If you were the ceo of a fashion brand, would you tell your customers not to buy your products in an advert? The ‘logical’ answer would be no, of course not. Well this ‘logic’ is not as intuitive for sustainable fashion brand Patagonia.
Patagonia put out this ad in 2011, pleading for people to use their clothes in a more sustainable manner. And with this, Patagonia distances itself from the traditional use of adverts.
The first priority of the company is to make quality clothing and outdoor gear, while preserving the environment. Which they accomplish through their management. Policies like: donating 1% of revenues to NGO’s that focus on the environment, having a B-Corp certification and pioneering in the use of recyled plasic help them achieve this goal successfully. Successful meaning: being one of the industry leaders in sustainability, while still doing 1 billion dollars of revenue in 2018.
Whether this approach is sincere or not, it leads me to the focus of this post. Is focussing on social issues a viable way of creating value in design?
Reports (linked below) show that 75% of people find sustainability in clothing a important. And half of them would switch to a different brand if they knew that brand is more socially directed and environmentally friendly. What do you think? Would you pay more for a jacket if you knew it was produced sustainably and fair? The reports are clear. At least for fashion, people take social issues in consideration when buying. And as for the main question, Patagonia proves that using a (social) cause as the main goal of the company can be viable.
With the rise of interest in social issues around the world, my only guess is that this approach will become even more viable. And this may change the way we think about business. Instead of focussing on sales and profits, we could focus on improving our society.
Mike Mol
Sources:
https://fortune.com/2019/07/09/a-sustainable-fashion-industry-climate-change-focus/
https://www.inc.com/lindsay-blakely/patagonia-2018-company-of-the-year-nominee.html
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