In which city is Columbia Sportswear headquartered?

Columbia Sportswear is headquartered in Portland, Oregon.

The company’s roots are closely tied to Portland. In 1938, Paul Lamfrom purchased the Rosenfeld Hat Company after his family fled Nazi Germany and renamed it the Columbia Hat Company, after the nearby Columbia River. The business later expanded from hats into outdoor clothing and became Columbia Sportswear in 1960.

There is a small geographic wrinkle behind this answer. Columbia’s headquarters site is in Cedar Mill, an unincorporated area of Washington County just outside Beaverton, but it uses a Portland mailing address and is generally described as being in the Portland metropolitan area. Thus, Portland, Oregon is the standard quiz answer.

The Portland region is also a major outdoor-apparel hub, with companies such as Nike and Adidas maintaining significant headquarters operations nearby. Columbia became publicly traded in 1998 and today sells apparel, footwear, and outdoor gear worldwide.