Patagonia

Who the brand is for

Climbers, surfers and hikers, for whom Patagonia was founded, and a broad customer base that wears fleece and insulated jackets far from any mountain. It sells through its own stores, specialist retail and online; the price band sits in the upper middle.

Who owns it

Yvon Chouinard founded Patagonia in 1973 in Ventura, California. On 14 September 2022 the company announced that the Chouinard family had transferred all of its ownership: all voting shares, two percent of the stock, are since held by the Patagonia Purpose Trust, meant to protect the company's values; the remaining 98 percent, the non-voting shares, are held by the Holdfast Collective, a nonprofit. Every dollar not reinvested in the company is paid out as a dividend to the Collective; at the announcement the company projected roughly 100 million US dollars a year, depending on the health of the business.

Patagonia is also a certified B Corporation; B Lab's directory shows 166 points, more than three times the median of about 51 for ordinary businesses. The score comes from a self-assessment that B Lab verifies and is not a factory audit.

Two percent of the shares decide, 98 percent receive the profits. That is the whole structure, and it is public.

Where it is made

Patagonia owns no sewing factories. The brand publishes a map of its supply chain with the name and address of every facility: 57 entries at our retrieval, of which 37 finished-goods factories, one farm and 19 material suppliers. The factories are in twelve countries, most of them in Vietnam (18) and Sri Lanka (7), two each in Thailand and El Salvador, and one each in Jordan, Nicaragua, Bangladesh, Mexico, Colombia, Peru and the USA, among others. Material suppliers sit mainly in Taiwan, Japan and the USA, including Gore, Polartec and PrimaLoft. A factory code in the label, as Columbia prints, is missing.

By its own account Patagonia has produced in Fair Trade Certified factories since 2014; more than 90 percent of the line now comes from such plants, and the brand pays a premium per item whose use is decided by an elected workers' committee. Since spring 2025, according to the footprint page, all new styles are made without intentionally added PFAS. Both are the brand's statements, not our audit.

What the price buys — our view

This section is an assessment, not a finding. The core materials are polyester and nylon, often recycled, plus cotton, down and wool. Documented are the ownership structure, the purpose of the profits, the B Corp score, a factory list with addresses and the exit from PFAS; that is the most complete disclosure in this series. Add the Ironclad Guarantee: anyone not satisfied with a product can return it for repair, replacement or refund, and wear-and-tear damage is repaired for a reasonable charge. Since 1985 the brand says it has given one percent of sales to environmental groups, more than 140 million US dollars so far. What is missing here too are unit costs and wages; the price can be justified, but not recalculated.