Portland, Ore.-based Columbia is on the hunt for its next ‘directors of toughness,’ and is inviting Canadians to apply.
The sportswear brand is hiring two employees to travel the world and test Columbia gear in “extreme” environments. During the nine-month gig (which includes a full-time salary and benefits), the directors of toughness will serve as “full-time beta testers, brand ambassadors and social media gurus.”
The program first launched in the U.S. last year, as part of the brand’s new “Tested Tough” platform. The inaugural directors of toughness, Lauren Steel and Zach Doleac, spent six months travelling the globe, testing gear in places like Alaska and the summit of Ecuador’s Cayambe volcano. They documented their experiences across social media channels including YouTube and Instagram.
“For the past five years, the company had been focused heavily on technology stories,” said Scott Trepanier, director of communications for Columbia Sportswear. “While that helped us get an innovation message out, we lost a little bit of an emotional connection with our customers.”
The idea behind directors of toughness is “to put a stronger spotlight on the amount of testing our employees do for the products in our own background, and reflects a desire to tell stories about that,” he added. “What’s great about directors of toughness is it’s a very authentic execution, but it has a great output from a content perspective.”
This year, Columbia is opening the search to candidates in Canada and the U.K., in addition to the U.S., with online registration starting Oct. 3. About 20 candidates in each market will be invited to interview in-person at one of four remote locations, which Columbia bills as “the toughest interview (to get to).”
The first set of interviews took place earlier this month on Mt. Hood in Oregon. Candidates met with Columbia representatives, and then were challenged to climb 2,000 feet up the mountain, where another interview took place.
The Canadian interview will take place on the Niagara Escarpment in mid-October. Toronto-based Craft Public Relations is handing PR in Canada, while The Marketing Department is handling Canadian marketing.
