Columbia Sportswear is putting a very unusual spin on the internet’s obsession with feet pics, offering hikers the chance to earn £135 for a photo of their bare feet.
Yes, you read that correctly. Columbia is officially paying people for feet pics – but there’s a catch. The feet in question need to have been photographed outdoors while out on a hike.
The tongue-in-cheek campaign, dubbed the F££T FUND, has been launched to celebrate the arrival of Columbia’s latest Peakfreak™ hiking shoes, with the brand turning one of the internet’s stranger side hustles into an outdoor marketing campaign.
Shop Columbia’s Peakfreak collection
Columbia Wants Your Feet Pics
Launching on 15 September 2026, the F££T FUND will invite hikers to send Columbia a photo of their bare feet taken outdoors during a hike.
Selected entries will receive a £135 payment directly from Columbia, giving successful participants enough to purchase a pair of Peakfreak shoes and, naturally, put their newly photographed feet back where they belong – inside a decent pair of hiking shoes.
The campaign is designed to playfully tap into the booming market for feet photography, while giving the outdoor footwear brand a chance to put the spotlight firmly on the feet that actually get people through a hike.
Rather than celebrating feet for their own sake, Columbia says the campaign is about highlighting what good footwear can do for them.
From TikTok Teasers to a Very Unusual Unboxing
The campaign will roll out across social platforms including TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat, initially using a series of teasers designed to make the F££T FUND look considerably more mysterious than it actually is.
Outdoor influencers will then share screenshots of what appear to be private messages from Columbia asking them for feet pics.
According to the campaign, those messages are real.
The big reveal will come through an unusual unboxing video from creator James Norbury, who will attempt to unpack a pair of Peakfreak hiking shoes using only their feet.
That means lifting the shoes out of the box with their toes and even removing the tissue paper with their feet – turning what would normally be a fairly standard footwear unboxing into something considerably more bizarre.
The creator campaign will run across markets throughout EMEA.
£135 for Your Trail-Tested Toes
For anyone wanting to enter, the process is relatively simple: hikers need to DM Columbia with a photo of their bare feet taken outdoors on a hike.
Columbia will select winning entries and pay £135 directly to those participants.
The winning feet will also be featured in the brand’s Hall of Feet, a social gallery celebrating what Columbia describes as the finest examples of trail-tested toes.
The campaign ties directly into the launch of the new Peakfreak range, which Columbia positions around comfort, traction and support for hikers tackling everything from challenging terrain to long-distance journeys.
Columbia’s current Peakfreak collection includes several hiking and walking styles, with the latest Peakfreak 3 OutDry described as a lightweight, waterproof hiking shoe designed for traction and all-day comfort.
For more outdoor inspiration, check out Verge’s coverage of the Columbia Hike Society’s 30 free UK hikes for 2026.
Why Is Columbia Paying for Feet Pics?
The campaign is clearly designed to grab attention in a crowded social media landscape, taking the familiar language of online feet-pic culture and giving it a distinctly outdoorsy twist.
Columbia says the wider feet-pic business is predicted to be worth €2.3 billion by the end of 2026, according to Statista, but the brand is keen to make clear that this particular campaign isn’t about fetish content.
Instead, the joke is that hikers spend plenty of time photographing mountain summits, scenic viewpoints and epic landscapes, while the feet responsible for getting them there are usually ignored.
And that’s exactly where Columbia wants to put the spotlight.
Built to Protect Your Most Important Hiking Equipment
Issam Djemel, Europe Footwear Director at Columbia, said:
“We designed the new Peakfreak to keep hikers comfortable across long journeys, challenging terrains and unpredictable conditions. But instead of talking about our innovations in cushioning, traction and support, we’re shining a spotlight on the thing the shoe is built to protect – your feet.”
It is a suitably unconventional approach for a footwear launch, particularly when the product itself is designed to keep those feet comfortable mile after mile.
Ant Nelson, Chief Creative Officer at adam&eve\TBWA, added:
“Hikers proudly share snaps of mountain summits and epic views, but the feet that carried them there rarely get any recognition.”
The campaign’s creative team says the F££T FUND deliberately moves away from the traditional polished outdoor advertising formula, opting instead for something designed to stop people scrolling.
And judging by the premise alone, £135 for a picture of your hiking feet is certainly one way to get people’s attention.
How to Enter Columbia’s F££T FUND
The F££T FUND launches across Columbia’s social channels from 15 September 2026.
To enter, hikers simply need to:
- Take a photo of their bare feet outdoors while on a hike
- DM the photo to Columbia
- Wait to see whether their trail-tested toes have made the cut
- Selected entrants will receive £135
- Winning feet could also appear in Columbia’s Hall of Feet
If your hiking boots have been doing all the hard work while your feet have received none of the credit, this might finally be their moment.
