Patagonia turns 50 this year and the outdoor apparel company that was started by a self-taught blacksmith is focused on what’s next. Any hope of a thriving planet—much less a thriving business—is going to take all of us doing what we can with the resources we have.
At Patagonia, that means being in business to save our home planet and having a lot of fun along the way.
Take a look at what Patagonia and their community have achieved together, and at the work that lies ahead, to put the planet and people over profit.
Since their founding, Patagonia has remained committed to building quality products and doing less harm to the planet. Here are 10 pivotal moments when they prioritised the planet over profit:
- Changing their business model to protect the places we all love by switching from pitons to chocks for alpine climbing (1972)
- Giving their first environmental grant to a nonprofit that helped save a local surf break (1972), which led them to start giving away 1% of annual sales (1985) and co-found 1% For the Planet (2002)
- Switching from conventional cotton to organic cotton after formaldehyde sickened their employees (1996)
- Placing the “Don’t Buy This Jacket” ad on Black Friday (2011)
- Becoming the first certified B Corporation in California (2012)
- Establishing Patagonia Provisions (2012)
- Finding new ways to give back to the planet: Donating 100% of their Black Friday sales to environmental nonprofits (2016)
- Suing the Trump administration to protect Bears Ears National Monument (2017)
- ‘We are in business to save our home planet’ became their new purpose (2018)
- Changing their ownership model: ‘Earth is now our only shareholder’ (2022)
In our next 50 years, Patagonia will relentlessly focus on quality—quality products, quality connections to nature, quality capitalism. They’ll move away from things that hold us all back—expect more collaboration instead of competition, especially as we as a human race tackle existential crises like climate change.
Together, they’ll help us answer the hardest questions: Can capitalism evolve? What does quality capitalism look like? How can we better rally our community to address the root causes of the climate and ecological crisis? Who are the unexpected partners that will join along the way?
Patagonia is turning 50 and is focused on what’s next. Find out more at www.patagonia.com.au/50 and www.patagonia.co.nz/50
