Eco-Friendly Outdoor Brand 'Patagonia'
Famous for 'Don't Buy This Jacket' Advertisement
Company Shares Transferred to Environmental Protection Fund
The number one brand preferred by American consumers was revealed to be the outdoor brand 'Patagonia.' The company is famous for its bold move of donating the corporate shares held by the founder's family to an environmental protection fund.
According to US CNBC on the 31st of last month (local time), a brand survey was conducted in March on 16,310 Americans by the US polling agency 'Harris Poll' and the online media 'Axios,' with Patagonia taking first place.
Costco, a warehouse discount store, ranked second. Korean companies Samsung Electronics (7th) and LG (18th) made the list. Samsung dropped one spot from last year but was the top tech company, ranking higher than US-based Amazon.com (8th), Apple (10th), and Google (35th).
Patagonia is an outdoor brand founded in 1973 by Canadian-American entrepreneur Yvon Chouinard. The founder Chouinard started a small factory called 'Chouinard Equipment' in the early 1960s, mainly manufacturing climbing gear, and now the company operates in the apparel business.
Despite being an apparel company, Patagonia is known for advertising that encourages people not to buy its products for environmental protection. In 2011, it ran a print ad in The New York Times (NYT) titled 'Don't buy this jacket.'
This reflects its commitment to durable 'slow fashion,' aiming to wear one piece of clothing as long as possible. The company also donates 1% of its sales revenue as an 'environmental tax' to various environmental organizations.
Patagonia is a privately held company that has not gone public through an IPO, with an estimated corporate value of $3 billion (approximately 4.2 trillion KRW).
Founder Chouinard made a bold move by transferring voting shares to the foundation 'Patagonia Purpose Trust' to protect corporate value, and transferring all non-voting shares to the environmental fund management nonprofit organization 'Holdfast Collective.'
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