Yvon Chouinard

Yvon Chouinard’s business began with equipment he needed as a climber. In 1957 he taught himself to forge steel pitons and sold them to other climbers. With Tom Frost he built Chouinard Equipment, then faced a conflict inside its success: hammering pitons into rock caused damage. The partners cut back that business and promoted removable chocks in their 1972 catalog. Clothing grew from the same habit of using and testing products outdoors. Chouinard brought home a rugby shirt from Scotland that suited climbing, and friends wanted one too. In 1973 the clothing line took the name Patagonia. It became a business with its own designs and materials, built with the work of Malinda Chouinard, colleagues and suppliers as well as its founder. The company’s stated values did not prevent a painful growth crisis. In 1991, sales slowed, a lender called its loan and Patagonia laid off one fifth of its staff. Later decisions made environmental aims a stronger part of operations. The switch to organic cotton required changes throughout the supply chain, not just a new label. Chouinard and Craig Mathews also founded 1% for the Planet in 2002. In 2022, the Chouinard family transferred Patagonia’s voting shares to the Patagonia Purpose Trust and nonvoting shares to the Holdfast Collective. The trust protects the company’s values; profits left after reinvestment fund the Collective’s environmental work. The family retained a role in the trust. This is a specific ownership design, not an end to the need to manage a trading company or reduce its harm.