Why So Many People Are Totally Obsessed with Patagonia

And why we should be too...

You’ll see the logo on the backs of everyone from Drake to Shia LaBeouf, Kanye to Harry Styles. Louis Vuitton creative director Virgil Abloh is a major fan, while Kendall Jenner’s patronage was enough to rocket-up sales and further transform the brand’s image.

So goes the story of Patagonia’s last few years, with celebrities the world over snapped in the kind of t-shirts, fleeces and jackets that would once have attracted a comfier, milder and, dare we say it, more middle-aged kind of demographic.

In truth, the famous fans are only a part of the story, and a small part at that. Since its foundation in 1973, the Californian label, which catered first to surfers, mountaineers and rock climbers – anyone lured by nature’s playgrounds basically – had mainly relied on word-of-mouth hype. From the earliest days it was, and was always destined to be, a cult brand. Cue the inevitable emergence of the Patagonia Obsessive.

@ken_etzel

Traditionally that meant the outdoorsy people the company was formed to serve; American mountaineers and trekkers who swore by the quality of the clothes, designed, as many of the pieces are, to withstand low temperatures and heavy-duty use. But lately that audience has shifted. Now the label ships worldwide and has taken up residence in more urban settings, attracting everyone from Millennial dads to uni students - an undying love for the company providing the common thread.

These are the men and women who will build their outfits around a Patagonia jacket or, more likely now the warm weather is here, a pair of the label’s ubiquitously popular shorts. Expect to see them everywhere from a Melbourne laneway to a Queensland beach this summer, and perhaps a Sydney café or Tasmanian mountain, too.

Such is the crossover appeal that, like many other outdoor brands, Patagonia is being gobbled up by the fashion-aware as a solid fixture in the normcore trend, even while it’s still being worn by those who have serious business climbing cliffs and hiking up steep slopes. Its popularity has soared to such a degree on the high street that it’s even earned the nickname ‘Pataguccci’, while its famous fleece, that previous staple of any suburban dad, has passed squarely into high fashion. And all while the company’s made it clear it has no intention of pandering to the in-crowd by making clothes that may fit this or that trend – instead, the trends have found Patagonia.

@patagonia Spring 1995 Catalogue

The truth is, it isn’t hard to see why the brand has inspired such devotion among its customer base. Following the lead of founder Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia has always been about swimming against the tide, whether through its extensive environmental activism and education or its pioneering approach to minimal-damage manufacturing. This year, like every other since 1989, it will give 1% of its sales, or 10% of its profits – whichever is the biggest figure – to a green cause.

That’s not to mention the positive working arrangements it allows its staff or the healthy grip the company retains on its core ethos – that of getting outside and enjoying being alive, whether through surfing or climbing or whatever takes the fancy. In short, the label has always been about something far bigger than simply selling clothes.

And that’s the crux. For the Patagonia Obsessive, brandishing the famous logo – featuring a stylised skyline depicting Mount Fitz Roy in Chilean Patagonia – is an advert to others not just of what label they like to wear, but what they believe in. And while the brand continues to stick to its core principles, encouraging customers to ‘buy better, buy less’, you can guarantee many more people will soon be joining the fan club.