Overview Leaderboard Methodology
Industry Report

Outdoor Performance Apparel

Brands offering durable, weather-resistant performance clothing and layering systems for hiking, trail running, and outdoor adventure.

Brands tracked: 34
Brands analyzed: 34
Last updated: 2026-04-23
Model: OpenAI GPT-5
Prompts: 269
Total responses: 1,365
Top Brand Overall?
Patagonia
98/100

Highest overall AI Visibility Score in this industry.

LBA Leader?
Patagonia
100

Highest score on the LBA metric in this industry.

Authority Leader?
Patagonia
94

Highest score on the Authority metric in this industry.

TOM Leader?
Patagonia
100

Highest score on the TOM metric in this industry.

Patagonia is the default answer in AI responses for Outdoor Performance Apparel

When users ask ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini about Outdoor Performance Apparel, Patagonia is the brand that surfaces first - unprompted, consistently, and usually at the top of any list the model generates. Outdoor Research is a close second, but the gap between them is meaningful. If you're competing in this space and you're not in the top handful, you're effectively invisible to AI-driven discovery.

Brand Leaderboard All 34 Outdoor Performance Apparel brands ranked

Ranked by overall AI Visibility Score (smoothed geometric mean of LBA, Authority, and TOM with an LBA-based floor on Authority and TOM, see methodology). Click any brand for the full report.

# Brand LBA Authority TOM Overall
1
Patagonia
patagonia.com
 100
94
100
98
2
Outdoor Research
outdoorresearch.com
 84
44
76
66
3
Rab
rab.equipment
 82
20
71
50
4
The North Face
thenorthface.com
 91
18
70
50
5
Columbia
columbia.com
 87
17
54
44
6
REI Co-op
rei.com
 92
34
21
41
7
Fjällräven
fjallraven.com
 81
8
52
35
8
Marmot
marmot.com
 78
11
45
35
9
Mountain Hardwear
mountainhardwear.com
 75
12
39
34
10
Mammut
mammut.com
 82
8
39
32
11
Black Diamond
blackdiamondequipment.com
 87
9
14
24
12
Smartwool
smartwool.com
 89
12
11
24
13
Helly Hansen
hellyhansen.com
 87
9
13
23
14
Salomon
salomon.com
 76
8
18
23
15
Arc'teryx
arcteryx.com
 88
9
9
21
16
Houdini
sidefx.com
 70
7
14
21
17
Icebreaker
icebreaker.com
 82
8
9
20
18
Klättermusen
klattermusen.com
 81
8
8
20
19
La Sportiva
lasportiva.com
 83
8
8
20
20
Norrøna
norrona.com
 84
8
8
20
21
Haglöfs
haglofs.com
 78
8
8
19
22
Ortovox
ortovox.com
 80
8
8
19
23
Athleta
athleta.com
 76
8
8
18
24
Cotopaxi
cotopaxi.com
 76
8
8
18
25
Dynafit
dynafit.com
 75
8
8
18
26
inov-8
inov8.com
 76
8
8
18
27
KÜHL
kuhl.com
 76
8
8
18
28
Montbell
montbell.us
 73
7
8
18
29
VAUDE
vaude.com
 74
7
7
18
30
Jack Wolfskin
jack-wolfskin.com
 68
7
7
17
31
Montane
montane.com
 72
7
7
17
32
Stio
stio.com
 64
6
6
16
33
Sherpa Adventure Gear
sherpaadventuregear.com
 53
5
5
13
34
Trew Gear
trewgear.com
 46
5
5
12

How is this calculated? Methodology

Every brand in this leaderboard is scored against the same set of 269 shared Outdoor Performance Apparel prompts. The same prompts, same model, same iterations. So differences in scores reflect actual differences in AI visibility, not differences in measurement.

Overall AI Visibility Score
Smoothed geometric mean of LBA, Authority and TOM. Authority and TOM are floored at LBA × 0.1 before the geometric mean (the same floor used in the per-metric cards above, so brand cards and the composite tell the same story). Formula: composite = ((LBA + 5)(Authority + 5)(TOM + 5))^(1/3) - 5. The floor keeps brands the model clearly recognises but doesn't yet recommend from collapsing to zero, while a single genuinely weak metric still pulls the composite down. Full methodology.
Shared industry prompts
For Authority and TOM, all brands in the industry are scored against the same 269 category prompts (e.g. "best SEO tools for agencies"). This makes brand-to-brand comparisons valid - everyone faces identical inputs. LBA prompts are per-brand because they ask brand-specific questions.
Latent Brand Association (LBA)
5 brand probes + 1 control prompt, each run 5 times in recall mode (no web search). LBA = quality × meta × stability × share × recognition × 100. Read the full LBA methodology →
LLM Authority
50 organic category prompts (discovery, comparison, problem and transactional intents), each run once in recall mode and once in retrieval mode. Score = frequency × log-decayed prominence × intent weight, then 50/50 averaged across the two modes. Read the full Authority methodology →
Top of Mind (TOM)
15 high-volume discovery prompts (sourced from Keywords Everywhere search-volume data), each run 5 times in pure recall mode (no web). Score = frequency × (0.5 + 0.5 × log-prominence), volume-weighted. Read the full TOM methodology →