北面

????北面（The North Face）的高級公關主任杰西卡?霍利斯特永遠不會忘記攀巖鎬與鞋釘釘入冰巖時發出的聲音。當時她正與經常攀登珠峰的知名登山家康拉德?安可一起攀登一座高山。霍利斯特是因為成功地把公司的產品提交給了《戶外》雜志（Outside Magazine ）的一個獎項，而被邀請到蒙大拿州的伯茲曼山參與這樣一次研發之旅。

????霍利斯特回憶道：“當時你就掛在一面冰墻上，鼻子前面就是冰，你可以看見冰層下面水在往下滴。那個位置非常高，很嚇人，人的腎上腺素也飆到了最高的水平。”

????每年，一支戶外用品設計師團隊都會與康拉德?安可、基德?德斯勞里爾斯等職業登山運動員一道，實地測試北面公司設計的新產品。但是對于霍利斯特和她的同事林賽?賽恩來說，與15名同事一起在白雪皚皚的峽谷里野營三天，一起遠足，與專業人士一起登山，絕對是一生只有一次的機會。

????霍利斯特說：“這次經歷極大地豐富了我的生活，我每天都能感覺到它帶給我的影響。”霍利斯特從這次旅程回來后，就與她的丈夫一起在一家攀巖館里報了名。現在她和賽恩可以根據親身經歷，回答關于公司戶外設備的問題了。同時在觀察了設計師與職業運動員是怎樣在高山上測試產品后，他們對產品的設計流程也有了更深的理解。

????霍利斯特稱：“你不能坐在會議室里空談為什么要找人出去測試產品，除非你自己也在那兒做這件事。”北面每年還通過抽獎的方式提供10次的免費旅行，其中包括在優勝美地國家公園（Yosemite）漂流、爬山或遠足。

The North Face

????Jessica Hollister will never forget the crunching noise of axes and crampons digging into the ice as she scaled a frozen waterfall alongside Mount Everest regular Conrad Anker. The senior PR coordinator for The North Face was invited on a research and development trip to climb near Anker's Bozeman, Mont. home as a thank-you for successfully submitting her company's gear for an Outside Magazine award.

????"You're hanging off a wall of ice. Your nose is touching the ice in front of you. You can see water trickling down behind the ice. You're so far up, it's scary," Hollister recalls. "You get the biggest adrenaline rush."

????Every year, a team of equipment and gear designers make a similar trip with athletes like Anker and Kit DesLauriers, to test out new equipment designs for North Face. But for Hollister and her colleague Lindsey Sine, a PR coordinator, it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to join 15 colleagues camping out for three days in a snowy canyon, hiking, and climbing with the pros.

????"I feel so enriched by that experience, and I feel the impact of it every day," says Hollister, who joined a climbing gym with her husband when she returned. She and Sine can now answer questions about the company's equipment based on direct experience. Also, they understand the design process more deeply after observing designers work with the athletes in the aftermath of a day of testing out equipment in the wild.

????"You can't sit in a boardroom and talk about why it's important to get someone outside unless you're out there doing it," she says. The North Face also gives employees 10 free trips a year, awarded by lottery, to do everything from kayaking to climbing or hiking in Yosemite.