I always thought Patagonia’s Yvon Chouinard did more for the planet than The North Face’s Doug Tompkins – I was wrong

PATAGONIA NATIONAL PARK, CHILE - DECEMBER 7: Doug Tompkins, 72, co-founder of North Face and Esprit clothing brands holds his camera on December 7, 2014 in Patagonia National Park, Chile. Tompkins died on December 8, 2015 of hypothermia after a kayaking accident in the Patagonia National Park of southern Chile. (Photo by James Q Martin/Getty Images).

I’ve always believed that Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard was the gold standard for environmental action in the outdoor industry. He famously turned his billion-dollar company into an activist platform, funnelling profits into climate campaigns and, most famously, “gave away” the company in 2022 so that every penny it made would go towards protecting the planet.

The North Face’s founder, Doug Tompkins? I thought his story ended in the early ’70s, when he sold the company and moved on to Esprit, a label we’d now call fast fashion, founded by his ex-wife Susie Tompkins. In my mind, he’d never made the kind of environmental impact Chouinard had. I was wrong.