Patagonia donates millions to environmental causes

[Rogar]

Is there a difference between a marketing gimmick and just plain marketing? I could interpret REI’s decision to close on Black Friday and Patagonia’s Black Friday as leading by example, albeit some good publicity.

Although to me it much of it seems like feel good environmentalism, but a reasonable effort relative to the majority of the rest of retailing. It’s a little like Al Gore living in a mansion but on a different scale.

[Ultralight]

Is there a difference between a marketing gimmick and just plain marketing? I could interpret REI’s decision to close on Black Friday and Patagonia’s Black Friday as leading by example, albeit some good publicity.

Although to me it much of it seems like feel good environmentalism, but a reasonable effort relative to the majority of the rest of retailing. It’s a little like Al Gore living in a mansion but on a different scale.

REI says: "Hey everybody! We're closing on Black Friday because we are progressive and love the planet. So stop in and get your sleeping bags before then and don't forget to buy your tents and stuff online the following Monday!"

[Rogar]

REI says: "Hey everybody! We're closing on Black Friday because we are progressive and love the planet. So stop in and get your sleeping bags before then and don't forget to buy your tents and stuff online the following Monday!"

So, your point is that it's better to buy nothing rather than to buy something you don't need from a company with some attempt at corporate responsibility? I can understand that.

[Ultralight]

So, your point is that it's better to buy nothing rather than to buy something you don't need from a company with some corporate responsibility? I can understand that.

Yes.

[Gardenarian]

Patagonia was the company that really popularized fleece clothing. Unfortunately I, all that recycled plastic fleece breaks down in the wash, goes out to sea, and microplastics (from fleece) are now a major problem.

Yeah, Patagonia SHOULD be stepping up.

[Rogar]

I had to educate myself on fleece. It looked to me like Patagonia did indeed popularize fleece. It caught on quickly and became pretty much the standard popular outdoor wear and every one made it. At the time there was no concerns over the microplastics. So at least at that point it would not seem Patatonia should be held accountable for some sort of environmental hazard. In more recent history Patagonia actually funded a study to determine how much of the microfibers were working their way into the environment, mostly through the washing of the garments. https://www.outsideonline.com/209187...ious-pollutant I somehow doubt that they did this entirely of their own volition and there was probably some other general concerns.

So who is responsible. Every loves fleece and everyone makes it., including Patagonia. If we we had a functioning agency like the EPA they would study this and use the results to determine the environmental impact and establish limits and guidelines. I suppose they are barely trying to keep their heads above water these days and there are bigger fish to fry. There has been no large public out cry and my guess would be that the hardest of the hard core environmental scientists wear fleece for field work. Is it that you have to pick your battles and this one just doesn't rate? I really don't know the best answer, but no matter how much is recycled or recyclable, all of the plastic synthetics we consume are going to end up in a waste stream sometime in the near or far future and it is going to take a long time to break down.

I do some outdoor work in inclement weather and have a low opinion of fleece. It's probably cheap to make and maybe a fashion, but doesn't hold a candle to down or my favorite, wool. Especially in high humidity when the cold seems to go right through fleece. Unfortunately, I'm not so sure raising domestic sheep is that environmentally safe either.

[Yppej]

Maybe if we could replace lawnmowers with goats and use goat wool.

[bicyclist]

Folks raise good questions here! There's no free lunch or more to the point, no pollution or depletion free raw material, is there? Natural materials like cotton and wool become industrial imputs when produced on a large enough scale. At least fleece makes use of huge numbers of plastic soda bottles which present a significant disposal problem. People expect clothing to be priced affordably and that's the problem with craft items. They are

[bicyclist]

Woops!My entry got chopped. Craft items can be great but out of reach. We are depending on a system of shipping clothing around the World to take advantage of cheaper labor and that takes more energy for transportation than making it locally.If the workers are to make enough, consumers are going to have to pay more but they may come to demand greater quality and durability than if it's "fast fashion." They might even demand things made of recycled fabrics. Bicyclist