Columbia Sportswear is a leading outdoor apparel and footwear company known for innovative waterproof and thermal technologies.
Columbia is pulling back from clearance retail. The US clearance footprint dropped from 42 locations to 8 over the year ending September 2025, while mainline stores held flat at around 170. For mall operators, that means fewer short-term pop-up deals and a more selective long-term presence on the leasing side.
The retreat is part of a portfolio consolidation around the core Columbia brand. In 2025 the company took a $29 million impairment charge against Mountain Hardwear (technical mountaineering) and prAna (yoga and lifestyle) goodwill, both labels having underperformed the namesake. SOREL, the winter footwear line acquired in 2000, remains a separate growth lane. Columbia Sportswear, the parent company, was founded in 1938 in Portland, Oregon and trades on NASDAQ as COLM, with Tim Boyle as CEO since 1988.
The company runs 560+ directly operated stores: 170+ in the US, 305+ across Latin America and Asia Pacific, 70+ in Europe in 10 markets, and 15+ in Canada. The namesake Columbia brand generates roughly 90% of group revenue; SOREL, Mountain Hardwear, and prAna together cover the remaining 10%, which clarifies why those labels rarely appear as standalone mall tenants and instead live inside Columbia stores or wholesale shop-in-shops.
