The Flying Baby From The 1995 Patagonia Ad Is All Grown Up

Patagonia
Greg Epperson/Patagonia
Greg Epperson/Patagonia

Back in 1995, Patagonia shot an image for an ad that would go on to become famous, even being turned into a meme today. The picture is of a six-month-old baby being tossed from one parent to the other, achieving some serious air time.

Today, the baby, named Jordan Leads, is 27 years old. The picture was taken back in 1991 after Greg Epperson, a rock climbing photographer, asked Leads parents if they wanted to participate in the stunt. Everything worked out and Leads landed safely in her father's arms.

The photo remained under wraps until it was released four years later as part of a Patagonia catalog. Recently, the picture was re-released for a current Patagonia catalog, along with a life update about the infamous flying baby.

Currently, Jordan Leads is studying to be a court reporter, living in Las Vegas. She claims the photo remained one of the many outdoorsy photos that peppered the walls of her childhood home. With the rise of social media, it wasn't long before the image was turned into a meme, which Leads found to be particularly humorous.

While she finds many of them funny, states that her favorite is the one "where my parents are feeding me to a Jurassic Park dinosaur. I think that's the best." Leads' parents, Jerry and Sherry, never received any real backlash for tossing their child. She's happy about that and hopes even to re-create the photo with her own child someday.