Lake Ontario: Explore Your Outdoors Expedition
From the North Pole to Mt. Everest, Baffin products have been tested worldwide to withstand extreme cold climate conditions. Engineered and designed in Stoney Creek, Ontario, Baffin has also tested products locally while giving back to the community.
Baffin’s Explore Your Outdoors Expedition was a shining example of this. In 2018, Sr. Vice-President Mark Hubner and Baffin Product Tester Brent Hubner, with Chris Surette and Jan-Sebastian La Pierre from A for Adventure, embarked on a 1,000-kilometre winter cycling trek around Lake Ontario to test Baffin products and raise money for Amici, a Toronto charity that provides youth in financial need the opportunity to realize their full potential at summer camp.
Dressed head to toe in Baffin footwear, apparel and accessories, including the innovative BOREALIS boot, a prototype Hard Shell and Baffin’s famed Base Layers, the team made their way around Lake Ontario in temperatures exceeding minus twenty degrees Celsius to ensure the products upheld Baffin’s standard of excellence through Real World Testing™. According to Mark Hubner, “We like to test the products we develop ourselves, and if we are going to do something like this, we also want to make sure there’s an opportunity to give back to our community.”
Circling Lake Ontario on both sides of the border, the group stopped at local schools to encourage young people to embrace the outdoors. The group raised over $35,000 in support of children’s participation in the outdoors.
Judy MacGowan, executive director of Amici Camping Charity, noted that Baffin’s fundraising efforts will help youth enjoy multi-year camping experiences at one of Amici’s 42 partner camps.
The POLAR MITT has been tested worldwide and locally and its removable multi-layer liner helps to keep people both dry and warm in extreme conditions. More information on the POLAR MITT can be found here.
