Broughton Quarterly - Fall 2008 - (Page 34) Left: Wilderness pursuits like surfing and climbing have always outweighed Chouinard’s interest in business. Ironically, that passion is the driving force behind Patagonia inc.’s success. Opposite page: The real Patagonia, Torres del Paine and the glaciers of Southern Chile. line, Chouinard and his associates determined that they would need an umbrella name; “Patagonia” was chosen, a catchy name, pronounceable in every language, and one that, especially back in 1973, carried a marketable mystique. At this time, Chouinard had his second foray into the environmental movement, instigated by the proposal to channelize the Ventura River. But Chouinard claimed that his motivations weren’t necessarily green.“All we were concerned about was that it would screw up the rivermouth,” he said.“Less sand would go out there to the point and it would screw up the surf. There wasn’t much concern about environmental aspects.” But the Ventura River battle—which was spearheaded and won by a young activist named Mark Capelli—opened up Chouinard’s eyes to “the power of one person.” He saw the effect of grassroots activism, and realized that with a growing company—and an employee roster of folks who cared about the outdoors—he had the unique opportunity to effect change. The activism spirit still runs strong at Patagonia: These days, the company will pick up your bail if you get arrested protesting. While Chouinard honed his chops within the growing environmental movement of the 1970s, it wasn’t until Patagonia suffered a crisis in the early ’90s that he began rethinking aspects of the traditional American business model. Throughout the 1980s, Chouinard led the way with numerous innovations and designs that set Patagonia apart from all other outdoor clothing lines. Then, in 1991, following consecutive annual postings of 30 to 50 percent growth, the company fell victim to the national recession.“We were growing way too fast,” said Chouinard.“We were growing in all the traditional ways. We thought it was gonna go on forever. That was before I really got a grip on what I wanted to do, what was important to us.” “Black Wednesday,” the darkest day ever for the company, was July 3 broughton Quarterly FALL 2008
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.