Don鈥檛 Buy This Jacket, Black Friday and the New York Times
This story was first published on November 25, 2011. It has been updated with notes for 2022.
Why run an ad in The New York Times on Black Friday telling people, 鈥淒on鈥檛 Buy This Jacket鈥�?
It鈥檚 time for us as a company to address the issue of consumerism and do it head on.
The most challenging, and important, element of the Common Threads Initiative is this: to lighten our environmental footprint, everyone needs to consume less. Businesses need to make fewer things but of higher quality. Customers need to think twice before they buy. [Editor鈥檚 note: The Common Threads Initiative has evolved and expanded into Our Footprint.]
Why? Everything we make takes something from the planet we can鈥檛 give back. Each piece of Patagonia clothing, whether or not it鈥檚 organic or uses recycled materials, emits several times its weight in greenhouse gases, generates at least another half garment鈥檚 worth of scrap, and draws down copious amounts of freshwater now growing scarce everywhere on the planet.
欧博会员入口鈥檙e placing the ad in the Times because it鈥檚 the most important national newspaper and considered the 鈥減aper of record.鈥� 欧博会员入口鈥檙e running the ad on Black Friday, which launches the retail holiday season. 欧博会员入口 should be the only retailer in the country asking people to buy less on Black Friday.
But we鈥檙e in business to make and sell products. Everyone鈥檚 paycheck relies on that. Moreover, we are a growing business, opening new stores and mailing more catalogs. What do we tell customers who accuse us of hypocrisy?
It鈥檚 part of聽our purpose聽to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis. [Editor鈥檚 note: In 2018, we changed the company鈥檚 purpose to: 欧博会员入口鈥檙e in business to save our home planet.]
It would be hypocritical for us to work for environmental change without encouraging customers to think before they buy. To reduce environmental damage, we all have to reduce consumption as well as make products in more environmentally sensitive, less harmful ways. It鈥檚 not hypocrisy for us to address the need to reduce consumption. On the other hand, it鈥檚 folly to assume that a healthy economy can be based on buying and selling more and more things people don鈥檛 need鈥�and it鈥檚 time for people who believe that鈥檚 folly to say so.
Nevertheless, Patagonia is a growing business鈥攁nd we want to be in business a good long time. The test of our sincerity (or our hypocrisy) will be if everything we sell is useful, multifunctional where possible, long lasting, beautiful but not in thrall to fashion. 欧博会员入口鈥檙e not yet entirely there. Not every product meets all these criteria. Our聽Common Threads Initiative聽will serve as a framework to advance us toward these goals. [Editor鈥檚 note: Patagonia now has a used clothing program, , to keep more of what we make in play longer and out of landfills.]
Why the provocative headline if we鈥檙e only asking people to buy less and buy more thoughtfully?
To call attention to the issue in a strong, clear way.
欧博会员入口 used the line聽鈥淒on鈥檛 Buy This Shirt鈥澛爏everal years ago in a catalog essay, to strong response. It is our hope that this headline will prompt as many people as possible to read the full ad, then take the Common Threads Initiative pledge.
