Patagonia Is a Manufacturer of Outdoor Sportswear

Patagonia is a business that makes clothing for snowboarding, climbing, skiing, trail running, surfing and other outdoor sports. These activities rely on the health of the environment in a sense because all of these activities happen out in the wild. Patagonia realizes this, and believes that they need to help with the mission to limit the increasing damage that is being done to the environment each year. In order to do this, Patagonia donates 1 percent of their sales (at the very least) towards different environmental groups around the world. Patagonia also realizes that it is very hard to run a business without polluting in some way, and they do not lie about it. They admit that from the way that their stores are lit, and their shirts are colored and designed that pollution is an inevitable by-product.

In order to balance this out they recycle their polyester in the clothes and also use organic cotton only. To be exact, Patagonia’s mission statement is “to build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis”. As we can see, they are very serious about trying to help the environment. There are not many companies out there that prioritize the environment like they do, let alone mention it in the company’s mission statement. For example, Columbia, one of Patagonia’s competitors, has the mission statement that follows, “Design and deliver authentic, outdoor, high-value products for active consumers of all ages”. It seems really basic, and not well thought out. This shows that Patagonia is more conscious of what the operations of their business and other businesses are doing.

In the past and even currently, companies type out annual performance reviews for employees. It might include information regarding how that employee performed the past year and possibly an interview-style Q&A with the employee, where the voice their opinion about how they like their job and actions that can be taken in order to improve the job. Having just one review per year, companies do not have idea of how their employees are feeling day-to-day. Patagonia is one of the first companies to notice this problem and act on it by buying an employee-engagement software platform, which would keep track of their employees’ feedback daily. This reduces turnover because they are able to spot the signs of an at risk of quitting employee and take action to prevent this. Patagonia likes to make all of their employees feel included, and daily interaction will keep turnover low and morale high.

At Patagonia they view everyone in the company as a potential leader. They believe that leadership can come from any level and they encourage everyone to speak up if they have a good idea or if even if it is against what management thinks. With that being said, a leader also has to have a long-term vision in mind, they have to be able to take on the risks and create and inspire change within the company. An example of these leadership qualities being put into place is when the founder (Yvon Chouinard) decided that on top of focusing on creating sustainable outdoor apparel, they are now going to focus on regenerative agriculture, something completely unrelated to Patagonia. However, this is an example of taking on risks and creating change. Patagonia’s founder does an excellent job of leading by example.

As discussed in the previous sections of this project, Patagonia has a great history, they care about the well being of the environment, their employees, and their customers. Patagonia wants their customers to have a fulfilling experience and to feel good about every purchase they make. In order to create this feeling, they make sure to advertise their products as renewable, environmentally friendly, and sustainable. On top of this, they also donate 1% of their profits to charities that help out the environment every year. After purchasing the product, the customer can have peace of mind and feel good about themselves because they know that their product did not harm anything in the process of being made, it will last a long time, and the money they used to buy it will go towards a noble cause to help the environment.

Another benefit to making your customers feel good about their purchases is that it reduces the amount of buyer’s remorse that people have. If customers feel any doubt about a product their chances of returning are much higher, keeping that feeling to a minimum is always beneficial. The company’s ideal customer is an active outdoorsman that is environmentally conscious. Patagonia’s customers are known to donate a lot of money towards the company because they know they can trust their money in Patagonia’s hands and that they will put that money towards charities that will make a difference environmentally.

The company personality of Patagonia is exciting, honest, ethical, and athletic. The best example of their company personality is when they ran an ad which pictured one of their most popular jackets and the title was “Don’t buy this jacket”. The reasoning behind this advertising strategy was that Patagonia does not want customers to buy clothes that they do not need. They also explained that the jacket they had pictured takes over 100 liters of water to make, and that amount of water could meet the daily needs of over 40 people. In the advertisement they went on to urge customers to bring in their ripped or worn clothing in for repair, to be reused, or to be recycled. Patagonia’s competitors such as Columbia and Canada Goose do not have a system in place to reuse, recycle, or repair their apparel. They, like most companies, just want you to buy their products every year so that they can make the most profit. After looking into both of these competitors, it does not seem like they mention the environment much at all in their mission and vision statements for the company. The mission