August 14, 2005
But is farming sexy enough?
There has been discussion on the farm crew this year about Patagonia clothing and gear. Patagonia makes quality clothes, rain gear, etc. for active, outdoor people. They tailor their clothing for alpine hiking, rock climbing, trail running, surfing, yoga, skiing/snowboarding, paddling and fly fishing. Patagonia also is wicked pro-environment and pro-sustainability. They were basically the first major clothing manufacturer to carry organic cotton clothes, and their fleeces are made from recycled soda bottles. And I didn't realize it until I spent some time on their website, but it looks like they drop some serious bling on charitable causes.
I have some Patagonia stuff, and it is awesome -- seriously light, warm, and dry. It would be really great stuff for farming, but there is a problem. Their stuff is expensive. There is just no way that people trying to start an agriculture business, like us, or people who work as crew hands on our farm, can realistically afford to buy Patagonia. And if we are lucky enough to get some Patagonia gear, the last thing we would want to do is trash it by wearing it in the field.
This is all the more frustrating because you would think that small scale, quality conscious, beautiful, family farms would mesh well with the Patagonia image.
So we are open to some brainstorming. One idea we had while working on Friday was to get Patagonia to give us free stuff. Kat use to work at the Farm School and they had some deal where the Patagonia store in Boston sent them free seconds and out of season clothes. But Kat also noted, that we are not a non-profit, and that giving us free stuff would not count as a charitable contribution for them. So this idea amounts to asking a company to give us their product for free, which probably has a low chance of success.
Another idea would be to get to Patagonia to sponsor our farm, kind of like how beer companies sponsor racing cars, or something. But realistically, Patagonia probably wouldn't get that much exposure out of the deal, since our farm field is tucked away from the road, in a town of 600, in rural Vermont. We do attend two farmer's markets, and have this site, but still, that means we probably could reach a couple dozen people for them.
I think our best bet is to get Patagonia to add farming to the list of sports they do. But until that day comes, we are open to anyone's suggestion about how to get lots of free stuff from a big company.
Posted by peter at August 14, 2005 12:42 PMPeter, I have worked 3 jobs where I qualified for Patagonia pro-deal (sea kayak guide, bike/hike tour leader & gardener at New Belgium Brewing). Might be 2 options to consider. Make OSF tshirts on their organic cotton. NBB prints their tshirts on Patagonia organic cotton. They bought more than even Ben & Jerry's when I left in 2003. That's how we got a pro-deal though we were a beer brewery, not an outdoor adventure business. Another option might be to call & see if there is anyway to do a one-time OSF employee purchase. I did this when I was sea kayaking, we wanted to buy climbing pants from Black Diamond. Send some photos of you all in your Patagonia garb, like the ones seen in the catalog. Say that you love working in their clothing, being farmers cannot afford it retail & is there any way to get it below retail? Heck, find out who their VT rep is & send her some vegetables & melons! Who could resist that???? Good luck!
Posted by: deirdre at August 14, 2005 08:23 PMI know how you can get that sexy $350.00 Patagonia jacket. Sell the farm ,move back to suburbia,do the old 9 to 5, and bank those big bucks until you can afford such a luxury.You have a house,a farm, a business,and a dream.BE HAPPY! You are blessed. That sexy free coat would look much better on a child who needs a coat,not on a farmer who wants to impress the town with his fashion sense.Dont ever take charity unless you really need it.
Posted by: gwen at August 14, 2005 09:34 PMThere is an easier solution. One that I think Gwen would approve of. How about Patagonia gear on your Christmas and still-missing birthday lists? I know at least one person who would be delighted. XXOO
Posted by: GOM at August 15, 2005 07:34 AMWell, Old Shaw Farm is not a tax-exempt nonprofit, but NOFA is. In all your spare time, you could dream up a NOFA-VT program for Patagonia to support with cash and/or merchandise donations. Sustainable agriculture is one of their areas of interest for grant funding.
Another way to go would be to call up their community realtions/grants program staff and have a conversation about what you do, what NOFA-VT does and find out where they stand on family farming, organic food farming, etc. Maybe they would like to sponsor NOFA...to me, it seems like a real possibility (and this is what I do for a living).
The best way to free clothes here would be a cold call to Patagonia.
Whether you wear the clothes in the field or donate them to a local shelter (as per Gwen's very relevant comments) is up to you.
Wow. We are always interested in which posts we put up generate comments, and which don't. We also got an email from Donna, who used to work here, and now works at the only Patagonia retailer in northern VT. She had some good ideas too. I wouldn't have guessed this would have been a good post for comments, but there you have it -- we have a lot of readers with experience with Patagonia, or with raising money and getting grants.
Donna's advice was to just bit the bullet, and assign some good clothes to the farm clothing bin. I also like the NOFA-VT idea Sherri put forward, because we are always looking for funding sources at NOFA. And of course Gwen is right -- if we are worrying about how to get more fashionable farm-wear, we are probably doing alright.
But still, maybe I can talk Maryellen, Wavo, Kat, Aleda, and Laura into doing a mock Patagonia catalog blog post, and then we can email it to corporate HQ . . .
Posted by: peter at August 15, 2005 09:48 AMPatagonia... Old Shaw Farm... Kat... Farm School... Gordon School East Providence USA who has been sending kids to Farm School for years... Geoff who works at Gordon, brother to Pete, godfather to Waverly... there has got to be a way for us to do some soft-marketing lifestyle branding that has strangers coughing up $$$ for the privledge of being even indirectly associated with the hip OSF/PTGNIA/GRDN/FRMSCHL/KAT/WVRLY brand we create...
Posted by: geoff at August 16, 2005 11:24 PM