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In 1973, American rock climber and environmentalist, Yvon Chouinard, decided to start his own outdoor clothing company, Patagonia. Named after the stunning mountain range that encompasses the southern end of South America, the brand was extremely popular with adventurous types. Fast forward almost 50 years, and the California-based label is forecasted to bring in a whopping $1.5 billion in revenue by the end of 2022, thanks to the gorpcore trend that completely dominated the fashion scene this year. With all that said, after half a century of success, Chouinard has now announced that he intends on giving away the company to fight climate change.
Throughout the past five decades, Patagonia has always been an imprint that places a huge focus on sustainability. In an official statement, Chouinard said, "While we’re doing our best to address the environmental crisis, it’s not enough. We needed to find a way to put more money into fighting the crisis while keeping the company’s values intact." Rather than going public and selling the brand to another owner, all of Patagonia's profits that aren't being reinvested into the company will be given to the Patagonia Purpose Trust and the Holdfast Collective which fights for environmental causes. This is estimated to be around $100 million every year.
With the rise of fast fashion, the industry accounts for about 8 to 10% of global carbon emissions and nearly 20% of wastewater. On top of that, according to a new report from the United Nations, fashion uses up more energy than both aviation and shipping industries combined. “It’s been nearly 50 years since we began our experiment in responsible business, and we are just getting started," Chouinard continued. "If we have any hope of a thriving planet—much less a thriving business—50 years from now, it is going to take all of us doing what we can with the resources we have. This is another way we’ve found to do our part."
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