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patagonia?

meister

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Originally Posted by emptym
I love Patagonia.
They have a very strong "common good" approach. They integrate things. They care about the product, employees, environment, labor. Products are extremely functional, minimal in design, tested for incredible durability, and they are beautiful. They're respected as the main innovators in the field. Their stuff is absolutely legit for outdoor activities, and beautiful enough for streetwear--hence the terms "Pradagonia" and "Padagucci." (Although this also comments on their price!) Someone once captured the emotional response people have to Patagonia by saying that when his house caught on fire and he had a couple of minutes to think about what to save, he grabbed his Patagonia stuff bec. it spoke to him of survival.

My love of their stuff started in college. In my freshman year I rowed crew, and we would row out on the river until the river froze. For a short period the rush of the river would prevent it from freezing over, but the water was well below freezing and any splash that hit us would freeze on our bodies. I had grown up in Las Vegas so I was by no means used to this. I started out w/ what got me through LV winters: cotton, waffle thermals. They were worthless in the cold and wet, so I went to an Army surplus store and got 50 Cotton/50 wool thermals. Small improvement. Went to Helly Hanson Lifa polypropylene--warm but retained sweat. Moved on to LL Bean polyester. Good but not great. Got some Patagonia capilene and have never strayed. I've flirted a bit w/ other products, but nothing as as good as the capilene stuff. I still have the shirt I got then, 15 yrs ago. It's been all over the world w/ me.

When I travel I always pack 2 of their briefs, one pair of their boxers and one t-shirt. The briefs dry in an hour or two if you wring them in a towel after handwashing. The shirt (silkweight) is great as underwear in the cold, and the best thing for outerwear in the desert or the rain forest (Philippines). The boxers can be a bit stuffy.

I have jackets, pants, shorts, socks. Never tried their shoes. The socks I wear on 14 hr a day motorcycle trips are Patagonia. I once bit it on a bicycle wearing patagonia pants and an LL Bean Gore-tex shell and the shell was ripped up, as were my legs, but the patagonia pants didn't have a scratch. My brother had a similar event. I've used their original, large messenger bag for 5 years on daily bicycle or motorcycle commutes and as my carry-on. Once I didn't secure it to the motorcycle and ended up dragging it 1.5 miles. It was scratched up a bit and blackened, but looked nearly new after a wash. Laptop was inside and undamaged.

Their pants and shorts fit me perfectly. Their hemp shorts are my favorites.

OK, I'm gushing, but I do love them, and I think it's a love w/ good grounds.

Most of their things I've gotten during their semi-annual sales (Around Feb and August) or the factory outlets. Sometimes their website has sales. STP carries things. But ebay is the best.


Thats a huge rap - they sell plenty of it Down Under too - there used to be a dedicated store in Gowings ...
 

mr. magoo

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From the "Patagonia stuff is tough" file -- I have friends in Montana who basically did manual labor (carpentry, factory work, etc.) in order to sustain their high-level outdoors lifestyle (pro skiers, ice climbers, mountaineers).

You know, the kind of guys who owned one pair of pants. Anyway, they all swore by it, and said that it literally lasted five times as long as their Carhart carpenters' stuff that they went through in about 4 months.
 

farfisa23

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Best outdoor stuff hands down. Yvon Chouinard is a really cool CEO and it's a really socially responsible company. All my outdoor gear is made by them, well worth the money as their gear has a lifetime guarantee.
 

Fueco

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I'll echo what others said, Patagonia still makes the best outdoors gear out there (IMO). There are niche products from other manufacturers that I swear by as well, but Patagonia has been my goto brand for 20+ years. The piece of clothing I've owned the longest is a midweight Capilene shirt that I bought during the time I worked at REI, in 1996. I still wear that thing all the time. Yeah, it's beat up, but it has character. And it rocks for running in 20-30 degree weather.

Their styles vary considerably from line to line, and to say that the entire brand is "college-y" or "something a 30-year old woman would wear" is to ignore the variety of products they sell. They have a massive following internationally, which certainly explains some of the colorways they offer. The Snap-T is certainly a standard in college towns (and I live in one).

I have found their products to be consistently better quality than others. I've see $450 Arc'teryx come apart at the seams, and have never seen a Patagonia product that was actually defective. I've certainly worn stuff out, but to expect gear that is heavily used to last forever is unreasonable.
 

pasadena man

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Patagonia has been around long enough to qualify as a great, American, heritage brand, IMO. As a longtime climber and mountaineer, I would echo the comments above in regard to the durability of their gear. Not surprising, since Yvon Chouinard was one of the great Yosemite big wall climbers of his day. His first products were technical climbing hardware, and he branched out into clothing later, initially with fleece. User brand loyalty is up there with almost any brand on this board (well almost!).

I get one of their pima cotton shirts every 18 months, still wearing ones I bought in the mid nineties. Great, earth tone, small plaid, color ways that go with pretty much everything I own. I alternate with BB plaids for casual wear.
 

em36

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All the prior posters are absolutely correct. The brand has the equity of making hardware (Chouinard Equipment) and soft goods which enabled an evolution of spectacular Alpine pursuits. A certain generation read Yvon's Climbing Ice as a "what is possible" to all the stuff in Freedom of the Hills. My '93 Nitro anorak kept me warm and dry over 20k ft and was the type of garment that inspired others: pockets above harness, "revolutionary" pit zips, articulated hood which fitted over a helmet. Their gear is bomber.
 

Fueco

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I love all the climbers coming out of the woodwork in this thread. I've thought I was the only one hanging around this corner of the internet... :cheers:
 

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