[spodek]

I toured Patagonia's headquarters last year after featuring Vincent Stanley, who has been with them since 1973, on my podcast http://joshuaspodek.com/guests/vincent-stanley. The culture was amazing -- friendly, productive, supportive.

I asked a random employee to join me for lunch. Whatever I asked about company vision, culture, etc she knew. When I asked why they did this or that thing a certain way, she'd say things like "Person A saw a problem with how we were doing it before, but couldn't solve it. Person B figured out how to solve it but couldn't implement it. Person C implemented it."

Critical to all their decisions, as I heard, were the environment, employees, suppliers' employees, and customers.

In most places, Person A's recognition of a problem would lead to everyone else saying, "Well, what can you do?" and leave it. If by some chance person B solved it despite the inertia, people would respond, "But what about X or Y" or some edge case and leave it.

Nearly any company could learn from Patagonia's culture.

[50208]

I too was extremely lucky to visit the Ventura headquarters on a random trip to the area several years ago. I was going to get a "surf lesson" from Chipper (who I was half-jokingly told was the highest paid receptionist in the world) but he needed to reschedule. By happenstance, Yvon was there and he was going to hand forge a piton in the old tin shed ... the piton would be auctioned off (for the AAC I believe).

Chipper said, "I can't surf right now but you can go watch Yvon make a piton if you want ... oh here is Yvon right now ... Yvon, meet (my name), (my name), meet Yvon." So I turn and there he is. He's tiny, he smiles, we shake hands quickly, and he's out the door. I'm like, hell yeah ... I want to watch him make a Piton.

Chipper quickly walks me over to the tin shed, opens the door and shoves me into the standing room only shed filled with Patagonia employees who look at me like "who is this interloper?" for a split second before returning their attention to Yvon, who has started doing his thing. Over the next 30 minutes Yvon narrated as he took a piece of iron, heated it, hammered it, forged it, bent it, ground it with the original metal working machines (all older than me). It was as if nothing in the tin shed had changed in decades ... nothing had been cleaned or moved. It was exactly as it had been. And Yvon busted out a perfect Angle piton as expertly as if it was 1960-something.

A bit of Tin Shed action can be seen in the awesome movie Mountain of Storms:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ympydy7f1Mg

I look back on it now 12 years later as if it was a dream ... but no, I was there. Like the author of the article, I am a 90's guy who found my callings via the Patagonia catalog (I still have my 1st one, Spring 1992). I moved from Kentucky to the mountain west after high school and over the years became a climber, ww kayaker, skier, surfer, mtb'er, etc ... just like Yvon, but never to his level ... dude was an athletic badass before his time. He's also in reality an avant-garde political, social, business and environmental badass well beyond our current understandings IMO. I feel very lucky to have met him and watched him make that piton.

[spodek]

I hung out with Chipper too, which was delightful. He took me out for a surfing lesson, but there were no waves that day. With my background in ultimate Frisbee and his freestyling, we had a great time tossing the disc instead.

As it turns out, I had stood next to Yvon in the cafeteria without realizing it. Chipper told him about me but this was November 2018 and there were huge nearby wildfires. Yvon said he had to help his community.

Chipper also took me to the tin shed and for the rest of my visit people treated my visiting it as a sign of honor so I took it that way. Since visiting it, I've noticed the phrase "tin shed" in a lot of their literature and now I know why.

Incidentally, I buy clothes almost only from thrift shops, which means no Patagonia. Their stuff doesn't make it to second-hand, which I conclude is a mix of their fixing policies and quality of manufacture.

[HelloFellowDevs]

> Incidentally, I buy clothes almost only from thrift shops, which means no Patagonia.

I don't know if you've heard about this, but Patagonia offers second-hand buying opportunities. This is the site, more or less refurbished Patagonia wornwear.patagonia.com

[50208]

Same here ... no waves either. But we tried and it was fun.

[perfect_wave]

This is an amazing story. Thanks for sharing.

A movie I haven't yet seen mentioned in this thread is 180 Degrees South [0] which looks at a man following in the steps of Yvon, Doug Thompson, Lito Tejada-Flores, and Dick Dorworth who climbed the first American ascent of Fitz Roy after driving to Patagonia from Ventura, CA.

Dorworth is one of my favorite authors who's memoir, titled Night Driving, includes the story of the drive to Patagonia. I have read and re-read Night Driving countless times and I'm sure will continue to do so.

Dorworth's story, Climbing to Freedom [1], fully encompasses everything I love about being in the mountains.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/180_Degrees_South:_Conquerors_...

[1] https://sustainableplay.com/climbing-to-freedom/

[nerdb4itwascool]

Great story, thanks for sharing. Chipper Bro is THE MAN, he deserves the pay he gets!

I have never been into an HQ as welcoming as Patagonia's. The cafeteria alone is worth a visit!

[50208]

Haha ... Chipper Bro! Indeed.

[teachrdan]

Here's a quote from his amazing book, Let My People Go Surfing:

"When I look at my business today, I realize one of the biggest challenges I have is combating complacency. I always say we're running Patagonia as if it's going to b e here a hundred years from now, but that doesn't mean we have a hundred years to get there! Our success and longevity lie in our ability to change quickly. Continuous change and innovation require maintaining a sense of urgency--a tall order, especially in Patagonia's seemingly laid-back corporate culture. In fact, one of the biggest mandates I have for managers at the company is to instigate change. It's the only way we're going to survive in the long run."

[Dangeranger]

If you want to understand Yvon Chouinard as a person beyond reading Let My People Go Surfing, you should watch "180 Degrees South: Conquerors of the Useless"[0]. While Yvon only appears for about twenty minutes within the movie, his presence is woven all throughout the film.

Part of what made Patagonia as a company different is the no BS mentality instilled within him from his dirt bagging days spent climbing around California, Patagonia, and New Hampshire. There's a wonderful moment in the movie where Jeff Johnson and Yvon are climbing some first ascent and Jeff asks "what should we name it when we're done?" and Yvon replies, "nothing, just climb it, be done, and go home".

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/180_Degrees_South%3A_Conqueror...

[davidw]

> require maintaining a sense of urgency--a tall order, especially in Patagonia's seemingly laid-back corporate culture

Interesting... so which is it? Is the "laid back" thing just marketing and they're running people around just like many other places, or do they things some other way?

[50208]

It's not marketing ... it's a work smart, play hard culture.

[davidw]

I've seen places where it's like that joke where the guy goes to hell and has to pick a room. The one room that seems most appealing has a bunch of people standing around in shit drinking beer and talking. Beats the other really unpleasant rooms where people have to stand on their heads on hard surfaces, so he picks it. He's getting settled in when the devil says "ok, break's over, heads down".

What those places have are pictures on their hiring site of people doing fun outdoor stuff or enjoying themselves, and a few stories of what a great culture they have.

But the actual culture is one where it's quite stressful and no one much really does the fun things any more than any other place, because ... "a sense of urgency".

I've heard a lot of good things about Patagonia though, so I think my cynical observations about some other places I've seen above may not be accurate, which makes me curious how things are actually run, day to day. I don't think it's easy to keep that balance, long term.

BTW: sometimes lots of urgency is fine too, but let's all be honest about it.

[my_username_is_]

I've talked to a few people who work (or worked) at Patagonia recently. They said that LMPGS paints a pretty accurate picture of the company. People are passionate and care about doing a good job, but they also care about enjoying their lives and getting a surf session in when the swell is good.

I would argue that it's necessary to keep a good balance long term. Especially within the outdoor industry, Patagonia isn't going to show up as authentic if their statements about culture are just window dressing. And if people aren't able to pursue their other passions without sacrificing their careers, eventually something will give... And people don't always choose to keep their desk job. So they're either going to lose touch with their consumer and lose their employees... or they're flexible with their hours and let people go surfing. Seems like an easy decision to me.

[tony_cannistra]

Both "Let My People Go Surfing" [0] and the slightly more CEO-palatable "The Responsible Company" [1] are must-reads for people who run things / buy things.

[0]: https://amzn.to/31SyWY0 [1]: https://amzn.to/2Z80ZFS

[50208]

1) A person should buy these books directly from Patagonia (not Amazon ... in many ways a business diametrically opposed to the Patagonia corporate culture). 2) He as a new book called "Some Stories". Equally good.

[ericmay]

As long as you buy used! It looks like Patagonia just sells new versions. Better yet, borrow from a library or friend.