Patagonia’s mission is “we’re in business to save our home planet. Its core values are to build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to protect nature, and not be bound by convention.
Breaking down Patagonia’s mission statement
Patagonia was founded in 1973 by Yvon Chouinard who started his company to sell handmade climbing equipment to mountaineers.
While the product line has since expanded to include athletic wear, backpacks, sleeping bags, camping food, and associated items, Patagonia’s environmental values have endured.
These values were solidified in late 2018 in response to the increasing urgency of climate change.
To reflect this situation, Chouinard and CEO Rose Marcario altered the company’s mission statement to a simple but poignant phrase: “We’re in business to save our home planet.”
Patagonia’s mission is supported by numerous initiatives and core values, and some of these are explained in the following sections.
Product durability and recycling
For Patagonia, one of the best ways to reduce its ecological impact is to sell durable items that last generations or which can also be recycled.
Through the Worn Wear program, the company encourages consumers to repair damaged items instead of throwing them out and buying replacements.
If the repair job is deemed too complex for DIY, consumers can take their items to a Repair Hub and have zippers, rips, tears, snaps, or pulls repaired for free. Alternatively, customers can mail their items to any Patagonia store.
The company understands that everything it makes has an impact on the planet in one way or another. Some of the sustainable business practices that support its mission statement include:
Materials – 100% of the virgin cotton used in Patagonia clothing is grown organically. The company also uses recycled nylon, polyester, down, wool, cashmere, and a natural, petroleum-free rubber used in surf wear that replaces neoprene.
Animal welfare – similarly, 100% of the down used in jackets and sleeping bags is responsibly sourced. The company does not use angora, fur, or exotic animal skin and only sources wool from farmers who display responsible land management practices.
Supplier transparency – unlike competitors, Patagonia shares information about its supply chains with consumers so they know where and how their clothes are made. The company is also working with partners to develop fair trade practices for suppliers in disadvantaged countries.
Using business to protect nature
Patagonia has directed 1% of all sales toward the protection and restoration of the natural environment since 1985. The program, known as “1% for the Planet”, has awarded over $140 million to businesses, individuals, and environmental groups involved in solving Earth’s most pressing issues.
Further to this program is the 1% for the Planet Impact Fund at National Philanthropic Trust. Here, consumers can also donate money to climate-focused investments that strive to build a more sustainable world.
Key takeaways:
Patagonia’s mission statement reflects a fundamental need to save the Earth with sustainable products, values, and initiatives.
Product durability and recycling are perhaps two of the most important ways Patagonia can reduce its environmental impact. The company also has strict animal welfare, fair work, and supplier transparency standards.
What’s more, Patagonia donates 1% of all sales revenue to a raft of initiatives and organizations that are involved in sustainability projects. Consumers can also donate philanthropically to climate-focused investments.
Slow fashion is a movement in contraposition with fast fashion. Where in fast fashion, it’s all about speed from design to manufacturing and distribution, in slow fashion, quality and sustainability of the supply chain are the key elements.
Fash fashion has been a phenomenon that became popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s, as players like Zara and H&M took over the fashion industry by leveraging on shorter and shorter design-manufacturing-distribution cycles. Reducing these cycles from months to a few weeks. With just-in-time logistics and flagship stores in iconic places in the largest cities in the world, these brands offered cheap, fashionable clothes and a wide variety of designs.
With over €27 billion in sales in 2021, the Spanish Fast Fashion Empire, Inditex, which comprises eight sister brands, has grown thanks to a strategy of expanding its flagship stores in exclusive locations around the globe. Its largest brand, Zara, contributed over 70% of the group’s revenue. The country that contributed the most to the fast fashion Empire sales was Spain, with over 15% of its revenues.
The Ultra Fashion business model is an evolution of fast fashion with a strong online twist. Indeed, where the fast-fashion retailer invests massively in logistics and warehousing, its costs are still skewed toward operating physical retail stores. While the ultra-fast fashion retailer mainly moves its operations online, thus focusing its cost centers on logistics, warehousing, and a mobile-based digital presence.
ASOS is a British online fashion retailer founded in 2000 by Nick Robertson, Andrew Regan, Quentin Griffiths, and Deborah Thorpe. As an online fashion retailer, ASOS makes money by purchasing clothes from wholesalers and then selling them for a profit. This includes the sale of private label or own-brand products. ASOS further expanded on the fast fashion business model to create an ultra-fast fashion model driven by short sales cycles and online mobile e-commerce as the main drivers.
Real-time retail involves the instantaneous collection, analysis, and distribution of data to give consumers an integrated and personalized shopping experience. This represents a strong new trend, as a further evolution of fast fashion first (who turned the design into manufacturing in a few weeks), ultra-fast fashion later (which further shortened the cycle of design-manufacturing). Real-time retail turns fashion trends into clothes collections in a few days or a maximum of one week.
SHEIN is an international B2C fast fashion eCommerce platform founded in 2008 by Chris Xu. The company improved the ultra-fast fashion model by leveraging real-time retail, quickly turning fashion trends in clothes collections through its strong digital presence and successful branding campaigns.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
