Patagonia, Inc.

Yvon Chouinard, an accomplished rock climber and big wall climber, began selling hand-forged rock-climbing equipment in 1957 through his company Chouinard Equipment. He worked alone selling his gear until 1965, when he partnered with Tom Frost in order to improve his products and address the growing supply and demand issue he faced. In 1970, Chouinard obtained rugby shirts from Scotland that he wore while climbing because the collar kept the climbing sling from hurting his neck. Great Pacific Iron Works, Patagonia's first store, opened in 1973 in the former Hobson meat-packing plant at Santa Clara St. in Ventura, near Chouinard's blacksmith shop. In 1981, Patagonia and Chouinard Equipment were incorporated within Great Pacific Iron Works. In 1984, Chouinard changed the name of Great Pacific Iron Works to Lost Arrow Corporation. In 1993, Patagonia became the first company to manufacture clothing using polyester sourced from recycled bottles.

In 2012, Patagonia created a new division called Patagonia Provisions to produce food products. In 2017, Patagonia created a trade-in and exchange program called Worn Wear. In 2019, Patagonia launched a program named ReCrafted that creates and sells clothing made from scraps of fabric coming from used Patagonia gear. The program promotes longer life spans for their clothing by providing sewing videos and/or the help of professionals via events in both the United States and Europe. By the late 2010s, branded Patagonia fleece vests became known for their use by financial executives, and in 2019, Patagonia announced that its distribution of branded products would focus on firms committed to environmental, social, and corporate governance initiatives.

In September 2020, Patagonia announced that Rose Marcario would step down as its chief executive officer and be succeeded by Ryan Gellert. By 2021, Patagonia announced that it would no longer produce its clothing with added corporate logos to improve garment life-spans.

In September 2022, Chouinard transferred ownership of Patagonia (all of its voting stock, about 2% of total stock) to the Patagonia Purpose Trust, a trust overseen by the Chouinard family and advisors. Chouinard's stated goal was for profits to be used to address climate change and protect land. All nonvoting stock was transferred to Holdfast Collective, a 501(c)(4) organization. The move allowed Chouinard to avoid taxation on the gift of the nonvoting shares since it was to a nonprofit holding company, while effectively maintaining control of the company via the affiliated trust's ownership of the voting stock, although a gift tax of $17 million was assessed on the transfer of the voting stock.

In January 2026, the company sued environmental activist and drag queen Pattie Gonia for $1 for trademark infringement. While the company provided images of Gonia using branding that closely resembled the Patagonia brand logo, the activist denied using the logo in merchandise.

Labor issues

In 2007 and 2011, internal audits revealed that factories in Patagonia's second-tier supply chain in Taiwan were involved in human trafficking, leading to company efforts to address the labor abuses. The Atlantic described the issue as "a sign not of corporate hypocrisy", but of the "near impossibility of treating workers well at every step in the production process, even when a company is genuine in its desire to do so." The Atlantic stated that the typical standard is for companies to monitor only their first-tier suppliers, but Patagonia is unusual in seeking to monitor their second-tier suppliers as well. In December 2021, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights filed a criminal complaint in a Dutch court against Patagonia and other brands, alleging that they benefited from the use of forced Uyghur labor in Xinjiang, China. Patagonia ended its relationship with cotton suppliers in China and switched to Peruvian sources in July 2020.

On 10 June 2023, a Dutch investigative journalism platform, Follow the Money, published an article about Patagonia's use of the same factories that fast-fashion brands use such as Decathlon and Primark. Workers in these factories work in far worse conditions than the standard that Patagonia publicly set; Patagonia claims it works with its suppliers to try to raise wages and meet working standards. In 2024, Patagonia was involved in a lawsuit over labor issues from employees of the company's Japanese branch.