brand timeline
The story of Pataonia: one of the world’s most active and responsible brands when it comes to caring for people and the planet.
1953
Yvon Chouinard, the future founder of Patagonia, starts his climbing career at the age of 14. After learning how to rappel during his stint in the Southern California Falconry Club, Chouinard and his friends are gripped and start hopping trains to the west end of the San Fernando Valley. It is at the sandstone cliffs of Stoney Point he learns to climb up as well as rappel down.
1957
Chouinard goes to a junkyard to buy a used coal fired forge, a 138-pound anvil, some tongs and hammers. He teaches himself how to blacksmith in order to make his own pitons for climbing and sells them to other members of the climbing community. Making his first pitons from an old harvester blade, Chouinard uses them on ascents of the Lost Arrow Chimney and the North Face of Sentinel Rock in Yosemite.
1964
Chouinard partners with fellow climbing enthusiast and aeronautical engineer Tom Frost to develop a high-end climbing piton called the Realized Ultimate Reality Piton (RURP), which enables the pair to complete the hardest aid climb yet completed in North America.
1965
Yvon and Tom Frost officially go into business together and set up Chouinard Equipment. They aim to create, redesign and improve climbing tools, offering better, stronger and lighter versions of everything climbers need. The pair focus on meeting the demands that Yvon previously faced alone, including the development of climbing hexes, or ‘Hexcentrics’ which have been used in climbing ever since.
1968
Chouinard completes the ascent of Monte Fitz Roy and documents the experience in a film called Fitzroy. Part of the Patagonia region which contains the southern Andes, the mountain is considered one of the world’s toughest climbs.
1970
Chouinard Equipment has grown to be the largest climbing hardware company in the US. However, the company quickly becomes aware of the permanent damage their pitons are doing to the rocks. Chouinard and Frost subsequently decide to move out of the piton industry, which accounts for 70% of their turnover; a significant business risk yet one that shows their consideration for the environment first and foremost.
In the same year Yvon starts wearing Umbro rugby shirts that he picks up in Scotland while climbing. Their tough construction and large collar that protects the neck from the rub of climbing slings makes them perfect for the sport.
1972
Chouinard Equipment introduces aluminum chocks to the climbing market. These are a big improvement on the rock damaging pitons used by climbers at the time in terms of environmental impact. Rather than being hammered into cracks, these chocks are wedged by hand. The risk pays off and soon demand for the new aluminium chocks exceeds the rate at which Chouinard Equipment can produce them. This helps to bring about the ‘clean climbing’ movement championed by Chouinard in the company’s first equipment catalogue, which included a significant amount of information on climbing ethics alongside showcasing products.
Sales of outdoor clothing and accessories begin when Chouinard starts importing the rugby shirts he found on his Scottish climbing trip two years earlier and selling them to the US outdoor community. He also introduces other outdoor clothing products to the American market, including polyurethane rain cagoules and bivouac sacks imported from Scotland, boiled-wool gloves and mittens imported from Austria as well as hand made knitted hats made in the US.
Chouinard also creates the iconic Stand Up Short with the help of a friend’s wife. Made from tough No. 10 canvas, the shorts are so stiff that they’re able to stand up by themselves, which is where their name comes from. The shorts remain part of Patagonia’s collection to this day, with few changes other than being Fair Trade Certified and made of softer organic cotton for increased comfort.
1973
The Patagonia brand is officially born as Chouinard Equipment adopts the name Patagonia for its outdoor clothing range and the brand opens its first store near Chouinard’s blacksmith shop. Housed in a meat-packing plant at Santa Clara St in Ventura, the store becomes the first of its kind for the company.
The Patagonia name helps to differentiate clothing lines from Chouinard Equipment’s mountaineering specific products, enabling the brand to be seen as not offering only products for mountain climbers but for everyone involved in outdoor activities. The name is chosen as Chouinard was inspired by his visits to the Patagonia region, and considers the name to sound like a wondrous, far flung and almost mythical place.
1974
Patagonia employees attend a city council meeting to protest the potential disruption to a popular surf break as a result of proposed development of the mouth of the Ventura River. Considered a dead river, a young graduate named Mark Capelli presents evidence of the importance of the river for wildlife, and the development plans are overturned. Patagonia provides Capelli with office space and contributions to help him fight to save and clean up the river, leading to the formation of the Friends Of Ventura River action group, and marking Patagonia’s first foray into environmental activism.
1975
Patagonia introduces its now iconic logo which features a silhouette of Mount Fitz Roy, a mountain in the Patagonia region between Argentina and Chile. Designed in collaboration between Yvon Chouinard and Jocelyn Slack, a freelance artist working for Patagonia, the logo is currently used on most Patagonia products including a range of Fitz RoyPatagonia t-shirts, made from 100% organic cotton.
1977
Patagonia releases the Pile Fleece Jacket, which quickly becomes a signature look for the brand and inspires other staple items such as the Better Sweater jacket in the years to come. Designed for cold weather use, the Pile Fleece jacket is made from thick insulating fleece fabric and features a high neckline inspired by the clothing used by fishermen in tough conditions.
1980
Patagonia releases a range of insulating base layers made from polypropylene which absorbs no water. After various experiments and plentiful research, the underwear makes its breakthrough and is picked up by the outdoor community as a replacement for garments made from cotton which absorbs and holds onto moisture, leading to a chilling effect in cold conditions.
Patagonia begins to educate wearers on the concept of layering their clothing. Layering involves using breathable base layers to move sweat and moisture that has the potential to freeze away from the body, middle layers designed for warmth and insulation and outer shells to provide protection from wind and rain.
1981
Chouinard Equipment and Patagonia are incorporated within Great Pacific Iron Works, named after the brand’s first store of the same name. The Patagonia brand also pioneers the use of colourful garment designs in the outdoor industry, bringing a breath of fresh air customers previously only able to select from traditional greens, greys and browns.
1982
Patagonia releases its iconic ‘Baggies’ shorts. Designed by Yvon Chouinard, the shorts are made from water repellent nylon fabric. Intended to be suitable for a wide range of outdoor activities, Baggies are quick drying, lightweight yet tough. The shorts prove to be popular with a wide range of customers and become a staple of the Patagonia collection. As firm favourites since their introduction, Baggies remain relatively unchanged in terms of design over the coming decades, but move to recycled nylon in 2018.
1983
Away from developing new products, Patagonia becomes one of the first companies in the US to provide on-site childcare for employees, helping new parents return to work and improving staff retention. Childcare is part of Patagonia’s lifelong commitment to treating staff fairly, which also includes paid time off and sick days, which at the time is unusual for US businesses.
1984
Patagonia opens an on-site cafeteria for employees serving healthy organic food throughout the day, as part of the company’s ethos of taking care of employees as well as customers and the planet. The company also eliminates private offices, a move that will see open plan working helping to create a culture of communication and collaboration amongst employees.
In the same year, while sales of polypropylene base layer range are strong, Patagonia looks to address issues with the products that include difficulty in removing stains, odour retention and a reduction in moisture wicking ability after being washed.
At the Sporting Goods show in Chicago, Yvon Chouinard experiences a demonstration of polyester sports jerseys being cleaned of grass stains. The company that made these jerseys, Milliken, had also created a manufacturing process to give the fabric permanent moisture wicking properties. Chouinard realises this type of polyester would be a perfect material for Patagonia’s base layer products.
1985
Making the jump to polyester, the whole underwear range is put at risk, and while initial sales figures favour the old polypropylene, core customers gradually make the switch to better performing fabric called Capilene. The risk pays off and sales boom.
The legendary non-pilling Synchilla Fleece is also introduced to the market and used initially in Patagonia’s Snap-T pullover. Taking its name from its soft handle and high warmth, making it a ‘synthetic chinchilla’, Synchilla has since become a mainstay of Patagonia’s range.
1986
It’s decided that 10% of company profits will be donated to environmental groups. The stance evolves as Patagonia decides to commit either 1% of total sales or 10% of profit, whichever is higher. This commitment has been stuck to ever since.
1987
Patagonia launches its first Pataloha climbing shirt. A combination of Hawaiian inspired designs interworked with depictions of climbing gear, the Pataloha shirt range has continued ever since, with special editions released through the years such as the return of the Polynesian voyaging canoe Hokule’a to Hawaii in 2017 after a 3 year voyage, and the 30-year anniversary edition also released in 2017.
1988
Patagonia’s first national environmental campaign is initiated and focuses on plans to deurbanize the Yosemite Valley. Every year since, Patagonia has campaigned and raised awareness about a different environmental issue.
The brand also debuts its H2NO waterproof fabric with the Storm jacket. The technology has since been continuously improved to reduce environmental impact and improve performance, and is used on most of Patagonia’s waterproof jacketsto this day.
1989
Chouinard Equipment is forced to file for bankruptcy after losing a series of lawsuits relating to safety issues. Meanwhile, Patagonia is a founding member of The Conservation Alliance, an organisation that strives to protect outdoor spaces by bringing together the power of brands and communities.
A group of former employees buy the Chouinard Equipment Company and continue to manufacture the innovative climbing products under the name Black Diamond Equipment.
1990
Patagonia’s quality team starts to review potential manufacturing partners in terms of both the quality of the products produced and the conditions for factory employees.
Patagonia introduces a policy to not work with any factory that they are not able to visit in person to check on working conditions.
