A lot of individual surfers are philanthropists, and vice versa: the same can’t be said for many of the major surf companies, although they pay saving the planet plenty of lip service.
Of course there are some notable exceptions, but one has stood out like a beacon for nearly half a century now, and last week Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard performed what Swellnet editor Stu Nettle appropriately dubbed “the ultimate mic drop exit” when he effectively gave away his $3 billion company to a nonprofit climate change organization. Even those who have followed the eccentric surfing adventurer’s extraordinary generosity since Patagonia’s earliest days were gob-smacked. It’s one thing to fund green groups for decades, champion responsible fabric sourcing and ethical manufacturing, and pledge one percent of the company’s sales to environmental defenders, through the 1% For The Planet Coalition, which Yvon co-founded. It’s quite another to hand over the whole sheep station.
But those who know Yvon Chouinard best have come to expect the unexpected. I’m not one of them but on the several occasions I’ve met him, I’ve been impressed with both what he has to say and his reluctance to say it. Yes, he has the power to stand on a podium and move large groups of people with the profundity of his simple message – now summarized as “Earth is our only shareholder” – but I’ve also seen him at social engagements trying, with some level of success, to blend in with the furniture.
Born in 1938 in Maine, Yvon was essentially raised by his mother, with his father, a French-Canadian mechanic and redneck, seldom around. He went to a French-speaking school and dreamed of becoming a fur trapper like his French-Canadian forebears. In 1947, his mother, Yvonne, convinced her husband there were better prospects for employment in California, so they moved and young Yvon struggled at English schools and became, by his own assessment, a “geek and a loner”.
But in California he discovered surfing, which in those days epitomized the loner lifestyle, and he discovered the Falconry Club, where he and his new friends began rappelling down cliffs in search of hawks’ nests. After learning the basics of climbing from one of the most experienced falconers, aged 16, Chouinard headed to Wyoming and made his first solo ascent. Thereafter, his life’s passions would be divided between the pleasures of the mountains and the sea, in approximately equal measure.
Still in his teens, Yvon taught himself blacksmithing so that he could forge reusable climbing tools that would not harm the environment. He then started producing in a small workshop behind his parents’ house, where Chouinard Equipment’s first ground-breaking innovation was the aluminum chock, that could be used and removed from cracks without damaging the mountain.
In 1971 he married Malinda Pennoyer, and on an extended honeymoon in England and Scotland, they were inspired to try their hands at creating apparel. Their first big mover was a shirt styled on a rugby jersey. Soon they were selling more clothing than hardware and Yvon felt they needed a more marketable name. Patagonia was born the following year, based in Ventura, California and featuring an environmentally responsible message on every marketing message and swing tag.
When I wrote my first major article about Chouinard and Patagonia in 2008, the outdoors equipment and attire company had already donated more than $30 million to charities, mostly environmental funds, and had instituted best practice in employee conditions and fair trade issues. Yvon described all of this in his 2005 book Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman, the first of several New York Times bestsellers. But in fact Patagonia was only warming up. Over the last decade, as the realities of climate change have kicked in, the company has been increasingly focused on using its messaging and global sales power to save the planet.
Last week Yvon, now 83, announced that the owners of the company, himself, wife Malinda and children Fletcher and Claire, were gifting 98 percent of Patagonia worldwide to the Holdfast Collective, which will now be the recipient of all the company’s profits and use the funds to combat climate change, while two percent and all voting rights are to be retained by an entity known as the Patagonia Purpose Trust. The American financial media and philanthropic websites went nuts over the enormity of possibly the greatest living billionaire gifting ever.
Predictably, the blogosphere went nuts in the other direction, charging Chouinard, whose personal wealth is estimated at $1.8 billion, of greenmail and tax avoidance. In fact, the way the gift has been made guarantees continuance of the Patagonia creed and offers no tax relief or other fiscal benefit to the company.
The night of the announcement, Yvon Chouinard posted on the Patagonia website: “If we have any hope of a thriving planet—much less a business—it is going to take all of us doing what we can with the resources we have. I never wanted to be a businessman. I started as a craftsman, making climbing gear for my friends and myself, then got into apparel. As we began to witness the extent of global warming and ecological destruction, and our own contribution to it, Patagonia committed to using our company to change the way business was done.
“We needed to find a way to put more money into fighting the crisis while keeping the company’s values intact. One option was to sell Patagonia and donate all the money. But we couldn’t be sure a new owner would maintain our values or keep our team of people around the world employed. Another path was to take the company public. What a disaster that would have been.
“Instead of “going public,” you could say we’re “going purpose.” Instead of extracting value from nature and transforming it into wealth for investors, we’ll use the wealth Patagonia creates to protect the source of all wealth.”
Cheers Yvon, a legacy and a philosophy preserved forever.
FOOTNOTE: Out of sight and definitely out of mind last week, your humble columnist missed the news of the Noosa triumph at the Byron Bay Surf Festival.
At long last Noosa’s evergreen stylist Matt Cuddihy captured a well-deserved title when he won the Luxico Wizards Logger comp, held at Watego’s Beach. Matt’s been one of Noosa’s finest longboarders for decades now, and more importantly, always a gentleman to surf with, so well done, Cuddles!
Meanwhile, for the second time this year Noosa’s Sierra Lerback (aka Mrs Zye Norris) took out a mixed gender old mal event. Sierra aced a hot field of mostly men at the Noosa Festival back in March, and did it again at Byron in the HydroFlask Old Mal.
