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Outdoor apparel brand and environmental pioneer Patagonia recently announced that it won’t be adding any additional corporate logos to its products to prevent its gear from ending up in landfills.
Known for its green credentials and its sustainability-driven mission, Patagonia will completely ditch corporate logos in its future clothing products in order to make their clothes last longer.
The brand’s clothing, especially vests are worn by people on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley, and this new move might irk some, but is essential in reducing the firm’s impact on the planet as according to the company, using one of its garments for over two extra years can cut its overall carbon footprint by 82%.
In a statement seen on their website blog, the company said that adding an additional non-removable logo reduces the life span of a garment by several years. “People change jobs, and the extra logo makes for an awkward re-gift. People tend not to pass logo’d gear down to their kids, and not everyone wants to be an advertisement on weekends, even if they’re proud to go into work on weekdays.”
As a result, the gear ends up in the closet or worse, in landfills, and in 2018 alone, 11.3 million tons of textiles ended up in landfills.
To prevent this from happening, the brand made this decision understanding that it would cost them some business. “But we hope you’ll see this shift for what it is: another of our ongoing efforts to support a healthy planet—and a call to action. By joining us in extending the life of the gear you wear and use, you’re making a statement about your own commitment to sustainability.”
In the past, Patagonia even promoted the concept of reusable garments where it began reselling its own used items and in 2005, through its Common Threads initiative, committed to making all its clothing recyclable.
We hope you’ll see this shift for what it is: another of our ongoing efforts to support a healthy planet—and a call to action. By joining us in extending the life of the gear you wear and use, you’re making a statement about your own commitment to sustainability
Patagonia
In a prior interview, the 80-year-old founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard said that “ultimately, capitalism is going to lose its customers” and for large giants to transition to being sustainable, Chouinard from his own experience advises to “act like a small company again” and “try and achieve a situation where you’re causing the least amount of harm.“
Back in April of last year, Patagonia made a decision to no longer forge new agreements with financial companies and other businesses that aren’t following sustainability, for the production of its branded fleece vests and other clothing, and rather support those firms that are planet-conscious.
Apart from supporting planet forward businesses for its clothing production and donating 1% of all sales to environmental causes, in October of last year, Patagonia backed Infinited Fiber Company that has developed a mechanism that converts unwanted textiles to superior quality, bio-based regenerated fibers.
For its do-good mission, it was ranked as one of the top leaders in sustainability by a survey conducted by GlobeScan and global think tank SustainAbility. Joining the firm on this list were Unilever, IKEA, Interface and Natura &Co.
Lead image courtesy of Patagonia.
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