Tyler Haney, founder and CEO of the activewear brand Outdoor Voices, sought to create a brand that spoke to more than just athletes. Outdoor Voices has built its brand around Haney’s fitness ethos of “moderation, ease and delight”—three words that also aptly describe OV’s office life and company culture at large.
Outdoor Voices is designed “for those for whom simply getting out and doing something—anything—each day was enough.” The composition of the clothes reflects this: products in playful colors, built for relaxation and delight. The modes of working within the 116-person team reflect this ethos as well.
“Some of our best ideas come from times that we’re not sitting in the office, but we’re out there collaborating with each other,” says Burns. With one company spread across two cities—a core headquarters in Austin and a team comprised of special projects and photography in New York City—maintaining a collaborative culture requires flexibility, creativity, and the right tools.
Digital tools such as Airtable have proven crucial to the brand, especially when managing its seemingly infinite collection of photographic assets featured everywhere from Instagram stories to the Austin headquarters, New York showroom, and San Francisco billboards. “There’s this rule I have,” states Burns. “If it’s not in Airtable, it doesn’t exist.”