As of October 2020, Instagram registered over a billion unique monthly users. If a picture truly is worth a thousand words, then a wide-reaching Instagram account is—well, it’s valuable. But how can outdoor companies make the most of an audience waiting on the other end of a screen?

We examined and chatted with some of the biggest outdoor brands on the photo-sharing platform to find out what works for them.

GoPro (@gopro)

Follower count: 17.7 million

Date joined: March 22, 2012

Total posts: 6,120

Account Overview

When it comes to outdoor brands on Instagram, GoPro easily leads the pack. Almost four times more users follow GoPro than other brands like The North Face and Patagonia. The company keeps its users engaged, too—videos on GoPro’s page regularly notch hundreds of thousands of views, and photos generally amass close to one hundred thousand likes, outperforming brands with similar follower counts like Starbucks and Calvin Klein. GoPro generally posts on the account twice a day, with posts spaced apart by several hours.

Useful Strategies

There’s one thing you won’t see on GoPro’s Instagram: Any of the company’s products. Rather than focusing on the cameras themselves, the page highlights what’s in front of them, posting everything from skiing backflips to scuba dives to airplane stunts. GoPro saves the flashy product photos for its website, but on Instagram, the brand sells experiences—experiences their cameras can document.

The North Face (@thenorthface)

Follower count: 4.8 million

Date joined: February 14, 2011

Total posts: 427

Account Overview

The majority of The North Face’s Instagram posts can be broken into two categories: product-focused and athlete-focused. The brand’s product-focused posts look like a classic advertisement: The product and TNF logo are front and center. Captions for these posts tell users what the product is, how it works, and where they can get one. Athlete-focused posts feature partnered athletes in action, and don’t stress as much about brand recognition—in most of these posts, it’s tough to tell whether the athlete is even wearing TNF gear. The account posts three to four times a week, and mixes up video and photo content.

Useful Strategies

Senior director of digital brand management Zeena Koda says the alternation between product advertisement and “brand content”—athletes, outdoor images, and storytelling—is intentional. In fact, while it’s not an exact science, Koda has a rough benchmark for the breakdown.

“I think a 60-40 balance is healthy, but it’s never that clear-cut,” Koda said. Her goal is to feature “brand content” in about 60 percent of TNF’s posts, while the other 40 percent highlights specific TNF products.

Patagonia (@patagonia)

Follower count: 4.6 million

Date joined: May 17, 2012

Total posts: 2,757

Account Overview

Like TNF, Patagonia posts content three to four times per week. The page is extremely photo-heavy, and video content generally involves some sort of call to action. Patagonia also posts a significant number of call-to-action graphics highlighting the climate crisis and environmental justice.

Useful Strategies

Patagonia’s Instagram bio simply reads, “We’re in business to save our home planet.” The philosophy is evident in the brand’s posts, which tend to focus on sweeping natural landscapes. If humans are in Patagonia’s posts, they’re often small or far away, framing the outdoors as a space commanding awe, wonder, and respect. True product advertisements are rare on Patagonia’s Instagram—even Patagonia’s well-known logo barely makes an appearance on the page.

Timberland (@timberland)

Follower count: 3 million

Date joined: June 23, 2011

Total posts: 3,671

Account Overview

There may not be a more direct opposite to Patagonia’s Instagram page than Timberland’s. Timberland’s Instagram is about one thing: boots. Boots on models, boots floating in mid-air, boots in boxes. Name a way to display a Timberland boot and it’s probably on the company’s Instagram. Posts come like clockwork—exactly one post a day, usually hitting the profile by mid-morning.

Useful Strategies

“We want people to arrive at our social media pages and see what they love [our products], but also learn about what we stand for,” senior director of marketing Mike Isabella said in a statement.

Timberland does feature a number of social-justice-focused graphics on its page, but products drive the majority of the brand’s content. It’s a strategy that seems to work, in terms of engagement. When the boots take up nearly the entire frame, posts regularly hit tens of thousands of likes, and posts that feature models’ full bodies or otherwise draw away from the boots generally struggle to crack ten thousand likes.

Tentree (@tentree)

Follower count: 2.4 million

Date joined: March 30, 2012

Total posts: 568

Account Overview

The eco-focused apparel brand has a unique distinction as the only company on this list younger than Instagram. Like The North Face, tentree uses Instagram partially as an advertising venue—the page displays models wearing products from sweatpants to face masks. The rest of the account’s posts feature landscape shots and deforestation-awareness graphics similar to TNF’s ‘brand content.’

Useful Strategies

In terms of engagement, tentree’s nature-focused content significantly outperforms product advertisement on the page. Posts like this one depicting a glass-walled forest bedroom amass likes in the tens of thousands, while product-focused posts usually top out at several thousand.

REI (@rei)

Follower count: 2.3 million

Date joined: July 30, 2012

Total posts: 4,791

Account Overview

REI’s Instagram feed is all about people in the outdoors. This may not seem revolutionary for one of the country’s largest outdoor retailers, but as other brands have opted for product-focused posts or landscape photos without people, most of REI’s posts bring humans and natural spaces together. These posts generally perform well, usually reaching five-digit like counts. REI’s less frequent, landscape-only posts perform similarly, while the account’s few product advertisement posts hover around five thousand likes.

Useful Strategies

There’s a not-so-secret weapon at play in boosting engagement on certain REI posts. Every so often, REI will caption a photo with a question, like “Why do you hike?” or “What are some of your silver linings from 2020?” Posts with a simple question in the caption drive hundreds of people to the comments section; by comparison, most other posts see between 30 and 50 comments. Questions boost likes, too—posts captioned with questions generally rack up thousands more likes than similar posts without questions.

Oakley (@oakley)

Follower count: 2.2 million

Date joined: January 19, 2012

Total posts: 184

Account Overview

Like Timberland, Oakley’s Instagram page is dominated by product-focused posts. Goggles and sunglasses are always the focal point, and while accounts like Patagonia and TNF place their products against a natural backdrop, Oakley’s posts are mainly close-up facial profiles. The eyewear brand is one of the least prolific posters on this list, uploading content at most three times a week.

Useful Strategies

Rather than models, Oakley leans heavily on the allure of professional athletes wearing its products to boost engagement—athletes like cricketer Rohit Sharma, the focus of three posts that each cracked one million likes. It certainly helps that Oakley is partnered with the NFL, and superstar players like Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson are featured prominently on the page. NFL-related posts often rack up hundreds of thousands of likes, a massive engagement number for an account with just over two million followers. Non-NFL athletes help engagement numbers, too: Snowboarder Jamie Anderson and other snowsports pros appear in several well-performing posts.

YETI (@yeti)

Follower count: 1.5 million

Date joined: July 20, 2012

Total posts: 2,413

Account Overview

Like many of the outdoor apparel and gear brands on this list, YETI’s Instagram posts focus on its products in use. In terms of engagement, most of YETI’s posts perform similarly, hovering around six to nine thousand likes. The account doesn’t flood the timeline with posts, sending an image or video out roughly once a day.

Useful Strategies

When it comes to product advertisement, YETI’s posts are reminiscent of product placement in a movie or TV show. Posts don’t advertise a specific product like The North Face’s do; instead, most posts focus on a larger scene—an ice fishing trip, a duck hunt, a day at the beach—with a YETI product included and prominently displayed. The YETI logo catches the eye in almost every post, but rather than advertise a specific cooler, say, posts advertise YETI as a brand.

Salomon (@salomon)

Follower count: 933k

Date joined: July 24, 2013

Total posts: 2,270

Account Overview

Salomon’s Instagram focuses heavily on the company’s two best-known product lines: skis and running shoes. The page is image-heavy, generally using video content to profile featured athletes. Likes are generally consistent between five and ten thousand, and the account generally posts once per day.

Useful Strategies

Salomon’s page is one of the most product-focused on this list—whether on ski tips, shoe tongues, or bindings, the Salomon logo is visible in nearly every post. Most products are identified in the caption for consumers to find them easily, and almost all are depicted in action.

Arc’teryx (@arcteryx)

Follower count: 932k

Date joined: February 7, 2012

Total posts: 2,801

Account Overview

Arc’teryx, similar to brands like TNF and tentree, posts a mix of product advertisement and athlete-driven content. Engagement patterns for Arc’teryx’s content are opposite these other brands, though—Arc’teryx’s product advertisement posts generally outperform landscape shots and athlete profiles by a few thousand likes or more. The account posts about once a day, and generally alternates posts between its content categories.

Useful Strategies

Like many of the brands on this list, Arc’teryx runs secondary, geographically-localized Instagram accounts alongside its main account, which director of brand experience Jurgen Watts credits with expanding the brand’s social media reach.

“Our strategy as a company is to develop… localized Instagram channels for our communities,” Watts said. “If you live in the Bay Area, we want to make sure that there’s a Bay Area feed that is very localized.”

Compared to Arc’teryx’s main Instagram channel, these localized accounts have significantly lower follower counts—generally not more than a few thousand followers. Some posts from Arc’teryx’s main feed will show up in these smaller channels, but posts also feature athletes wearing Arc’teryx gear in recognizable local spots.

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There are lots of way to make an impact on the world’s raging plastic problem. Every little step away from single-use plastic and towards a circular and petroleum-free world is worth celebrating.

Here are a few things we’re stoked about from just a few of our 336 (and counting) Plastic Impact Alliance members.

A Better Zipper

YKK has taken ocean plastic they collected from the coast of Sri Lanka and turned it into Natulon Ocean Sourced zippers that perform and last exactly the same as zippers made from virgin polyester (aka plastic). Check them out at booth #56020-UL at Outdoor Retailer Snow Show.

Killer Teamwork

At Outdoor Retailer next week, Stanley, Osprey, and Nikwax are teaming up with Sunday Afternoons, Deschutes Breweries, and Hood River Distilleries to host a “block party” on Day 2 / January 30 at 4:30 P.M. to benefit Protect Our Winters. “All of the drinkware is plastic-free. You can either pick up a sili-pint at the Osprey booth (#39081-UL) or a Stanley pint (#42096-UL) and that gets you unlimited cocktail or beer and the refills,” said Michelle Fleming of Stanley. “No plastic cups of any kind. We’ve also moved to getting food from the bulk food bins at a local grocery store and filling up our Stanley food storage containers with snacks instead of buying a bunch of prepackaged snacks.”

A Step up in Packaging

Nikwax commits to 100 percent recycled (and recyclable) bottles for all its products. “We are all horrified by the images that we see on our news feeds of plastic pollution,” said Nick Brown, founder of Nikwax. “It is abhorrent to visit a wild space and find it polluted with unnatural waste. Plastic pollution is one of the problems we CAN solve through raising awareness, recycling, using new technology, and improving regulation. We hope to contribute to ultimately eliminating the problem without contributing further to climate change.”

Upcycling Old Cups for Happy Hours

Mountain Hardwear understands that we all have plenty of reusable cups already, so for their events at Outdoor Retailer, they upcycle meticulously clean, slightly-used vessels, a brilliant solution. “One thing we’ve heard over and over again is that attendees don’t need any another camp cup, so we’ve gone the reuse route,” said Jeff Brandon of Mountain Hardwear. “If happy hour guests don’t have a cup we furnish them with one of our countless, slightly used, and very clean, reusable cups. It’s been extremely popular as folks love getting cups from old climbing events, trade show, etc.” Bravo!

Moving Away from Petro-Based Fabrics

Picture Organic Clothing launches a “biosourced polyester” jacket, the Demain, made from sugarcane waste, which advances the eco-focused brand’s quest to wipe out fossil fuels, while keeping mountain shredders protected from nasty weather. Check it out at booth #39143-UL at Outdoor Retailer Snow Show.

Bottomless Coffee

Primus, the American Alpine Club, and Bivouac Coffee are teaming up to offer bottomless coffee mugs at Outdoor Retailer next week. Purchase a Primus vacuum mug at the AAC booth (#43093-UL, all proceeds benefit the AAC) and get free tasty Bivouac Coffee refills for the remainder of the show.

Greening Races

Nuun also just announced a partnership with HydraPak + Mascot Sports/Oakland Run Co. to create the first ever cupless race series. This will eliminate 100,000 single-use cups across all Oakland Run Co. events in 2020. During OR, Nuun is partnering once again with Vessel to provide reusable stainless steel sample cups at its booth. *We hope to see wider adoption of Vessel’s programming in future shows.

Costa Tackles Lenses

In 2019, Costa launched a recycling program for Eye Care Professionals (ECPs) in partnership with Piedmont Plastics. More than 700 ECPs have joined the program, repurposing 4,700 pounds of petrochemical based lenses into other plastic products such as safety glasses, motorcycle helmet shields, and police shields.

Tree Huggers

Brand new PIA member Tentree is planting 300 trees to offset their staff’s travel to and from Outdoor Retailer next week. They’ll also be giving out little Blue Spruce saplings at the show, so be sure to stop by and grab one (#VO 201-SL).

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