Nice company, Patagonia

[farquah 0]

Didn`t know about this, but interesting and nice to know.

 

 Quote:

In a world where large corporations can be dark destroyers, Patagonia shines as an example of the environmentally positive effect a big company can have. It is leading other corporations by example; continually greening itself while increasing profits.

The company’s fleece jackets and shells are made from recycled PET bottles and car dashboards. They minimize use of toxic chemicals in leather tanning for shoes. All of their cotton is organically produced, and they are pioneering another new material that combines recycled plastic with hemp fibers. (Keep your eyes open for the new hemp shoe soon to be released with Merrell.)

 

In addition to creating a reliable, healthy product line, Patagonia grants millions for wild lands protection programs, employees are offered a month paid holiday to volunteer with environmental groups and founder Yvon Chouinard has established 1% For The Planet which encourages companies to donate 1% of net profit (or 10% pre-tax profit) to environmental causes.

More here

sufstainable lifestyles

[bushpig 0]

pretty impressive

[farquah 0]

Haven`t bought any Patagonia products here myself, but how do they compare on price with others, is it more expensive?

[Yuki's Passion 1]

Im a fan of Patagonia myself. Have had gear of theirs since I was quite young. Thats actually the first brand of clothes that I liked along with T&C, Quicksilver, HIC, and the likes.

[bobby12 0]

Ive never bought any either, I always think North Face stuff looks better. But thats impressive though, all that sustaining thingy what you said.

[daver 0]

that is one of the reasons patagonia is more expensive. other reasons are that they do not outsource their labor to developing nations. meaning that the products are made by adults that are paid decent wages and thus actually take the time to make a decent product. unlike companies like northface which 'employ' children. these children are locked in a room and forced to work for mere pennies a day with no bathroom, water, or food breaks.

makes you wonder how northface and other like companies can justify charging the outragious prices that they do.

[jgraves 0]

Yeah, I've found Patagonia slighty more expensive, but their expedition-weight polypro underwear has turned out to be worth their weight in gold. Going on eight seasons (most of which were 40+ days) of skiing in em (not to mention other hiking and camping expeditions) and they still keep me toasty even on the coldest days.

 

Tohoku and Bum give em two thumbs up

[marnix 0]

and occasionly washing them I hope

[jgraves 0]

I've spent years building up that extra layer of insulating crust. And you want me to wash it away?

[farquah 0]

was talking to a friend about this today, and she told me that apparently Uniqlo did/do the same thing, making their gear from recycled goods. Thought it was the complete opposite with those guys though, sweatshops and the like as Daver was talking about?

 

Would definately pay a few extra yen for quality and a piece of mind.

[jgraves 0]

Since I own some NorthFace gear (and like it), I got curious and did some checking. Doesn't appear (at least to me, anyway) that North Face is the devil it once was.

 

Looks like Northface had some issues with several garment-workers unions in California in the 1980's, and hasn't gotten off their $hit list since.

 

In 1999, SanFrancisco DOL levied a fine against a subcontractor used by NF. That subcontractor made some of its workers do some work at home, apparently unpaid, and that company--not NF--was forced to pay reparations to the workers.

 

Too many problems in America, so NF moved its manufacturing to DJL Indonesia (a factory hailed by the Business and Human Rights Resource Center as: "one of the brightest success stories of the global anti-sweatshop movement"). Unions' condemnation of NF changed from abusing to abandoning US workers.

 

In 2004, NF started laying plans to move operations to China in the future. That's where the trail went cold for me.

 

If anyone on this list (daver?) knows any specific documented violations by NF in China since 2004, I would certainly be interested in hearing of them.

 

Until then, I'm going to use my NorthFace gear guilt-free.

[daver 0]

well not too many documented violations of since, but i do know that they have an opperation in cambodia.

 

the biggest problem now with most of these companies is that they only do the final production at their factories. so one factory does not make all the whole product from start to finish. rather, they contract out large portions of the work to other companies. this was an issue that wallmart recently faced. in trying to ward off the evil image the friendly people at wallmart have actually become quite stringint in maintaining fair labour standards for production of all its products. however what they found was that although they could guareentee that their factories were opperating under fair working conditions, they could not guareentee that the factories that manufactured all of the textiles they ordered were keeping up to the their end of the bargain. so unless you can be assured that the company does its work from start to finish at the factory and that it purchases all its raw materials from reputable dealers then you simply can't be sure about the product.

[jgraves 0]

O.K. Point taken. But I still believe companies, like people, should be considered innocent until proven guilty.

[Ezorisu 0]

I wouldn't be so sure about that "outsourcing labour" part... I'm pretty sure when I looked at a Patagucci fleece a couple of seasons back it was "made in (insert developing Central/South American country here)". I recall wondering to myself how they could charge such a high retail price when the labour was probably peanuts.

[daver 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by Tohoku bum:
O.K. Point taken. But I still believe companies, like people, should be considered innocent until proven guilty.

fair enough, i like to be more sceptical. (that doesn't mean i stop buying the product, i only like to preach consummer responsibilty and practice it when it is convenient for me)

the way i see it, if the company has not gone out of its way to demonstrate to me that they are making there best efforts to avoid unethical labour practices, then they are hiding the fact that they are. but like i said, i just prefer to be sceptical. in my oppinion, a company has already proven its self guilty through its relentles pursuit of profit.