Ventura, California-based outdoor brand Patagonia is providing its customer with some free advice on how to vote in the upcoming election through a message placed on garment tags. Simply put, the underside of the tags read, “VOTE THE ASSHOLES OUT.”
.@patagonia, can you please confirm if this is accurate.
— Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro) September 15, 2020
Cuz I’m about to go online and buy parkas in every color….and I live in Miami. https://t.co/sErIgCspOA
Images of the tag have popped up on social media over the past few days and the brand began trending on Twitter today when political commentator Ana Navarro-Cárdena quote tweeted the label and wrote, “@patagonia, can you please confirm if this is accurate. Cuz I’m about to go online and buy parkas in every color….and I live in Miami.”
Real
— Brad Wieners (@BradWieners) September 12, 2020
The validity of the tag was confirmed on Twitter by Patagonia’s director of copy, Brad Wieners, who when asked whether it was real, responded, “Real.”
While Wieners didn’t provide any further information, the company confirmed with Snopes that the label is real. In an email, a spokesperson for the company explained, “The tags are real. They were added to our 2020 men’s and women’s Regenerative Organic Stand-Up shorts ($69) because we have been standing up to climate deniers for almost as long as we’ve been making those shorts.
“[Patagonia Founder] Yvon Chouinard has been saying “vote the assholes out” for several years and it refers to politicians from any party who deny or disregard the climate crisis and ignore science, not because they aren’t aware of it, but because their pockets are lined with money from oil and gas interests.”
Patagonia has long held a reputation as a progressive company deeply invested in protecting the environment. Founded in 1973 by Chouinard, an accomplished rock climber, the company describes itself as an “activist company.”
As part of its activist goals, it commits one percent of total sales to environmental groups through an organization called One Percent for the Planet, of which Chouinard was a founding member.
On September 25, 2020, the company will debut a film titled “Public Trust,” a feature-length documentary about America’s system of public lands and the fight to protect them. The film was produced by Chouinard and Robert Redford.
Check out the trailer below.
