Tidying up my archive and found issue 1, March 1985 of “Patagonia, A Quarterly Review” with the “Do* Boys Do the Yellowstone” on cover. Pleasing articles within too including YC’s “State of #Patagonia , Nov 94”.
Never saw another issue of this and remember (in the early days of the Internet) asking Patagonia HQ about this and they had no idea (they replied with a pleasant letter which I still might find)… so, this was just sitting in a box since the 1980s sometime, waiting for today.
“There’s two kinds of growth: growth that makes you fat, and growth that makes you strong.”
Yvon Choinard
I learned a lot about grassroots marketing and community building from following the company in the late 1980s.
Specifically: They community-sourced photos for catalogs, had a toll-free number “just for advice”, provided sponsored gear for *regular interesting people* rather than professionals. All tactics I later used in business endeavors.
Related: Mountain Travel catalog which fascinated me as I pondered which trips/tours/adventures to join… (and thinking about how I could be one of the person that was a guide like did this for a job) // I never did *exactly* this & deserves more of a riff but for now, here is the front and back of a wonderful dream book.
