Everyone Owned Camping Gear From This 1980s Coleman Collaboration — Now It's A Collector's Dream At Thrift Stores

Branding partnerships are nothing new, and in the 1980s and 1990s, some companies were teaming up using redemption-style promotions that encouraged repeat customers by giving away "free" items in exchange for some sort of proof of purchase. One industry that did particularly well with this marketing strategy was tobacco. In fact, at one time, it seemed like everyone owned camping gear from a Coleman collaboration with Marlboro, but now, these items are a collector's dream at thrift stores.

After saving up a specified number of UPCs, or "Marlboro Miles," off packs of Marlboros, customers could redeem prizes through the mail from the "Marlboro Adventure Team" catalogue. This promotion ran through the 1990s, but not all the gear you could get with "Marlboro Miles" was made by Coleman. That is exactly what makes Marlboro's Coleman-branded gear such a sweet find at thrift stores. These collector's items are now vintage memorabilia from a bygone era when people still had to use the good old United States Postal Service to order stuff. That's in comparison to today, when you can order your essential camping items straight from Amazon, and your package arrives virtually overnight.

Over the span of the "Marlboro Miles" promotion, the company offered a range of outdoorsy products through its prize catalogues. And for at least a few of those years, Coleman made camping gear with Marlboro branding that can be a treasure to find today. The vintage Coleman canteen is one such find. The canteen is made of metal with a black plastic lid that features the Coleman logo, and it has a red front and back with "Marlboro Unlimited" and a mountain scene on it. There's also a red strap that goes around the canteen, so it's easy to carry. A small red cooler was another Marlboro-branded item that would be a collector's dream to score from a thrift store. The cooler has the Coleman logo on its white lid, so you know who made it, and around the lid is a light brown mountain scene to promote Marlboro's cowboy image.

Later in the promotion, the Coleman Powerchill Thermoelectric cooler became an option in the "Marlboro Miles" catalogue. One Reddit user posted a picture of the electric cooler with the caption, "Dad still uses the Coleman-made, Marlboro-branded 12-volt car refrigerator he got from a 90s Marlboro catalogue." The Coleman thermos was another later addition to the promotion, and coming across one at a thrift store would be pretty cool. Although there's some stigma surrounding Marlboro and its controversial practices for getting people to use its products, coming across cool vintage camping gear from the '80s is fun and exciting for collectors and treasure hunters. However, if you're planning a camping trip, you'll probably want to bring along the top-ranked camping pillow or order one of the five highest-rated sleeping bags on Amazon, and leave the vintage gear on display at home.