Its commitment was doubled down recently as its founder, Yvon Chouinard, penned an open letter, writing:“ While we’ re doing our best to address the environmental crisis, it’ s not enough. We needed to find a way to put more money into fighting the crisis while keeping the company’ s values intact.”
Looking at how to do this, the company was faced with challenges such as, if the business was sold and all the money donated, there was no guarantee the new owners would keep the same values and keep the staff employed.
There was also the option to take it public, but Yvon wrote:“ Even public companies with good intentions are under too much pressure to create short-term gain at the expense of long-term vitality and responsibility.
“ Truth be told, there were no good options available. So, we created our own.”
So instead, it is“ going purpose”, creating a unique ownership model where 100 % of voting shares transferred to the Patagonia Purpose Trust, safeguarding company values and 100 % of nonvoting shares donated
80 December 2025