American outdoor brand Patagonia is so expensive? Brand stories you may not know.

Three or two things you may not know about brands-Patagonia.

Don't buy our jackets! This is an advertisement for Patagonia, one of the largest foreign clothing brands in the United States. What kind of company will tell customers not to buy their own products? Obviously, Patagonia has its own unique corporate culture. It merged and selected one of the most suitable 100 companies to explore anecdotes about the brand.

Why Patagonia?

Patagonia originally refers to the Patagonia Plateau, which is located in the vast mountainous area east of the Andes in South America (Argentina and Chile). Yvon Shu Inad, the founder of Patagonia brand, and his friends have climbed the ridge here many times. Just like Yosemite's half dome is in the north, many challenging peaks in Patagonia are inspired by their firm and adventurous exploration spirit to name their own brands.

The brand Logo is also inspired by the unique mountain shape of the most representative monte fitz roy in this mountainous area.

Fitzroy Mountain influenced several great climbers, among which Tommy Caldwell, the first free climber of Emirates Rock, named his son Fitz.

From rock nails to rock machinery —— Creating a commodity to change the development of American rock climbing ecology.

1957 Yvon Shu Inad taught himself how to strike iron with pliers and a hammer, and tried to make his own climbing equipment. At that time, the widely used European-made pitons had to remain in the rock after use, which not only destroyed the surface and environment of the rock, but also improved and made reusable pitons, which were widely praised and sold by friends, and promoted the birth of Chouinard equipment, the predecessor of Patagonia.

Although the reusable rock nail was well received, the damage to the rock could not be solved, and then he began to make rock machinery that could be inserted into and taken out of the rock wall by hand without changing the structure of the rock wall. And write an environmental protection report in the catalogue to explain the use of climbing machinery, and vigorously advocate clean climbing without leaving traces, which completely changed the ecological habits and future development of climbing at that time.

Black Diamond and Patagonia belong to the same company?

The predecessor of Patagonia, Chouinard Equipment, was involved in legal disputes in the late period of 1980. In order not to affect the development of Patagonia (mainly clothing) at that time, it filed for bankruptcy with the court, and at the same time, employees were allowed to raise funds to buy the company's assets, and outdoor products were moved to Salt Lake City and reorganized into black diamonds, which are still there today.

Black Diamond, an outdoor brand widely known for its headlights and rock climbing equipment, originally belonged to the same company as Patagonia: Chouinard Equipment.

Relationship entanglement with North Face

Patagonia and North Face can be said to be the leading brands in the outdoor field today, but many people don't know that in fact, the founder of Patagonia, Von Shu Inad, and the founder of North Face, Douglas tompkins, are very good friends. Usually they love to go outdoors, climb mountains together and engage in various outdoor activities. In addition, we often invest in environmental protection and protect the natural ecology.

Douglas tompkins, founder of North Face (left), Rick ridgway, a famous outdoor writer (middle) and Yvon Shu Inad, founder of Patagonia (right).

However, the founder of North Face sold the brand two years after it was founded, because Douglas Tompkin wanted to raise money to produce it. Nevertheless, the relationship between the two brands is not over yet. Later, Douglas Tompkin married Kristine L. McDivitt, the former CEO of Patagonia, and continued his fate with Patagonia. Even when he is engaged in outdoor activities, he wears Patagonian clothes instead of North Face.

Collect 1% earth tax from earth sponsors.

Patagonia has been engaged in outdoor activities for many years, which makes them deeply understand the importance of ecological conservation. Starting from 1986, it decided to levy an earth tax on itself, donating 10% of the company's profits to eco-conservation related NGOs every year, and later increasing the amount to 1% of the turnover (or 10% of the net profit before tax).

200 1 set up a business alliance and donate to the earth 1%. It is hoped that more business owners will join in the action of protecting the earth and donate at least 1% of their annual turnover to non-profit environmental protection organizations all over the world, thus promoting the environmental protection movement of global business owners.

FCD surfboards are also related to Patagonia?

The full name of FCD is Fletcher Chouinard Design Company (Surfboard). Fletcher is the son of Yvon Shunard, the founder of Patagonia. Influenced by my father since childhood, I decided to make surfboards as my lifelong career when I was a teenager. At that time, people had to carry 6- 10 surfboards to surf abroad, because more than half of them would break down during transportation. In order to solve the problem of durability of surfboards and keep proper quality at the same time, Fletcher constantly researched and developed, sorted out all the standards defining the quality and performance of surfboards, made hundreds of boards to test strength, elasticity, weight and so on, and finally made a lighter, stronger and equally excellent surfboard under strict requirements.

Rock climbing and surfing are two outdoor sports that founders and early employees mainly engage in. The picture shows Fletcher Chouinard and his handmade wave board.

The most successful marketing in history "Don't buy this jacket".

On 20 1 1 Black Friday (the most important shopping day in American retail industry), Patagonia Company published a full-page advertisement in The New York Times that day, with the slogan "Don't buy this jacket", explaining the possible environmental impact of a specific jacket (made by themselves) and publishing an article. The content is about the possible environmental challenges caused by consumption patterns and so on. Call on consumers to think twice before shopping, and don't buy unnecessary things under the guise of the harm caused by their own goods to the environment.

This advertisement did not affect the company's sales, aiming to attract people who agree with the brand concept and cultivate more friendly consumption habits. At that time, it caused widespread repercussions.

Old clothes renovation sales plan

Patagonia's message has always revolved around four R's: recycling, reuse, restoration and consumption reduction. In 20 13, the company decided to start with restoration, so it started the wear-out project.

They hired more employees in garment repair shops, set up simple repair centers in general retail stores, and uploaded teaching videos on the Internet, including how to repair zippers, sew buttons and other hand-made skills. Patagonia transforms old clothes on Worn Wear platform, resells them at a cheaper price, and advocates the environmental protection concept of restoration and reuse.

In 20 15, modified vehicles were dispatched all over the country to carry out mobile emergency repair work. Patagonia's products receive maintenance service for life, but it is inconvenient to maintain the stronghold in China.

Patagonia is a private enterprise and the most suitable company for work.

In the period of explosive growth of turnover in the past, many buyers were in contact with Patagonia, hoping to make the company grow faster and go public. However, Patagonia knows very well that becoming a listed company or partnership will bind the brand's operating mode, limit the way to deal with profits, and put itself on the road of enterprise growth and destruction. Patagonia has always been a private company with closed equity, committed to implementing the company's basic core concepts, and maintained its original corporate culture and core values: fairness, justice and environmental sustainable development.

Yvon Shu Inad

In recent years, Patagonia has not forced itself to become the most prominent company in the outdoor products market, but this is not in line with its original character. Control the growth of enterprises at the rate of their own organic growth. Persistent concern for the environment and unique corporate culture make Patagonia the most suitable 100 enterprise and one of the top 25 medium-sized enterprises in the world.