The incredible power of community spirit is yet to be embraced by some companies, but for both Patagonia and howies it has helped to fuel them to international success. The people for whom they make clothes aren’t just passive consumers, instead they’re involved in the production process, from the beginning concept to the final product and beyond. By starting on a local level, focusing on communicating with their customers, and literally living what they sell, they’ve created an ‘intelligent’ proposition that people across the globe want to buy into.

Founded in 1972, by Yvon Chouinard, aka ‘YC’, a mountaineering, surfing, fly-fishing environmentalist, who wanted to make warm clothing for climbers, Patagonia has created an ‘uncommon culture’ across the globe. Its bold mission statement is ‘Build the best product, do no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis’ – seemingly a lot for an outdoor sports apparel company to live up to. Yet Patagonia’s consistent performance shows the power of this approach, whilst its following of loyal buyers continues to grow.

Howies, meanwhile, was set up by Dave Hieatt and his partner Clare from their living room in 1995, aiming to “to try and show that there is another way to do business”. Now owned by Timberland since 2006, but still managed independently, howies has a section of its website devoted to ‘community’ –  but its commitment runs far deeper than this – ‘community’ is an influential factor at every level of the company.

Howies centres on the unequivocally worthy and grand mission, “to make people think about the world we live in” and provide “a brand to believe in”, but it all starts at a local level in West Wales. “Size isn’t important”, says Hieatt, “What is important is changing the way we do things”. For Cardigan Bay’s third-biggest clothing company it’s about so much more than just selling products; reflected in the recently opened shop on London’s Carnaby Street, which hosts a range of environmentally-friendly lifestyle features: a water fountain for refilling bottles, a lending library, artwork, and a light switch so that passers-by can see inside the shop window at night, instead of leaving the electricity on.

On the same wavelength as customers
“Patagonia’s always been one big family”, says Jonathan Petty, UK Manager; offering a ‘membership’ to anyone with the same moral fibres, whether in Cardigan Bay or California. ‘Dirtbag culture’ remains at the heart of the Ventura-based company, “long after Yvon and his buddies took turns making pitons to sell to fund their climbing passion”. The Dirtbag Grant (for people who spend so much time outside they have dirt under their finger nails) was conceived to support an individual or team with an outdoor objective that's unique, adventurous and celebrates the ideal of "doing more with less". Chouinard still stands as a role model to entrants, continuing to spend half of the year out in the furthest corners of the earth, testing his garments.

Both Patagonia and howies ask us to join them in leaving the earth the way we found it: “Way back when Yvon made pitons he wrote to climbers in his catalogues to ask them to stop buying his products because they damaged the rock forever when they hammered the pitons in”, says Petty, “Instead he asked them to use his new products, nuts and cams, to place in cracks so they could be removed and so leave the rock the way they found it”.

Customers can relate to the people who run these companies; they genuinely share the same passion for the natural environment and live the lifestyle for which the clothes are made. Howies has nature-loving adventure at its core and its staff continue to live like a lot of their customers, honouring outdoor life, “where the air is pure and the rivers run clean”, as much as possible. Working weekends are frowned upon, “we sell play so we need to live it”, says Hieatt, who frequently “canoes to work”. His ‘voice’, delivered through the website in colloquial style, demonstrates a lack of hierarchy, shattering any misconceptions of unreachable and invisible corporate powers.

Storytelling
Everyone knows sports enthusiasts love to talk about their triumphs, and howies loves to hear about them. The same BMX riders and skaters for whom the clothes are designed also pose in the catalogue (which “accounts for 90 per cent of business”) and on the website, whilst standing as brand ambassadors and sharing the anecdotes and tales behind scars. 

Patagonia ‘values the power of story telling’ to the extent that they recruited a team of in-house ‘dirtbag’ storytellers to work at the headquarters and they are a great example of “the clarity and intimacy that good environmental writing can bring to our community”, generating an eclectic selection of features, comments, rants and raves.

Blogs are the new newspapers
These pioneers were some of the first to tap into the power of online societies and the limitless potential for the exchange of ideas in cyberspace. Hieatt believes his was one of the first companies in the UK to have a blog. “Our aim for howies since day one was to try and make people think as well as buy”, and through the thought provoking lines and requests for contributions from like-minded folk, he aims to “create debate and make people think about stuff”. Hieatt states in his blog that, it’s people “that build corporations”, typifying the common thread of empowerment. “We like to have a relationship with our customers and a voice.”

Similarly Patagonia has thrived on the direct contact with consumers the internet allows “Right now we have a fishing blog – we want to engage actively with fishermen on issues as diverse as saving fish species, environmental projects and preventing new dams which would affect salmon runs”, explains Petty. “We actively ask for a response from our customers.”

These revolutionary companies don’t just open their doors to be examined, they open their doors to ideas and show a genuine desire to know what their customers think and what their customers can do, exemplified in the howies blackboard van tour. Someone suggested painting their white van with blackboard paint, so they did. It was then driven around by the skateboard team, allowing people to write their views about nuclear power in big letters on the side. A great marketing ploy some might say, others, a brilliantly engaging activity demonstrating Hieatt means it when he says to consumers; ‘You are the wisdom of crowds – You are the community’.

Giving a big voice to little voices
Empowering individuals and businesses by inviting them to be part of something bigger is the undercurrent to these eco-entrepreneur’s business goals. Howies’ ‘little big voice lectures’ were aimed at showing a select group how to apply the same ideology to their own interests, providing ‘practical tools to get media attention for [their] causes’. With innovation and subversive charm howies are building a brand that people feel they can be a part of and the growing number of die-hard fans is evident in tokens delivered to the office on a daily basis: “a letter, a parcel, a pack of tea, a memory, a journal, their books. It is very rewarding in that way”, says Hieatt, “they sure tell us how we can get better or when we mess up, which I love too”.

By remaining on the same wavelength as, and constantly interacting with, the consumers they attract, both Patagonia and howies have been able to develop a true understanding of the people who buy their products. They have shown the world that micro-movements can be just as influential as mass consumerism, especially when that consumerism tends to be passive. By giving a big voice to people who would otherwise remain unheard, they’ve been repaid with brand loyalty and a worldwide audience. It seems people want to be part of an environmentally-friendly community; a community where the designers, manufacturers, models, story tellers, brand ambassadors and consumers, all stand, dressed ready for outdoor activity, as one.

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