I first met Davis Smith, the cofounder of outdoor gear maker Cotopaxi, at a Fortune conference on corporate responsibility in late 2022. The event was in Atlanta, but upon hearing that Cotopaxi was based in Salt Lake City, I invited Smith to come to another conference, slated to take place in Utah in July. He politely declined.
“I’d love to come,” Smith told me earnestly, “but I’m moving overseas this summer.”
