2017 became the year we'd make outside the largest level playing field on earth: A place where women could be liberated from the relentless pressures of conformity and clichés. We started with a commitment to put women front and center in everything we did for an entire year. We adopted the moniker ‘Force Of Nature’ to signify women who boldly claim their space in the outdoors. We purposefully found women across age, race, gender identities and body types and brought them into the spotlight of the co-op. Every owned channel became beholden to our “total takeover”. We showed their faces- up close and personal -and shouted their stories from the mountaintops. Our online anthem urged women to opt out of the status quo and seek freedom outside. Our signature orange bandana was designed as both a symbol and a badge of strength. All women, all the time, outside and free.

The initiative launched April 1, 2017 and had three phases – seed, launch and sustain. We launched a film on social media platforms, encouraging women to opt out of cliché gender stereotypes and invited them to join REI in one of our 2000 REI events and classes designed for women.

We transformed the spring product catalog into an editorial publication explaining the effort

and telling inspiring stories about women changing the outdoor industry.

The Force of Nature bandana was designed to be the symbol of the initiative. Thousands wore it with pride and tagged themselves and their friends as #ForceOfNature in social media.

We announced the Force of Nature initiative to high traffic out of home locations in cities.

Partnerships included: Artists passionate about the mission who designed limited edition Force of Nature products; Outside Magazine and their first women’s edition featuring women icons of the outdoors; And unsuspecting influencers.

• The Force of Nature initiative gained 472 million earned media impressions and 45 million social impressions.

• We reached and engaged a younger and more female audience than any previous effort.

• We saw deep engagement in social channels with 200k tags of “Force of Nature” and 15 million impressions from employees alone.

• Up until 9/1/17 Force of Nature anthem video generated the most social engagement of any video in the co-op’s history

• After its launch more than 48,000 women joined in 2,700 outdoor events, classes and experiences and 17,000 signed up for waitlists.

• REI’s full price women’s business saw sales increase by 20% during the height of the campaign