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Mom, parkas and apple pie
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October 9, 1998: 6:13 p.m. ET
Columbia Sportswear ads lay it on the line: tough clothes made by a tough lady
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - There's one tough mother roaming the halls of Columbia Sportswear, the world's largest outerwear manufacturer. In 1970, Gert "Mother" Boyle took over the company and fired just about everyone. Now, nearly 30 years later, she still keeps a constant eye on her subordinates.
"Let me tell you something," said Gert. "In business, you have to have a vision of the way you want things done, and you can't have people leave tire tracks on your back."
Of course, everything is in good humor. Outdoor apparel manufacturer Columbia Sportswear boasted more than $350 million in sales last year, popularizing its chairwoman by recreating her as a cantankerous TV commercial star who runs roughshod over her son, company president Tim Boyle.
"It's very effective, so I guess I have to suck it up," said Tim.
No young models, no fancy products, just an overbearing mom who demands strict quality. As the company says, Gert "wasn't exactly the prototypical supermodel, especially for active outdoor products. But . . . Gert really does represent what Columbia Sportswear is all about: dogged determination to make sure things are done right, a penchant for quality control and innovative thinking, and devotion to creating products that our customers want and need."
The supermodel herself sums up the ad campaign's appeal more succinctly.
"People go through magazines and you look at it and you see there it is in a sports magazine, in a hunting magazine," Gert said. "See this little old lady in there and they say, 'Oh, my God. What's she doing in there?' And you kind of stop and look."
It's not all show. Gert certainly did toughen up on her road to success. When her husband died in 1970 of a sudden heart attack at the age of 47, Gert found herself with a debt-ridden company posting sales of less than $800,000.
"My son Tim and I immediately brought it down to $600,000 in sales. So I mean we made every mistake in the book," she said. "We fired everybody -- accountant, attorney, everybody who said, 'Oh well, this lady, she can't do that.' You know, how did they know I couldn't do that? And we replaced them with people that were convinced that there's something there."
While Gert battled the bankers, eventually securing a Small Business Administration loan, Tim worked the trade shows.
"We were fortunate enough to save the business by concentrating on selling our designs and our products to companies like Lands' End (LE) and Eddie Bauer and L.L. Bean under private label, realizing that brands are really all you have to sell, and products are just extensions of the brand," he said. "Realizing that probably was a breakthrough. "
Columbia now offers a wide array of its own branded merchandise, from ski wear to fishing and hunting apparel to a snowboarders' clothing line. Its biggest hit is the Bugaboo parka, with more than 3 million sold at a price tag of $150 each. In March of 1998, Columbia Sportswear (COLM) crossed a key financial threshold, raising $100 million by going public.
The Boyles and senior management retain 75 percent of the company's stock. While broadening Columbia's financial base, the company is also expanding into markets overseas. Today Columbia distributes its products to more than 10, 000 retailers in 30 countries. Sales outside North America have quadrupled from $9 million in 1993 to $35 million last year, making up 10 percent of total company revenues.
"I think that's a little bit of Columbia's inspiration," said Richard Jaffre of PaineWebber, "to be able to incentivize their employees to participate in the growth of a company from about $350 million in sales to what I think will be a $1 billion company over the next five to 10 years."
The "Mother Boyle" ads have helped turn a fledgling company into the world's largest outerwear manufacturer.
"We needed to talk about the management and why are companies different -- not necessarily how our products are different only but how the company's different -- and we chose Gert to do that for us, and it's been memorable and a good move," Tim explained.
Chances are, the international audience will find the ads appealing as well, playing into the Boyles' global strategy.
"I was just in Australia and we ran all the ads there and they have the same sense of humor as we do," Gert said. "You know, they all have mothers."
But the question remains, is the real Mother Boyle as tough as the one from the ads?
"Her bark is really worse than her bite," noted Tim. "So you know, she's very effective at barking."
As for that tattoo, she swears she doesn't let it show. On first dates. 
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Columbia Sportswear
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