Columbia Sportwear Presents the Angry Cat Challenge

Columbia Sportswear - Angry Cat ChallengeColumbia’s latest marketing campaign, ‘Great Moments in Trying Stuff’ features several videos showing some, well… unique tests of the sportswear-maker’s products.

The series includes the clip ‘Five-Bean Salad‘, showing the Columbia test team using their drainable shoe to strain the beans.

Another, titled ‘Sweaty Buns‘ features a gut-wrenching taste test featuring two hot dog buns that have been ‘marinating’ inside the jackets of two mountain bikers. One biker wearing a Columbia breathable jacket; the other wearing a jacket that holds all of that delicious sweat inside.

My favorite of the series, ‘Angry Cat‘ (embedded above) features a cranky water-hating cat (is there any other kind) wearing a tiny water-resistant jacket, that supposedly keeps him happy and dry.

The ‘Iceman’ Wim Hof Doesn’t Need Heated Snow Pants… But You Probably Do

Columbia Omni Heat vs. Wim HofFirst of all you’re probably asking yourself. “who or what is Wim Hof?”

Wim Hof is a Dutch adventurer and the last thing he needs to feel comfortable on a cold winter day is a pair of heated snow pants. Hoff has worn just shorts when climbed to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro in his shorts and ran in a marathon in Finland in temperatures that dropped close to −20 °C.

So why hire Hof to appear in a series of ads promoting Columbia’s new battery-heated winterwear? After all, the last thing you’ll find Hoff wearing on a cold winter day is a pair of snow pants, let alone heated ones. All it takes is watching Hof submerge himself into freezing water or sit in a container of ice to send a cold shiver up and down my spine, and makes me consider how toasty my buns would be in a pair of those battery heated pants. Not to mention the gloves, boots and jacket that come embedded with sweet, sweet adjustable heat at the touch of a button.

While the Omni-Heat system uses rechargeable batteries to keep things warm and toasty, I’ll be more impressed when the jacket has solar panels on the shoulders.

You can learn more about Wim Hof and win a set of Omni-Heat gear in a caption contest on the Columbia Sportswear Facebook page.