Even public companies with good intentions are under too much pressure to create short-term gain at the expense of long-term vitality and responsibility. But we couldn’t be sure a new owner would maintain our values or keep our team of people around the world employed.Īnother path was to take the company public. One option was to sell Patagonia and donate all the money. We needed to find a way to put more money into fighting the crisis while keeping the company’s values intact. While we’re doing our best to address the environmental crisis, it’s not enough. More recently, in 2018, we changed the company’s purpose to: We’re in business to save our home planet.

We became a certified B Corp and a California benefit corporation, writing our values into our corporate charter so they would be preserved. We started with our products, using materials that caused less harm to the environment. If we could do the right thing while making enough to pay the bills, we could influence customers and other businesses, and maybe change the system along the way. As we began to witness the extent of global warming and ecological destruction, and our own contribution to it, Patagonia committed to using our company to change the way business was done. I started as a craftsman, making climbing gear for my friends and myself, then got into apparel.

Multicam hoodie