Why we love Patagonia

Here at Earth Cubs we pledge to make the world a better place by educating and inspiring those who follow us; to enhance consciousness so that we can all work harder together to meet such important global goals as ending hunger and poverty.

We know we aren’t alone in this passion either, and make it our purpose to spread the word about wonderful people and brands that are committed to making the world a better, stronger place. One long-standing brand that fits this description is Patagonia, who makes and sells hiking, sports and outdoor clothing as well as bags, workwear and relevant books on activism, sport and the soulful nature of surfing.

Patagonia’s mission statement, ‘to build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis,’ is bold and beautiful. The company is part of a large and increasingly powerful movement for change, shared amongst the big players in the conscious fashion world; intent on doing all possible to save the planet by using their voice, business and community.

Patagonia founder, Yvon Chouinard, set up the business back in 1973 and has dedicated it to environmental causes from the beginning. Patagonia was always ahead of the curve of social responsibility trends and nowadays it still leads the way on many of its (ad)ventures in sustainability. This has attracted many customers and employees over the years and led to great commercial success, proving that passion can precede profit!

Patagonia puts its mission statement into practice in many creative ways. For example: did you know that apparel workers are amongst the lowest paid employees worldwide? In response to this major issue, Patagonia has built robust environmental and animal welfare responsibility programmes to guide how they make their materials and products. Long hours, low pay and job discrimination are all too common in this area as the continual demand for fast fashion makes the problem worse, everywhere and every day.

By contrast Patagonia’s social responsibility is second to none. 83% of their line is fair trade certified sewn and 66,000 workers are supported by the FairTrade programme that Patagonia participates in. Right now, Patagonia is also transforming flash into fleece, using at least 50% recycled materials and FairTrade Sewn for every item they make (you can read more about the story of fleece on Patagonia’s website, here). They also offer a repair reuse program and actually go so far as to discouraging customers from purchasing too many of their products. Isn’t that amazing? Imagine having that much faith in what you do and how you do it that you can actually tell people not to overspend and over consume. Sounds like true self-confidence, doesn’t it?

Ask yourself this: if you were truly confident that you would still succeed financially, what principles would you put in the centre of your working life/business?

And if you knew you would not fail, what would you never compromise on? This is what setting heart-led goals looks like. You can tinker with the finer details later, but getting and staying clear on what truly matters is the secret of many brilliant ethical business plans.