PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Columbia Sportswear’s CEO Tim Boyle is calling the opportunity of having the Portland-based company’s fabric surround a spacecraft that landed on the moon Thursday an “unbelievable” opportunity.

The gold-coated material, called omni-heat infinity fabric, insulated the lunar lander. It’s the same material that can be found in Columbia coats. The NASA mission represents the first time an American spacecraft landed on the moon’s surface in more than half a century.

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Despite the high point for the company, it comes after Columbia announced they’re preparing to complete a round of layoffs in Portland. Boyle told KOIN 6 News he wants Columbia to grow, make a profit and be in the right spot financially while still recognizing their involvement in the mission of the lunar lander — called Odysseus — is a moment to celebrate.

“Just unbelievable to be a part of something that’s such a big historic event,” Boyle said.

Cheers erupted from employees as they came together at the Columbia headquarters in Cedar Mill to watch the lander touch down.

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This comes at a time when Columbia Sportswear plans to slash 3-5% of its workforce by the end of March. Most of the cuts will impact corporate workers. The CEO said the company came up short of expectations for sales and profits.

“We haven’t grown this last year,” Boyle said. “It’s important that we have a managed financial system so that we can be very strong and last for a long time.”

Boyle went on to explain Columbia was founded by his grandparents in 1938 so it’s imperative that he and the others in charge at the executive level “run the business fiscally responsibly.”

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He said the many challenges moving forward will “require very diligent work by really all of us” not just the government alone.

“If a little company in Portland, Oregon can help put a lander on the moon first time in 50 years, we ought to be able to clean up the trash and graffiti.”

The lunar lander represents a lot of firsts, not only for Columbia, but for moon missions in general. For instance, it is the first spacecraft to land on the moon that was made by a private company, the Texas-based Intuitive Machines.

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“We look forward to the future the things we’re going to learn from this, this moon landing and what we can do in the future for humans here on the planet,” said Joe Boyle, Columbia’s executive vice president.

The lander will remain on the moon for a week to conduct experiments.

Columbia told KOIN 6 News they’ll be teaming up on another space mission with different technology soon.

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