Yvon Chouinard – founder of Patagonia.
Reading his book – Let my people go surfing
I like their gear, and own lots of it. But in recent months I was feeling a bit ‘Howies’ with them – is it all hype and overpriced?

But, having bought this and now half way through, I genuinely think that they do work at the whole sustainable/fair trade thing in a very genuine way…
A good read – anyone else read it?

Hadn’t come across it before, but it sounds quite interesting – might grab a copy and take it on holiday with me.

Its on my list of things to read. Proper motivational management stuff before it was trendy.
I’ve got a load of Patagucci stuff – IMHO its in a different league to Howies, as is the ethos of the company.

Read it several times. He has been a hero of mine for ages because of his approach to life, business and, most importantly, people. A real humainst and shows what can be done if the ‘management’ are supportive. I’d recommend the book to anyone at all in business.

Very good read and they do come across as genuine. They haven’t started off as a brand and then worked out what to sell.
Book is honest about the mistakes and practical and ethical difficulties of growing a company.

No, but I’ve read his 80’s book on ice climbing techniques. Did you know there’s french names for about 10 different techniques of positioning your feet/crampons on a snow ice slope? one of them is ‘like a duck’ in English.

An inspirational figure, who is very honest about his shortcomings, those of his company and even capitalism in the book. Mentioning Patagonia in the same sentence as H***** is a sacrilege 😉

Just reading the final few pages at the moment!
Has been eye opening to me, for the history or Patagonia and the extents to which they have gone to reinforce triple bottom line values. From what I have seen it seems that Howies do not go to the same extents as these guys to do good, however I think those radulous guys down at Finisterre are having a good old crack at it.

What I have been especially pleased with is the fact that Chouinard started making climbing gear himself and built the company on reputation for quality localy made goods, originally.

the surfing book is an incredible management/business book aswell as being a modern day mantra.
it’s well worth a read just to see how it could be done. patagucci is massive but then the one percent that they plough into environmental action is also therefore massive.
they have set a bar and set it pretty high. i think howies aspire to be something like but have had meanderings along the way.
the problem with all manufacturing is if china decide to up their prices. we’re all stuffed then.