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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend February 2, 2006 Mother of all that is outdoors She’s a one-time homemaker who now runs a billion-dollar company with more than 2,000 employees, yet still signs all the company checks. She might be the only 81-year-old woman "chairman" of a major corporation who has her own fan club. And why not? She’s got a rock star- like persona and face recognition not just in the Northwest, but throughout the world. She’s banned in Russia as "too violent," yet a recent appearance in Hong Kong involved 220 news reporters and a Zamboni. There’s nothing normal about this one tough mother. Columbia Sportswear icon Gert Boyle wouldn’t have it any other way. As the stone-faced "Ma Boyle" in Columbia advertisements, Boyle has parlayed her public image as the tough old bird into commercial success and public popularity as the tattoo-tough mother of all that is outdoors. Advertisement But the snarl washes away at the end of the day. Just like the tattoos. "I go a lot of places and people stop me and say, are you that ‘tough mother’ and are you really that mean?" Boyle says. "Well, I don’t think of myself as that person, but I make a damn good living at it," she says. "I’m the sweetest, nicest person you’ll ever meet in your life." Even if she’s not, Boyle has earned the right to add a little sugar to a tough-it-out business success story that more resembles a Jack London novel than a Fortune profile. German Jews who flee the Nazis, Boyle’s family lands in Portland in 1937. Her father forms the Columbia Hat Co. and toils rather unceremoniously for decades. Gert gets a college degree, but she lives the soccer-mom lifestyle before mini vans and acrylic nails. Her husband, Neal Boyle, takes over her dad’s struggling Columbia Sportswear Co. In 1970, Neal’s fatal heart attack put Gert and 21-year-old son Tim Boyle in charge of the business. They have as much know-how about the garment business as they do dogmushing. It’s Boyle’s time to build a fire. Will the snow snuff her flames? "Let me tell you something," Boyle says. "Nobody ever knows what they’re really capable of doing until you’re put to the test." Her test is enormous, especially as a woman in an all-testosterone world: keep creditors at bay while gutting the company and re-inventing its products and its image. "Give up or fail, I was going to be poor one way or the other," Boyle says. "So I decided to fight for it." Columbia survives long enough to improve its product lines in time for the Gore-Tex revolution. But Columbia, and Boyle, really take off in 1984 — The Year of the Tough Mother. "Up until then, we had ads I thought were really bad," Boyle says. "They were cold." The Portland ad firm of Borders, Perrin Norrander realizes that what makes Columbia different is Gert. They play up the concept that Boyle’s a tough mother who expects Columbia, and her President son, to live up to her outlandish expectations. "I gotta give them something to remember," she says. In 1984, Columbia’s new Anacortes Parka is pitched in ads as something that’s "From One Tough Mother to Another." She wallows in public self-deprecation. A 1990 ad pictures Boyle and the new Chukar Parka. "Protective, but not overly warm. Just like the parka." An ad for a windbreaker says: "Unlike our chairman, it’s uncomplicated and lightweight." Nothing beats the ad for blue jeans featuring a muscle-flexing Boyle with a "Born to Nag" tattoo. "You wouldn’t believe how many people stop me and ask to see the tattoo," she says. "But the tattoo washed off." Now, "Born to Nag" is a design staple of tattoo parlors. Can Gander Mountain or North Face say that? Television ads show Gert putting a parka-wearing Tim Boyle through extreme treatment to test the parka’s toughness. Through a car wash. Strapped to a car roof. On a dogsled. Under a Zamboni. "They’re fun," she says. "There’s no point in going to work unless you’re going to have a good time." Columbia’s most recent ad shows Gert dumping a Parka-wearing Tim in a cement mixer, shooting him with a blow dart and dropping him on a glacier. It’s banned in Russia. "It’s not because I’m too sexy," she says. "It’s because I’m too violent. "What a hoot. I got more publicity out of that than from the ad." Last October, Boyle goes to Shanghai and Hong Kong, where she gets Brad and Angelina treatment. Twenty Chinese television networks film her riding a Zamboni during an apparel-on-ice show. She’s front page everywhere. "That was awesome," she says. From Portland to Shanghai, Boyle can’t walk down the street now without someone recognizing her. "I can’t pick my nose in public anymore," she laments. But she can put her finger on the things in her life that work, from advertising to child-rearing to a so-so apple pie. They’re all in her book, "One Tough Mother," which she now pitches in bookstore signings like one last Tuesday at Barnes & Noble in Medford. Boyle turns 82 next month, forcing her to stop and ponder what lies ahead as she moves into middle age. "I’ll tell you one thing," she says. "No way am I going to retire. "I don’t want to stay home and do housework." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail Mother of all that is outdoors ">[email protected] . Evolution of the Columbia slogan Since 1984, Gert Boyle has anchored Columbia Sportswear’s media campaigns with the "One Tough Mother" persona who bullies her son, company President Tim Boyle, into creating better outdoor gear. The ads, devised by the Portland firm of Borders, Perrin Norrander, helped propel Columbia sales from $10 million in 1984 to more than $1 billion in 2004. Most of the print ads feature Tim Boyle either quoting or referring to Gert Boyle, who is pictured along with a new product, usually a parka. Here’s a sample of how the slogans have developed over time. "From One Tough Mother to Another" — fall 1984. "Introducing the Industry’s Most Versatile Ski Parka (And the Bullheaded Mother Behind It)" — Fall 1985. "Protective, but not overly warm. Just like the parka." — Fall 1990. "Unlike Our Chairman, It’s Uncomplicated and Lightweight." — Spring 1991. "My Mother Makes Combat Boots." — Fall 1993. "Not all wicked witches are afraid of water." — Spring 1996. "Stay As Warm and Dry as Her Pot Roast." — Fall 1997. "When you’re as old as the hills, you tend to know what to wear in them." — Fall 1997. "Frigid Perhaps. Cold Never." — Fall 1998. "They say ice pumps through her veins. That’s assuming she has a heart." — Fall 2000. "Wherever Snot Freezes, We’ll Be There." — Fall 2003. — Mark Freeman Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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