Columbia Sportswear 2009 Annual Report Download - page 12

Intellectual Property
We own many trademarks, including Columbia®, Columbia Sportswear Company®, Convert®, Bugaboo®,
Bugabootoo®, OMNI-HEATTM, OMNI-FREEZETM, OMNI-TECH®, OMNI-SHADE®, OMNI-SHIELDTM,
OMNI-DRY®, OMNI-GRIP®, TECHLITE®, GRT®, PFG®, PHG®, Columbia Interchange System®, Titanium®,
Sorel®, Mountain Hard Wear®, Montrail®, Pacific Trail®, the Columbia diamond shaped logo and arrow-circle
design, the Mountain Hardwear nut logo and the Sorel polar bear logo. Our trademarks, many of which are
registered or subject to pending applications in the United States and other nations, are used on virtually all of
our products. We believe that our trademarks are an important factor in creating a market for our products, in
identifying the Company, and in differentiating our products from competitors’ products. We vigorously protect
these proprietary rights against counterfeit reproductions and other infringing activities.
Sales and Distribution
We sell our products through a mix of wholesale distribution channels, independent distributors, our own
retail channels and licensees. Wholesale distribution channels include small, independently operated specialty
outdoor and sporting goods stores, regional and national sporting goods chains, and large regional and national
department store chains. We sell our products to independent distributors in various countries where we generally
do not have direct sales operations. We sell our products directly to consumers through our own retail channels,
which include a network of branded and outlet retail stores in all of our geographic segments and online
operations in the U.S. and LAAP segment. We license our Columbia and Pacific Trail trademarks across a range
of product categories that complement our current offerings. In addition to our own direct-to-consumer
operations, independent distributors, franchisees and licensees operate a total of over 400 Columbia and
Mountain Hardwear-branded and outlet retail stores in a variety of other countries.
The following table presents net sales to unrelated entities and approximate percentages of net sales by
geographic segment for each of the last three years (dollars in millions):
2009 2008 2007
Net Sales % of Sales Net Sales % of Sales Net Sales % of Sales
United States ........................... $ 736.9 59.2% $ 727.7 55.2% $ 767.2 56.6%
Europe, Middle East and Africa (“EMEA”) . . . 197.4 15.9 267.2 20.3 287.0 21.1
Latin America and Asia Pacific (“LAAP”) .... 203.2 16.3 198.2 15.0 175.7 13.0
Canada ................................ 106.5 8.6 124.7 9.5 126.1 9.3
Total .............................. $1,244.0 100.0% $1,317.8 100.0% $1,356.0 100.0%
United States
We sell our products in the United States to wholesale customers and through our own retail channels. We
sell directly to approximately 3,600 wholesale customers in the United States. As of December 31, 2009, we
operated 39 outlet retail stores and 6 branded retail stores in various locations in the United States and two
ecommerce websites, one for our Columbia brand and one for our Sorel brand. We plan to begin selling our
Mountain Hardwear products online in the United States in the second half of 2010. Sales in the United States
accounted for 59.2% of our net sales for 2009. In addition, we earn licensing income in the United States based
on our licensees’ sale of licensed products.
We distribute the majority of our products sold to United States wholesale customers and our own retail
stores from distribution centers in Portland, Oregon and Robards, Kentucky. We own and operate both of these
facilities. In some instances, we arrange to have products shipped directly from the independent factories that
manufacture our products to customer-designated facilities in the United States.
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