Company profile
- Industry
- Outdoor apparel
- Founded
- 1973
- Headquarters
- Ventura, United States
- Ownership
- Owned by the Patagonia Purpose Trust and the Holdfast Collective
Profiles are auto-generated and infrequently updated.
The analyses
Founder Doctrine · People & Control
'Earth Is Now Our Only Shareholder': How Patagonia's Founder Made His Values Impossible to Undo
In 2022, Yvon Chouinard gave away a $3 billion company - not to charity in the usual sense, but into a structure engineered so that no future owner, heir, or executive could ever betray its mission. It's the most radical founder doctrine in modern business: values enforced not by culture, but by the cap table.
8 min
Mission as Strategy · People & Control
Patagonia Told You Not to Buy the Jacket. It Was Rehearsing for the Day It Gave Away the Company.
The famous 2011 ad is taught as reverse-psychology marketing that lifted revenue ~30% to $543M. That reads it backwards. It was a dress rehearsal for the 2022 move that mattered: handing the whole company to the planet.
8 min
The Culture Doctrine · People & Control
Chouinard Gave Away Patagonia's $100M Profit Stream and Kept 100% of the Voting Control
In 2022 Yvon Chouinard 'gave Patagonia to the Earth.' He gave away the $100M-a-year profit stream and kept 100% of the voting control — dodging up to $1 billion in taxes while locking his values in as permanent policy. That's not charity. It's a dynasty.
8 min
The Distribution Rebellion · Moat & Competition
Patagonia Tells You Not to Buy the Jacket. Then It Repairs It Forever.
The 'Don't Buy This Jacket' ad cost about $57,000 and bought $40-50 million in free publicity. But the real machine isn't the ad - it's the repair counter, which quietly turns anti-consumerism into the deepest switching cost in outerwear.
7 min