Outdoor gear company Patagonia, owned by billionaire Yvon Chouinard, closed all of its stores but ... [+]
Billionaire Yvon Chouinard is once again choosing to put employees first and likely forgoing profits at his outdoor gear company Patagonia. The company has promised to pay its employees while it shutters all stores and offices in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The scale of impact is still unknown, and we want to do our part to protect our community especially while testing availability is unknown,” Rose Marcario, CEO and president of Patagonia, wrote in a letter posted on the company’s website on Friday, March 13. “It’s everyone’s responsibility to help stop the spread of this virus.”
Many other retail chains, including Apple, Warby Parker and Urban Outfitters, are choosing to do the same and pay their employees. (See this list that Forbes is keeping of retailers that have shut down operations temporarily as well.)
Patagonia, founded in 1973 by outdoor enthusiast Yvon Chouinard and based in Ventura, California, temporarily closed its offices and stores across the U.S., Europe, Japan, Argentina and Chile starting on Friday, March 13, 2020. The company will reassess the situation on March 27. In the meantime, all Patagonia employees will receive their regular pay; Patagonia didn’t disclose how many employees it has but the website Craft estimates there are more than 2,300.
The company has not shut down production. Patagonia’s U.S. ecommerce website has been disabled until the company can “ensure the safety” of its warehouse team, Patagonia spokesperson Corely Kenna said via email.
“We encourage our friends everywhere to take the extra precautions necessary to safeguard their health and that of others,” Marcario said in her statement. “Over the years, as our Patagonia community has been faced with challenges, I have always been inspired by how we emerge stronger and with an even deeper sense of purpose. We will persevere through this challenge, too.”
Chouinard, who is 81, no longer runs the day-to-day operations and did not have a statement, the company spokesperson said. But Chouinard, who first appeared on Forbes' list of the World's Billionaires in March 2017 with an estimated net worth of $1 billion based on his ownership of the company, has a long history of shirking profits in favor of doing the right thing.
In November 2018, Patagonia announced that it made an additional $10 million in profits after President Trump lowered the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% —a tax cut that Patagonia described as “irresponsible.” Patagonia promised to donate the entire sum to organizations fighting climate change.
In 1957, Chouinard, an avid mountain climber, taught himself how to blacksmith so he could make his own reusable climbing hardware. By 1970, Chouinard Equipment became the largest supplier of climbing equipment in North America. But its most popular product, a steel piton that climbers use to anchor themselves to a rockface, was damaging to the mountains.
Chouinard decided to phase out the product that accounted for 70% of the company’s sales in the 1970s. He created a new product: an aluminum chuck that can be wedged into a rock and removed by hand, instead of the steel pitons that were hammered into the rock and left behind. Today, Patagonia, which has a reputation using sustainable practices like incorporating recycled plastic bottles in its fabric, boasts $800 million in annual sales and has a loyal customer base.
