"The company’s anti-materialistic stance ramped up on Black Friday, 2011, with a memorable full-page advertisement in the Times that read, “Don’t Buy This Jacket.” (...) The attention the ad received helped to bump Patagonia’s 2012 sales significantly."
They don't have an anti-growth strategy, they have a marketing strategy with an "anti-growth" message, targeting rich people who are willing to dump money into anything that will clean their consciences.
And that isn't bad, it is a brilliant marketing strategy!
I still have the same Patagonia fleece that I got when I was 15. I'm 43 now. I just had to retire a pair of Patagonia long johns I bought in about 1994 and have been used during numerous hikes and winter bicycle commutes.
It's not just marketing. With stuff that last longer you just buy less, and actually spend quite a bit less money in the long run.
There's a large retailer here in Canada -- Canadian Tire -- that I personally think should be legally forbidden from selling a good portion of the products they sell: Tools that break on the first use. Toys that have a very short path to the landfill (I feel a pang of guilt when a relative gifts one of my children with a "New Bright" or whatever utter junk brand toy is that they picked up at CT, knowing it won't make it through the night, immediately gauging just how large of a garbage bag it will need). Ultra low quality outdoor wear and tents. Cheaply made bicycles. BBQs that rust out 3 months into their life.
They are purveyors of poor satisfaction garbage dump filler products that only barely fulfill their stated purpose. Most consumers have become so accustomed to this that they don't even realize there's an issue.
It's a serious problem. A minimum level of durability for a given purpose is one of those things that is a benefit of the commons -- it is good for the entire planet.
They don't have an anti-growth strategy, they have a marketing strategy with an "anti-growth" message, targeting rich people who are willing to dump money into anything that will clean their consciences.
And that isn't bad, it is a brilliant marketing strategy!