Adventures of an Engaged Consumer: Why Patagonia Rocks

August 13th, 2008 | By Kelsey | 3 Comments »

An inquiry I directed to Patagonia’s customer service via their online form:

I’m about to place an order from your sale, but would like to know where
the items I’ll be purchasing are from. Could you tell me where the
following items were made:

1. Fezzman shirt
2. Go-fer Tee
3. Men’s all-wear cargo shorts

Thanks,

Kelsey

Less than an hour later their response:

Hi Kelsey,

The M’S FEZZMAN SHIRT, M’S GO-FER SHIRT, and M’S ALL-WEAR CARGO SHORTS are made in Thailand. Please let us know if you have any questions.
Have a great day!

Kelly
Patagonia.com Customer Service

After learning that they were made in Thailand, I visited their Footprint Chronicles feature and viewed a video of the factory they came from.

As an engaged consumer, that’s a company I can support.

Patagonia’s Footprint Chronicles

November 6th, 2007 | By Kelsey | No Comments »

I briefly mentioned Patagonia’s Footprint Chronicles this weekend. The FC follows a few of their items from design to material sourcing to factory to consumer to recycling. Today, I revisited the site and realized that it was even cooler than I thought it was.

If you click on the pictures, you can view a slideshow or a video. They interview workers and managers at factories, talk about the process of producing the apparel, and even what the factory and the jobs mean to the country and the workers. I was blown away when I discovered this. I didn’t realize that any company had gone to such great lengths to introduce us, not only to the manufacturing process of their products, but, to the workers who make them.

Many of the companies I dealt with during my quest were less than helpful and wouldn’t give the location of their factories. In fact, Deckers sold their inability to divulge the information as attempting to guard their sourcing info from their competitors.

I hope more brands will follow Patagonia’s lead.

The video below is from the factory that makes Patagonia’s Polo Shirts in Thailand.

Patgonia Thailand Factory:

I’ve added a permanent link to the right to the Footprint Chronicles. You can bet that as I continue to write about and make sense of my quest, I’ll refer back to Patagonia and their unique MO.

A big thanks to Kasey at Patagonia’s blog The Cleanest Line for pointing me to the FC.