It's Colombia Not Columbia
Video and event production services in Colombia for Columbia Sportswear.
The reliably rainy Colombian paramo.
Our Director Makes a Pitch
It's Colombia Not Columbia
The popular Colombian T-shirt.
I was wearing a T-shirt with that phase while bar-hopping in Killarney, Ireland, at the tail end of the Adventure Travel Word Summit. A friend of mine from Mexico signaled across the pub: "Gregg, I've got someone you need to meet."
Fast-forward a few minutes and that someone was a senior marketing executive from Columbia Sportswear.
"Maybe that shirt should read, ‘Columbia in Colombia’?" he mused.
A Product Launch
Columbia Sportswear was looking for a destination to produce a press event for a top-secret new product—Outdry Extreme—the first waterproof, ultra-breathable material with an outer waterproof membrane for permanent water repellency and durability. Considered the first significant evolution in waterproof fabric since Gore-Tex was invented, in 1969, it's won pretty much every industry award since the launch.
The Perfect Location
The location needed to provide amazing editorial stories for Columbia's press team and editors from Men’s Journal, Outside Magazine, Backpacker, and other top publications. But, most important, it absolutely had to be raining cats and dogs (in July) for the journalists to test Outdry Extreme.
With that intel, I knew I had an ace up my sleeve: Colombia's high-altitude moorlands, or paramos, are near endemic ecosystems that have an incredible ability to store water through vegetation, as well as unique geological and ecological features. They’re also some of the wettest places on the planet.
"I guarantee rain," I said.
Event Production and Filming
And we got the gig. The following year, WhereNext led the production of Columbia Sportswear's 2016 Outdry Extreme product and press event in Colombia. We organized hikes in sideways rain and teed up stories about Colombian food, beer, cycling, culture, and history. We produced a video about one of the guides we sourced to lead Gear Junkie founder and editor Stephen Regenold on a grueling ultra-endurance run across a 12,500-foot-high moor. You can read about that adventure here.
The Resulting Inspirational Documentary
We also produced an emotional film for Columbia Sportswear’s internal teams about a Colombian adventure guide who’s leading trips across the same remote wilderness area where his father was kidnapped and marched by the FARC guerrillas.
Outdoor recreation has a different meaning in a country where exploring the wilderness has always been forbidden. In 2015, Colombian mountain guide Miguel Ángel García led North American adventurer Stephen Regenold on a trek across Colombia's páramo wetlands, on the same trail network where his father was marched and held hostage after being kidnapped by the FARC guerillas. Client: Colombia Sportswear Director: Gregg Bleakney Videographer: Julian Manrique.