Hi-Tec & Liquid Mountaineering: The coming together of: Science, Brand, Fun, Sport

The Outdoor Retailer Show is still sticking with me.  I met some great people and some great ideas and one that really stood out to me was the idea of "Liquid Mountaineering".  The name alone is a blast and I could blog about just that for a long long time.  The origins of this is pretty funny.  A group of Euro guys lead by Ulf Gartner got together and started the idea of walking/running on water.  Obviously they were inspired by Some sort of Diety.  Regardless Hi-Tec the British outdoors brand is looking to make a strong rebranding comeback and decided to pick these guys up to promote their water proof outdoor hiking/trail running shoe.  The marriage couldn't have been any better.  The group of guys got some money (it's rumored from Hi-Tec Poland), some gear, had to incorporate the Hi-Tec brand into their "sport" and boom... a legend was born.

These guys were super creative with the making of the video.  They dead panned the humor and held a straight face the whole time.  They really got into it by even saying "you have to run at a curve" and "your feet go up and down like a sewing machine."  I don't know what it is about Americans but if it is exotic and someone is doing it in Europe then it has to be true right?  Well, I guess this has to do with the humor factor.  Lets be honest, our humor here in the states than in Europe and this is actually something we can swallow.  So it made sense that there have been about 5 million hits on Youtube on this video.

As far as the branding efforts that were made with this video... the plug for the lightweight and waterproof Hi -Tec shoe was made with various shots of the Hi-Tec name on jackets and hoodies.  The outdoors was incorporated and and there was even a little subliminal message of Jesus thrown in there with him hanging from the rear view mirror.  This was a great example of everything coming together: Science... slightly plausible and you always kind of wonder, Brand... the shoe fit in perfectly with what they were trying to accomplish, Fun... you can't tell me it doesn't look like a blast, and Sport... there is a feeling of competition to it, so much to the point where Hi-Tec was making a spoof plug to get the sport adopted into the 2012 Olympic games.  What a great idea.  Talking with some of the folks at Frank the creative firm overseeing this rebrand for Hi-Tec they want this to grow and keep growing.  Frank didn't come up with the initial idea but they have run with it creating marketing material to go along with it. I'll be honest when I say that the future is bright with ideas like this.  Well done gents, well done.