Patagonia asks consumers to buy less

The outdoor brand – long considered an environmental pioneer – startled New York Times readers to ‘Reduce, Recycle, Repair, Reuse and Reimagine’ clothing instead of buying new ones through a high impact advert which screamed: ‘Don’t Buy This Jacket’.

The move comes as part of Patagonia’s initiative to highlight its ‘Common Threads’ programme where the central and most challenging element of the initiative is “to lighten our environmental footprint, everyone needs to consume less. Businesses need to make fewer things but of higher quality. Customers need to think twice before they buy,” it stated. One good example of this campaign encourages customers to Reuse through a partnership between Patagonia and eBay whereby the latter promotes the sale of used Patagonia gear. This particular web shop is currently accessible only in the U.S., but the company is said to be planning for a launch in Europe; “eBay and Patagonia have created this unique store to encourage customers to go into their closets, find the Patagonia garments they don’t currently need, and list them on eBay to continue their useful life,” notes Rick Ridgeway, Patagonia’s VP of Environmental Initiatives.

There was clearly some soul-searching from Patagonia about whether it would be considered hypocritical for a clearly commercially driven company to make such a controversial noise in the US media. “We’re in business to make and sell products. Everyone’s pay-check relies on that,” said the company, “Moreover, we are a growing business, opening new stores and mailing more catalogues. What do we tell customers who accuse us of hypocrisy?”

The company answered this conundrum itself, by saying it would be hypocritical for Patagonia to work for environmental change without encouraging customers to think before they buy. “To reduce environmental damage, we all have to reduce consumption as well as make products in more environmentally sensitive, less harmful ways. It’s not hypocrisy for us to address the need to reduce consumption. On the other hand, it’s folly to assume that a healthy economy can be based on buying and selling more and more things people don’t need – and it’s time for people who believe that’s folly to say so.”