BEHIND THE WALL
50 YEARS OF
PATAGONIA
We’ve created the Behind The Wall column to give our readers a backstage pass into the inner workings of the climbing industry here in Australia and New Zealand. In creating our mag, we have the privilege of working with the climbing industry’s behind-thescenes unsung heroes who power the sport we love. From the brand names we love, to our local gyms and entrepreneurs who have turned their love of climbing into their livelihoods; our industry is teaming with creatives, professionals, and professional-dirtbags alike, each with their own incredible story. We think it’s time we started telling them. To kick us off, The Patagonia team take our Managing Editor Coz backstage on their “What’s Next?” work. We reflect on what they’ve achieved as they “mark the halfway point in their 100-year experiment”-- but perhaps more importantly, look towards the future and what the next 50 years must hold. HEADER IMAGE: Heading towards Fitzroy, Patagonia 1968. Photo: Barbara Rowell.
58 AUTUMN 2023
The story of Yvon Chouinard’s journey to founding Patagonia reads like a movie script full of adventure, determination and ultimately, creativity. From his initial introduction to climbing in 1953 by abseiling down cliffsides to reach falcon aeries as a teen member of the Southern California Falconry Club, to teaching himself to climb Yosemite’s big walls with the likes of now icons T.M. Herbert, Royal Robbins and Tom Frost, and hiding from the rangers in the boulders above Camp 4 after overstaying the two-week camping limit. The story has all the hallmarks of a dirtbag-antihero-esque blockbuster hit about a group of friends having too much fun climbing to realise that they’re each in the company of the very people who would go on to make sport and industry history. While the world has changed a lot over the last 50 years, Patagonia’s drive to conduct ethical and sustainable business has remained steadfast. For decades, Patagonia has been well-loved by the outdoor community for their uncompromising environmental values, mastery of effortless design and vivid colour palette. Whether you’re at the gym, the crag or on the commute in between, you don’t have to turn your head too far in either direction to spot a climber in Patagonia kit. Infamous for their support of environmental campaigns and grassroots activism, the brand made headlines in September last year with news of their dramatic change in ownership structure.Demonstrating that a for-profit business can shift the needle on capitalism to make it work for the planet, Patagonia articulated the change as “going purpose” instead of “going public”. As a result, ownership of Patagonia was transferred to
