Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman

Patagonia pioneered many of the progressive workplace benefits and corporate efforts at environmentalism that are more prevalent today than they were. Has the company retained this progressive image as other companies have caught up?

Is Patagonia’s emphasis on authenticity as effective a marketing tool today as it was in its first 30 years of business? How has the proliferation of this marketing strategy impacted Patagonia’s ability to distinguish itself?

Is Patagonia’s model of environmental business universally applicable or is it best suited to companies similar to it in market base and industry?

Yvon Chouinard directed Patagonia for much of its existence. As of 2022 he is in his eighties and has largely retreated from company operations. What does the company look like without its visionary leader?

By Chouinard’s admission, Patagonia has a net-negative impact on the environment because of the inherently polluting nature of clothing manufacture. Do you believe as he does that its philanthropy and modeling of sustainable business outweigh that impact?

The 2011 Black Friday ad campaign “Don’t Buy This Jacket” led to a 30% increase in Patagonia’s sales. Was this an ingenuous marketing ploy or a failed attempt to promote the company’s environmentalism?

The Patagonia catalog was long its primary vehicle for interacting with its customers. Has the company found any equally distinctive replacement for this in the internet age?

In Chouinard’s youth, while climbing is a middle-class pursuit, he and his friends pursue it with little money and mostly homemade gear. Does this pursuit retain its authenticity in today’s itinerant climbers wearing Patagonia?