Patagonia Has Been Telling You to Vote the Assholes Out for Years

[Celerity]

https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/patagonia-political-stance/



By now most of you have probably seen Patagonia's "Vote the assholes out" tag that went viral earlier this month. While many automatically assumed the message was directed at the Trump administration, the California-based clothing company has since come out to reveal that the statement applies to all politicians who deny or doubt climate change. The tag can be found on Patagonia's "Road to Regenerative" shorts. As revealed by the brand's director of global communications and public relations, Corley Kenna, Patagonia decided that rather than announce the politically-charged design detail, it would simply allow customers to discover the message for themselves. Clearly, they did, and now those shorts have sold out worldwide. The idea for the tag stemmed from a statement made by Patagonia founder, Yvon Chouinard, although at the time he was unaware the company would eventually apply it to a pair of shorts. "I will say, when our founder found out about them, his response was, 'These are great. I need them in a size 32,'" Kenna told Esquire.

Link to tweet

The "Vote the assholes out" tag isn't the first time Patagonia has made a political stand, however. More specifically, the brand has a long history of supporting environmental activism, going so far as to donating one percent of its sales to environmental nonprofits. With the US election right around the corner, you can learn about six instances when Patagonia took a political stand, below.

Patagonia Sued Trump

Numerous outdoor retailers opposed Trump's 2017 decision to reduce the size of two national monuments in Utah, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. Feeling the assault on public lands, Patagonia wiped its website following the president's announcement and added a large text to the black background that read "The President Stole Your Land." The company then joined a coalition of conservationists to sue the Trump administration, claiming the decision exceeded a president's authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906. You can read more about that here. When: December 2017


Endorsing Senate Candidates

Patagonia publicly backed two Democrats running for Senate in 2018, Sen. Jon Tester, who was up for reelection in Montana, and Rep. Jacky Rosen, who was trying to unseat Sen. Dean Heller in Nevada. These races were among the most competitive as the Republicans held a 51-to-49 majority. The reason for Patagonia's endorsement was protecting public lands, specifically in the western United States. And spoiler alert, both Tester and Rosen won. When: October 2018

snip