in 1983.[8] She remained chairman until her death in 2019.[9] Tim Boyle succeeded his mother as Columbia's president and CEO in 1988 and continues to hold the position in 2024.[10][11]
In 2001, the company moved its headquarters from Portland to a site in an unincorporated part of Washington County,[18] in the Cedar Mill area and just outside the Beaverton city limits. The site on NWScience 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,[19] 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.[18]
In 2001, it was the largest American retailer of ski apparel based on gross revenue.[20]
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.[21] The team's name was "Team Columbia". The sponsorship included both the men's and women's teams, and ended at the end of 2010.[22]
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.[23]
In March 2015, Bryan Timm was named president of the company, taking over that position from Tim Boyle, who remained CEO.[12] In May 2017 it was announced Timm would step down and the duties of president would revert to Tim Boyle.[24]
On November 3, 2019, chairwoman Gert Boyle died at the age of 95.[25] In January 2020, Tim Boyle was named Chairman of the company's board of directors.[26]
In October 2020, the company announced that alpaca wool would no longer be a part of their collections,[27] including their other brands Prana, Mountain Hardwear and Sorel.[28]
In November 2023, Columbia Sportswear Company announced that Cory Long was appointed as President of its brand Sorel.[29][30]
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, Oregon.[33]
As of 2018, 40% of Columbia's business came from abroad.[4]
In October 2023, Columbia Sportswear reported 3% of revenue growth as sales reached $985.7 million.[34][29]
Stock exchanges
Columbia Sportswear Company is publicly traded on NASDAQ with ticker symbol COLM.[35]
Trade and tariffs
The clothing business in the US is still largely subject to what remains of the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act, passed in 1930. Since 2001, Columbia has paired its designers with teams of trade experts in a process the company calls "tariff engineering" in order to reach lower tariffs, taxes, or duties. 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.[4] For similar reasons, jackets are waterproofed and filled with at least 10% down.
Vietnam is Columbia's largest supplier, and 25% of the company's footwear originates in China.[4]
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.[36] In 2018, Columbia announced it would buy out Swire's remaining 40% stake by 2019.[4][37]
Swire Group is a highly diversified global conglomerate with its parent company being John Swire & Sons Limited that holds controlling stakes in a range of businesses trading in the UK, USA, Australia, Papua New Guinea, East and West Africa, and across Southeast Asia. The Group's businesses are arranged into groups: property, aviation, beverages and food chain, marine services, and trading and industrial.
Coats Group plc is a British multinational company. It is the world's largest thread and structural components' manufacturer for apparel, footwear, and performance materials. Founded over 250 years ago, the UK-based company has operations across 50 countries with a workforce of over 17,000 employees.
Kaufman Footwear was a Kitchener, Ontario-based shoe company. It was known for its Sorel brand.
ASICS Corporation is a Japanese multinational corporation that produces sportswear. The name is an acronym for the Latin phrase anima sana in corpore sano. Asics is best known for its sneakers, but also produces other footwear such as sandals, as well as clothing and accessories. It is headquartered in Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan.
New Balance Athletics, Inc. (NB), best known as simply New Balance, is one of the world's major sports footwear and apparel manufacturers. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, the multinational corporation was founded in 1906 as the New Balance Arch Support Company.
Foot Locker, Inc. is an American multinational sportswear and footwear retailer headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, and operating in over 40 countries.
Gertrude Boyle was a German-born American businesswoman in the U.S. state of Oregon. After her family fled Nazi Germany, her father founded the business that became Columbia Sportswear, where in 1970, she became company president. She remained president until 1988 and additionally, was chairwoman of the company's board of directors from 1983 until her death in 2019. Starting in the 1980s, she appeared in a series of advertisements for Columbia Sportswear with her son, Timothy Boyle, often humorously testing the quality and durability of their products. She was also a philanthropist and memoirist.
Lululemon Athletica inc., commonly known as lululemon, is a Canadian-American multinational premium athletic apparel retailer headquartered in British Columbia and incorporated in Delaware, United States. It was founded in 1998 as a retailer of yoga pants and other yoga wear, and has expanded to also sell athletic wear, lifestyle apparel, accessories, and personal care products. The company has 711 stores and also sells online.
Columbia Montrail is a sub-brand of Columbia Sportswear that manufactures and distributes shoes for trail running, hiking, and general long-distance running.
The New Venture Championship (NVC) is an international entrepreneurial investment competition for graduate students presented by the University of Oregon's Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship.
Mountain Hardwear is a subsidiary of Columbia Sportswear based in Richmond, California that manufactures and distributes apparel, accessories and equipment primarily for the high performance needs of mountaineering enthusiasts and outdoor athletes, as well as for consumers who are inspired by the outdoor lifestyle.
Nike, Inc. is an American athletic footwear and apparel corporation headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, United States. It is the world's largest supplier of athletic shoes and apparel and a major manufacturer of sports equipment, with revenue in excess of US$46 billion in its fiscal year 2022.
Anta Sports Products Limited is a Chinese sports equipment multinational corporation headquartered in Jinjiang, China. It is the world's largest sports equipment company by revenue and third-largest manufacturer of sporting goods overall, behind Nike and Adidas ahead of Li-Ning.
Timothy P. Boyle is an American billionaire, and the president and CEO of Columbia Sportswear.
Sorel is a subsidiary of Columbia Sportswear based in Portland, Oregon that manufactures and distributes shoes.
Swire Resources is a Hong Kong retail company specialising in sports apparel, swimwear, and footwear. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Swire Pacific, itself a subsidiary of Swire Group.
Hildegard Lamfrom was a German-American molecular biologist/biochemist. She helped develop one of the first in-vitro translation systems, using rabbit reticulocyte lysate to study protein synthesis in a cell-free context. This allowed her to make a number of contributions to the field including providing some of the first direct evidence for the existence of messenger RNA (mRNA) as a protein template, as well as the existence of polyribosomes.
Sam Garvin is an American business executive and administrator who is the current CEO of the Garvin Promotion Group, co-owner of the RCD Mallorca La Liga Spanish football team and former alternate and incumbent governor of the Phoenix Suns from September 15, 2022, until February 7, 2023, replacing Robert Sarver for what was intended to be the entire 2022-23 NBA season until the sale of the Suns to Mat Ishbia and Justin Ishbia on February 7, 2023, became official.
↑ Accettola, Anna (October 16, 2012). Wadhwani, R. Daniel (ed.). "Gertrude Boyle". Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present. 5. German Historical Institute. Archived from the original on May 3, 2016. Retrieved November 3, 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
