The FratBro culture at a lot of the financial sector was using the Patagonia vests as part of their "dress code". Patagonia decided they did not want to be associated with that culture.
As one current example, if you start looking at who is bankrolling and moving money for a lot of the current Amazon Forest destruction you will find the likes of Chase JPM, et. al. To save from picking a source, I'll just say it's a pretty easily duckable.
For banks it was an image problem, not wanting their outdoorsy customers to turn away from their products because they were popular with wall st types.
If you don’t start firing the wrong customers you’ll enevitably start designing your products for them.
Like how trucks have become godawful expensive monstrosities because their primary customers are buying them for the image instead of actually needing to use them on a regular basis.
These are made of recycled materials, exclusively, IIRC. The environmental impact of their synthetic fibers is either 0 or negative. I could be wrong, since it's been a little while since I looked into it, but Patagonia's commitment to sustainable manufacturing is insanely inspiring.
Also: not a Patagonia shill, I just respect the company deeply. I don't even own any Patagonia (unfortunately)
They're much cheaper than regular new items and still work great. I have a Synchilla sweater from there and it's one of my favorite pieces of clothing.
You're right in that they are trying and have a good track record in terms of environmentalism. However, when producing something for comsumption, there is always impact.
As someone from the Coca Cola company said once:
"“When we look at a different material, you look at all of the levers: the carbon footprint, consumer preference, energy, water...There’s a mix, there are some things that are not that desirable, but if you have five good things and one that isn’t, we’ll all have to make decisions.”
OK so if I follow, you make a false claim above ( >For added irony much of their clothing and equipment is made from synthetic materials derived from oil.), and now you're talking about Coca Cola?
Why don't you stop trying to make weird points, read the mission statements of companies akin to Patagonia, verify they are following their missions, AND THEN join the discussion?
For added cruft here are a list of the most common materials used by Patagucci:
