What's Your Outdoors?

Look. We’re from the Pacific Northwest. We know what “outdoors” usually means to people. The thorough exploration of fleece’s many applications is but one example. We don’t wear fleece often.

JanSport has always challenged this idea of the outdoors. As a brand that came from hardcore mountain-man origins to one that’s been embraced by students, clubbers and couch surfers of every stripe, they know it’s not so simple.

That’s what inspired the latest Creature x JanSport collaboration: What’s Your Outdoors? The goal: Redefine what it means to be outside, according to you. Everyone’s got a place — the spot they go to when four walls won’t cut it. And contrary to popular belief, that doesn’t always involve glorious mountain vistas or expansive bodies of water.

The project invites people to submit their favorite outside spot via 360° panoramic videos. As they come in, they’re stitched into a constantly looping chain. Seen together, they form a constantly shifting, growing, collective definition of the outdoors. The $10K prize is a nice deal-sweetener.

See the chain at jansport.com/whatsyouroutdoors

Pack up your mallows, it's Bonfire Sessions time!

The Cave Singers. August 28. A secret location in the woods. If you’re lucky.

This summer, Creature has had the pleasure of creating with JanSport the first ever installment of the Bonfire Sessions, a free concert series celebrating the epic memories that can only be made outdoors.

Here’s how it works: The location of this fantastic concert is kept top secret until you arrive to the show.

The only way to get there? Why, a magical Bonfire Sessions bus, of course! We’ve been hinting clues to the bus stop location throughout the past few weeks, and finally today are announcing the top-secret location – it’s landed in front of Quinn’s in Capitol Hill, on the 1000 block of Pike, between 10th and 11th.

Our bus-stop celebration will happen tomorrow (Thursday), where we'll have hot dogs, music, and fun!

Start lining up early, only the first 100 people in line will get a spot on the bus.

Buses board at 5:30pm and depart at 6:00pm sharp on August 28th. So get your lining-up shoes on.

The lucky handful will arrive to a unique campfire concert with the Cave Singers, beer, mallows, sparklers, singing, stars, barns, lights, darkness, meats and nonmeats, boys and girls, bug bites, magic.

Basically, the perfect evening. See you all there!

Creature + JanSport + Bonnaroo = Amazing

A few of us Creatures had the splendid opportunity of venturing out to Great Stage Parkon, a 700-acre (2.8 km²) farm in Manchester, Tennessee, 60 miles southeast of Nashville.

Why, you ask? Well, for Bonnaroo of course! If you aren’t sure what that is, click here. Ahmazing.

Lucky for us, one of our amazing clients, JanSport, participates as a sponsor every year. This means we get to play, too.

It’s a pretty rad idea:

JanSport invites concert-goers to paint their hearts out on various 15x5 foot canvases,
and, over the course of the year, we turn the painted canvases into limited edition, one-of-a-kind backpacks (proceeds of the backpacks to to Big City Mountaineers).

Awe.Some.

This year was round two. We were excited, and having done it once before, we were ready.

We arrived a few days before the concert so we could set up the tent and get all our goodies ready. We knew to expect heat, and humidity, and mud up to our eyeballs, but when the wall of 300% humidity hit us upon arrival, we were not prepared. IT.WAS.HOT.

But we’re troopers. And we were able to get our tent panels hung, our wooden easel built (thanks to John Haile and Bob Horn) with minimal dehydration.

Thursday, June 10^th the festival began. Droves of music and art lovers filled the farm, and soon our tent was a flurry of excitement. JanSport lovers filled the tent ready to paint their hearts out, so their artwork would eventually become a backpack.

We had repeat visits from folks who just couldn’t get enough.

We even had people come back who had painted last year, looking for their art that had been turned into a backpack.

Even in the blistering 98-degree heat and 300% humidity, folks loved to paint!

Not only did we get to share the JanSport love with 75,000 sweaty festival-goers, we also were able to see some amazing acts.

From Kings of Leon, Stevie Wonder (or as we like to call him, the 8th Wonder of the World), Jay-Z (ahmazing!) and Dave Matthews, to Steve Martin, Conan O’Brien, and Aziz Ansari, our nights were filled with music and laughter, good food and good friends.

And sweat. Did I mention how hot it was?

Be sure to check out JanSport’s Reclaimed Art Canvas website to see all the beauty that came from the week.

Inspirational. And hopefully we’ll see you at Bonnaroo 2011!