Yvon Chouinard is a world-class mountaineer, diehard surfer, obsessive fly fisher - and passionate founder and owner of Patagonia. Yvon Chouinard has built Patagonia, a purveyor of top-quality outdoor products since 1972, into a US$ 230 million company without taking it public. He has for decades maintained a tireless “my-way-or-the-highway” attitude towards corporate America that has helped him nudge both colleagues and competitors in the direction of sustainability.

Yvon Chouinard began in business by designing, manufacturing, and distributing rock climbing equipment in the late 1950's. His tinkering led to an improved ice axe that facilitated the French ice climbing technique and is the basis for modern ice axe design. In 1964 he produced his first mail order catalog, a one page mimeographed sheet containing advice not to expect fast delivery during climbing season. In 2001, along with Craig Mathews, owner of West Yellowstone's Blue Ribbon Flies, started 1% For The Planet, an alliance of businesses that contribute at least 1 percent of their net annual sales to groups on a list of researched and approved environmental organizations.

Patagonia was the first major retail company to switch all its cotton clothing over to organic, the first to make fleece from recycled soda-pop bottles, and the first to pledge 1 percent of its annual sales to grassroots environmental organizations. It has since touched off a trend that has big-name brands such as the Gap, Levi's, Nike, and Timberland incorporating organic materials into their products and taking steps to minimize environmental harm. Of course, Patagonia is not entirely free of environmental fault. For one, the multinational company does much of its manufacturing overseas, and therefore must burn a fair amount of fuel to transport its materials and products around the globe.


Extensive historical description: www.patagonia.com