Patagonia

Full review
Patagonia. If you are looking for the very best in outdoor clothing for extreme sport or other very cold weather or heat situations, this is it. But be prepared with lots of money, because the very best clothing requires the very best (from the seller's point of view) price.

Patagonia was begun by a very accomplished alpine, rock, and ice climber named Yvon Chouinard, who started out fabricating equipment for himself. His climbing partners said, "Hey, can you make that stuff for me? I'll pay you for it." So he began to make stuff and more and more people bought it and more and more products were added and now Patagonia is a huge and well-respected international company. Chouinard is a little older, but he is still the driving vision behind Patagonia and one main reason why the company and its products have a little authentic outdoor person's soul in them even today. You can practically smell a wisp of the smoke from some mountainside campfire on them.

I have been buying from Patagonia for over 30 years now, and I have never gotten a bad product from them. My favorite article of clothing of all time, my fleece jacket from Patagonia which I reviewed in 2001 (http://www.epinions.com/otdr-review-D24-2FF21468-3A53E77B-prod2)
is still my favorite article of clothing. I have since bought fleece pants from them, long underwear shirts made of what they call Capilene, tee shirts, and other things. I even wear their Capilene underwear briefs every day, because even though they are soft and wick moisture, they wear like iron and will probably last a lifetime. No problems with Patagonia products.

The stuff is pricey though. Most of that I can understand, because you get what you pay for, and high-quality products cost the manufacturer more money. But I suspect that there are at least three other reasons why Patagonia stuff is so pricey. First, the company is involved in environmental protection, so a chunk of money goes to protect the wilderness for us all and to promote renewable energy sources like solar and wind, things in which many of us are interested. Patagonia is also big on other "green" issues like recycling, in an effort to preserve the planet. Beyond that, though, pushing up the prices there is the expensive (yet supercool) catalog and the other advertising. But I also have a suspicion that Patagonia gets a lot more money for their stuff than other companies because they are Patagonia, so part of what you are paying for is the name. But that's true in any business.

I have found other products from other companies such as, for example, R.E.I,. which were comparable in quality and which only cost half as much, or less. But I will say this: even if another product will cost less, there comes a time when you will want the best, especially if you are into an extreme sport like mountain climbing, and you will find nothing better than Patagonia, and so it may well be worth the extra money. But even if I never went into the snowy mountain terrain; if I lived in an urban place like Buffalo or Anchorage or even windy Chicago, I'd take a look at Patagonia's stuff. In my own life it has been the difference between hypothermia and staying warm on more than one occasion.

That large amount of money you're paying to them will buy you a bit of snob appeal, too, of course, if that's your thing. Wearing that Patagonia label on your clothing in outdoor social places is like driving a Ferrari up to the doorway of a posh restaurant in the city: it says you are able to afford the best in the world, so make way. If snob appeal is what you're after, it's built in here. Personally, I'm after the protection from the weather, thank you.

Dealing with the store has always been a great experience. I have never had a bad interchange with a Patagonia employee. I had bought an article of clothing in 1975 which I liked, and in 1995, after noticing that it wasn't in the catalog any more, I called up Patagonia and asked about it. They said it was discontinued, but that it might be resurrected at a future date. I took this as just PR talk to soften the blow, but by 2000 the product was back on the market and I was a happy camper, literally.

Anyway, if you can save up for it or if you are rich to begin with like my good friend Charles, you can't do much better for outdoor clothing than Patagonia. And the really good part is that most of their stuff can double as everyday wear too which will last you for years and years. The women's stuff is great too, along with the male stuff for we weathered mountain men. Bring your quality awareness to Patagonia (as well as a full wallet) and you may come away with some buys of a lifetime.

Epinions has provided links to some of Patagonia's online sales vendors at the bottom of this review page. You can find their products in brick-and-mortar retailers too.