Volunteering → Strategy Used By Patagonia®
Listen to the customer retention strategy used by Patagonia®.
Founders. You’ve probably heard of Patagonia, the renowned outdoor apparel brand founded in the United States in 1973. Listen to host André Brathwaite share the backstory of its founder, Yvon Chouinard, who turned their passion into a lasting brand that uses a customer retention strategy: Offering hobby-driven activities through its Patagonia Action Works.
Listening to this episode is just one of the many ways we at Forms of Recreation provide founders with the strategy to turn one-time buyers into repeat customers.
The opinions expressed are solely those of Forms of Recreation and do not necessarily reflect the views of any brand mentioned. We encourage you to check their corresponding websites for further information.
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Episode 31
Volunteering → Yvon’s backstory | Patagonia®
Most brands think repeat customers are earned at checkout.
Patagonia disagreed.
They chose to give people a reason to return that had nothing to do with buying more products.
No points or rewards for spending more.That decision cost them short-term sales.
But it created something far more durable: customers who didn’t need to be incentivized to come back.If Patagonia hadn’t been willing to make that trade, their jackets would be just another premium purchase—
worn a few times, then forgotten in the back of a closet.OPENING REFLECTION — HOBBY AS RECREATION (2 minutes)
Ok. Picture an early morning.
Cold air.
Rough ground.
Work gloves pulled tight.No stage.
No audience.Just land
that needs tending.You bend down.
Pull invasive plants from the soil.
Fill a bag with trash that doesn’t belong.
Repair a trail washed out by winter storms.Volunteering for environmental action
isn’t glamorous.Progress is slow.
Work is physical.
And it is often undervalued.No one shows up because they’re earning credits.
No one stays because they’re collecting rewards.People return because the act itself reinforces who they believe they are.
It gives structure to something they already care about.
It turns concern into action.
Values into behavior.And once that structure exists, you don’t need reminders.
You don’t need incentives.
You don’t need to convince people to show up again.This is the part most brands misunderstand.
Loyalty doesn’t come from motivation.
It comes from alignment.Patagonia didn’t stumble into this insight.
They built an entire company around it.Born in Maine in 1938 and raised in California,
Yvon Chouinard spent his youth outdoors.Nature wasn’t a backdrop.
It was his reason to exist.As a young climber,
he forged his own pitons—
metal spikes used for climbing—
because the available gear was unreliable.He sold them out of the back of his car.
Not to scale a business.
To fund the next climb.But there was a problem.
Those pitons damaged the rock.
And once Yvon saw the damage,
he couldn’t unsee it.So he did something
most founders wouldn’t.He stopped selling
his best-selling product.Yes. His best-selling product.
He replaced it with responsible climbing gear, followed by apparel that was less convenient, less profitable, and better for the environment.
That decision set the tone for everything that followed.
Patagonia was never organized around consumption.
It was organized around responsibility.Repair instead of replace.
Buy less, but buy better.
Care for what you already own.They didn’t build community by asking people to identify as “customers”.
They built it by asking them to act like stewards.Patagonia funded grassroots organizations.
Suited up against governments.
Told customers not to buy their products
unless they truly needed them.These weren’t stunts.
They were unconventional choices
made repeatedly.This is where most brands misread Patagonia.
They copy the messaging.
The environmental language.
The aesthetics.But they skip the hardest part.
Patagonia consistently chose actions that reduced short-term revenue in exchange for long-term trust.
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