Praise for Let My People Go Surfing “For everyone who is alternately outraged and depressed by the wave of greed that has been the hallmark of corporate America in the twenty-first century, there is a name that inspires hope: Yvon Chouinard…. Unique and compelling.” —San Francisco Chronicle “Chouinard the antibusinessman is businessman to the bone. Maybe more so. Because it’s not a set of clothes he puts on, or an office he shows up at. It’s not a role he can pick up or put down. It’s who he is. How he thinks. The fly rod was always beside the point. The point, as Surfing shows us, is how powerful an organizing force authenticity can be.” —Inc. “The highest compliment I can…pay Let My People Go Surfing is that I’d love to break bread with Yvon Chouinard…. It’s heartening to read about a company that has stuck to its principles and flourished.” —The Washington Monthly “Chouinard’s biography, Let My People Go Surfing, reveals a fascinating and colorful character…. For all of our sakes, it seems the responsible thing for companies to do is follow Chouinard’s ascent.” —USA Today “Yvon Chouinard’s message is clear: if you’re not part of the answer, you’re part of the problem. Mr. Chouinard has made it a life’s work to be part of the answer.” —Santa Barbara News-Press “Yvon Chouinard is a mountain climber in both the literal sense and the metaphorical sense, and no mountain he ever climbed literally was more daunting or important than the one he is climbing in his business: ‘Mount Sustainability.’ Here he tells the story of that climb, not only the what and how of it, but also the why. What an important and inspiring read!” —Ray Anderson, chairman, Interface, Inc. “Yvon Chouinard is far more than a world-class mountaineer and brilliant outdoors haberdasher. He stands out as a mountain himself—a mountain of integrity, responsibility, courage, and vision. No matter what you do, you will find essential guidance and inspiration in Let My People Go Surfing. I probably wouldn’t be here without Yvon’s support over the years; his book now gives me more strength to carry on.” —Dave Foreman, The Rewilding Institute “At last Yvon Chouinard has taken time to write his story, some of us in the progressive business world have waited decades. This is a wonderful, wonderful book. Two hundred-odd pages of truth-telling, consciousness- raising and ballsy bravery. Every wannabe entrepreneur, every school teaching a course on ‘business’ and every MBA program should buy this book. Yvon, thank you!” —Anita Roddick, founder and owner, The Body Shop “Humility coupled with clear vision has made Yvon Chouinard personally, and Patagonia corporately, the natural leaders for many of us in business. Not only is this book a great read about the history of Patagonia, but it is a thought-provoking benchmark for one’s own personal and civic values.” —Nell Newman, president, Newman’s Own Organics “An appealing practical guide to encourage capitalism and ethics to play nice together.” —Kirkus Reviews PENGUIN BOOKS LET MY PEOPLE GO SURFING Yvon Chouinard is founder and owner of Patagonia, Inc., based in Ventura, California. He began in business by designing, manufacturing, and distributing rock-climbing equipment in the late 1950s. His tinkering led to an improved ice ax that facilitated the French ice-climbing technique and is the basis for modern ice ax design. In 1964 he produced his first mail-order catalog, a one-page mimeographed sheet containing advice not to expect fast delivery during climbing season. In 2001, Yvon cofounded 1% for the Planet, an alliance of businesses that contribute at least 1 percent of their net annual sales to groups on a list of researched and approved environmental organizations. Today, he makes significant contributions to activist environmental concerns, serves on the boards of numerous environmental organizations, and spends much of his time in the outdoors. LET MY PEOPLE GO SURFING The Education of a Reluctant Businessman Yvon Chouinard Founder and Owner, Patagonia, Inc. PENGUIN BOOKS For Malinda Pennoyer Chouinard, my wife and partner for all these good years. PENGUIN BOOKS Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi–110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), cnr Airborne and Rosedale Roads, Albany, Auckland 1310, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England First published in the United States of America by The Penguin Press, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. 2005 This edition with a new preface published in Penguin Books 2006 Copyright © Yvon Chouinard, 2005, 2006 All rights reserved An extension of this copyright page appears at the end of this book. THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE HARDCOVER EDITION AS FOLLOWS: Chouinard, Yvon. Let my people go surfing: the education of a reluctant businessman / Yvon Chouinard. p. cm. ISBN: 1-4295-3714-0 1. Chouinard, Yvon. 2. Businesspeople—United States—Biography. 3. Social responsibility of business. I. Title. HC102.5.C42 2005 658.4'083—dc22 2005047650 Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrightable materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. CONTENTS PREFACE INTRODUCTION HISTORY PHILOSOPHIES PRODUCT DESIGN PHILOSOPHY PRODUCTION PHILOSOPHY DISTRIBUTION PHILOSOPHY IMAGE PHILOSOPHY FINANCIAL PHILOSOPHY HUMAN RESOURCE PHILOSOPHY MANAGEMENT PHILOSOPHY ENVIRONMENTAL PHILOSOPHY 1% FOR THE PLANET ALLIANCE SUMMARY THANK YOU… PREFACE BUSINESS AFTER OIL Since the original publication of this book in October 2005, a lot has happened in the world and at Patagonia, Inc. The general public is becoming increasingly aware that our planet is getting warmer through our own doing. And yet—despite the plethora of books, articles, films, and even military men saying that global warming is the single biggest threat to the security of mankind—governments, businesses, and you and me continue to refuse to take meaningful steps to reverse the problem. A dozen books have come out about oil, all pretty much saying the same thing: the end of the petroleum era will come sooner than later and we should prepare for a lifestyle that will be far different than what we have been enjoying for the last 150 years. Economic and social chaos is predicted as the price of oil skyrockets (it’s doubled in a year and spiking higher as I write). The bad news is we have the super-polluting nuclear and coal industries to fall back on. At Patagonia we have started to prepare for what we think will become a more locally based economy. A global economy based on cheap transportation is unsustainable. Our present mode of production includes buying organic cotton in Turkey, shipping the bales to Thailand to be processed into fabric, shipping the fabric to Texas to be cut, to Mexico to be sewn, on to our warehouse in Reno, then to our stores and dealers, and finally to our customers’ homes. Shipping costs may soon start to outstrip the cost of material and labor. We must begin to find a way to produce our goods locally. Making clothing using synthetic fibers or even organic natural fibers still uses a huge amount of petroleum and other forms of energy. We must get away from the notion of consuming nonrenewable resources and making disposable garments. As it has become normal to recycle aluminum cans, paper, and steel, so should we start making all our clothing from recycled and recyclable fibers. In recent years we’ve worked with Japanese mills on the development of high-performance fabrics that also significantly reduce environmental harm. One of the most exciting programs in our history, the Common Threads Recycling Program, is now underway, with the help of our partner Teijin Fibers Limited and its Eco Circle program. We seek to close the manufacturing and consumption loop in the way that the modern aluminum industry works. We’ll collect from our customers their worn-out polyester garments and send them back to Teijin for recycling into new polyester fiber. We did a lot of research to ensure that we will still reduce our overall energy impact after transporting garments from the United States back to Teijin. With the extra shipping, the program still yields energy savings of 76 percent and a reduction in greenhouse-gas (CO2) emissions of 71 percent, compared to the creation of polyester fiber from new, petroleum-based raw material.