Gossamer Gear ‘25
Creative & Production Support
Brief: Create stills and video assets to launch 3x product lines for Gossamer Gear in February🥶
Solution: Book a trip to sunny Spain! Beyond the weather, it offered lower production costs and easier access to the terrain we would need to shoot these campaigns.
General Approach: We’ve been working with Gossamer Gear for almost 10 years. They specialize in ultralight packs for the backcountry and beyond. We took their tagline “Take Less, Do More” as explicit instructions. We narrowed down the team to just me (Javi) and Sean. With the right locations and a little planning we were able minimize our gear to one camera pack each.
Topspin Team: Director/Producer - Javier Fernandez Creative/Photographer - Sean Greene
Campaign #1 - Travel
The easiest way to stretch the budget was to minimize the amount of travel needed to shoot three separate campaigns. With one of the campaigns being a travel line, we figured: what better way to capture it authentically than to shoot it while traveling overseas?
We meticulously scoured AirBnb to find potential locations that could also house our small crew. We hit the jackpot with a beautiful farmhouse 30 minutes outside of Barcelona in the town of Tiana with a view of the mediterranean ocean.
🌀Watch the campaign video below🌀
Campaign #2 - Type II
Our second mission was to capture a product line named after type II fun. Essentially, the kind of situation that seems fun after the fact but not always during. In order to do that, we needed to get a bit…sendy. We also needed talent who would be ‘comfortable’ in less than ideal conditions.
Here is where Spain, and particularly Catalunya, really stands out. Many world-class athletes call this part of the world home because of the weather and access to some of the best climbing, cycling roads, and trails in the world.
Catalunya is a special place to me personally because of the many years I spent bopping around different climbing areas in my younger days.
Our first stop was Girona, a cycling mecca about 40 minutes from Barcelona where we met up with Gundi and Marty. Collectively, they have an encyclopedic knowledge of all the gravel routes around the area. We set off on a loop near St. Gregori led by Marty. While our production team was blessed with lithium powered watts courtesy of our trusty e-bike rentals (minus Sean), our talent suffered up some pretty steep gravel climbs, and took some unexpected detours for a proper vision quest.
Next, we drove a few hours northwest towards the Pyrenees. Nico, an old climbing friend who runs Climb Catalunya, graciously let us stay at his refugio in Abella de la Conca for a couple of days. From here we were able reach incredible cliffs, ridge lines, trails and old ruins within a 30 minute drive.
For our climbing day we shot with two Catalan climbing OGs: Arnau and Cesar. Stretching the definition of “weekend warriors”, both have managed an impressive ticklist of hard ascents around the world. Arnau, by the way, is also a train conductor in nearby Lleida.
There’s no shortage of iconic climbing areas in this part of Spain, so one of the hardest parts was choosing one. Again, our talent’s in-depth knowledge helped us find a location that was breathtaking but also logistically feasible. We wanted to shoot the exposure of a multi pitch climb but needed to get the team in position without spending the whole day climbing the route. We chose a route that we could access the top by trail, so that we could just rap down and get in position without having to jumar all our gear.
To wrap our day we wanted to shoot an authentic part of the climbing dirtbag experience, open air stealth camping. After chatting with Cesar, he pulled the old “I know a spot” card, suggesting an old church in a nearby village where he’d camped many times. We felt that these details would help the shoot stay true to the spirit what of what core users *ACTUALLY* experience on their own adventures. We wanted to capture to the vibe of type II fun, but also produce it on a fixed timeline/budget and have more control on the imagery in a way that can’t really be achieved from a UGC approach. Its a vibe that can only come from spending time spent time sleeping at the base of the cliff (Javi), or bikpacking 500 miles across southern Spain (Sean).
On our third shoot day, we met with professional climbers Svana and Eva on a rest day from climbing to scout a wall near Boixols, a medieval bridge crossing a waterfall that looks like Rivendell. It was drizzling and slippery, but that didn’t dampen anyones spirits.
We bushwhacked, then scrambled on some light grade IV terrain with our camera gear to a fin shaped ridge feature we scouted on the hike to get a better few of the wall. And while this wasn’t a full-blown suffer fest, it certainly wasn’t the type terrain (or weather) you’ll find your average agency model hiking on their day off.
We were incredibly lucky to get work with these athletes who, despite their immense talent, were nothing but gracious, hard-working and humble.
On a down day before heading back to Barcelona, we decided to go on a group hike above the refugio. Caroline, GG’s creative marketing manager, was rocking a type II bag as the sun was slowly dipping and created the perfect bookmark to our trip. It encapsulated the spirit of the trip perfectly. Moments like this can’t be staged. ✨
🌀Watch the campaign video below🌀
Campaign #3 - Hikerkind x Gossamer
Our final mission was to create images for a Gossamer Gear x Hikerkind collaboration. Hikerkind is a women’s outdoor brand based in New York. Our approach here was to lean into a more editorial style and shoot this back at Topspin HQ in Houston, Texas shortly after getting over our jetlag.
Shooting outside in Houston, Texas can be a challenge for around 6 months of the year thanks to our world famous heat+humidity™️ combo. The other 4-6 months you’ll find a surprising amount of nature, interesting locations, and some of the best post-wrap dining options anywhere in US. There’s more to Houston than freeway overpasses and strip malls, although we certainly have plenty of those.
All three campaign were street cast including this one. We generally prefer to street cast whenever possible, particularly with outdoor shoots. Caroline, GG’s marketing manger was able to cast Natalee and her mom from her Austin network. While were still in Spain, Chris our associate producer who was beset by a deep case of FOMO, went out to scout a few locations I suggested.
We narrowed it down to four locations: Heights Theater, Myti Burger, Houston Farmers Market and Memorial Park. These locations were chosen partially as an homage to Rushmore, which was shot in Houston, and because we wanted a lot of color to contrast the monochromatic bags. Being able to produce shoots like this in Houston is pretty special to us. We take pride in showcasing all the amazing people and places in our sprawling hot mess of a city.
To wrap this up here’s Sean’s closing thoughts:
“What stayed with me most was collaborating with real people for our talent and drawing from their lived experiences. Those authentic, unscripted moments are what make the work meaningful, and what I’m always hoping to find along the way.”
If you made it this far, thank you for taking the time to check out our work.
Special shoutout to Caroline, Josh, and Jon from Gossamer Gear for trusting us to create all of this. I hope you sell a lot of bags so we can go on more fun trips❤️
If you’d like to see more photos, need travel recommendations, climbing/coffee intel in Spain, or anything at all really, hit me up at -
javier@topspinstudios.com
subject line: “Bad Bunny saved my life”
🌀Watch the video vignettes below🌀
