An introspective look at outdoor clothing maker Patagonia by its founder. Really a series of essays, the first sequence describes the formative years of a small climbing supplies company whose management mainly wanted to pursue those recreational interests that formed the basis of the business. The book elucidates how those views and accommodations became product and operating principles. Key breakthroughs in creating removable chocks and synchilla, made of recycled pop bottles, are outlined alongside flexible work policies and the incorporation of left-wing activism. Also an avid flyfisher and surfer, Chouinard’s attention to simplicity, top quality, and focus on a clearly envisioned customer (the ‘dirt bag’) are precursors to Apple and Google. Past failure such as an early crop of rugby shirts are pointed out, though there is little mention of the 1990 fiscal crunch on the sale of Lost Arrow, the hardware maker. Also interesting is the sketch of marketing outlets — Internet, wholesale (channel), retail, and catalog — with emphasis on how the company aims to inspire and educate but not promote. Such propagandizing is the departure point for critique of the ‘capitalist’ economy. Chouinard questions the imperative of continuous growth and calls for ‘true cost’ accounting, meaning evaluation of natural resource consumption, especially oil used in transport. This leads to a call for local self-sufficiency and consumption of local productions, suggestive of Maoist autarky (and in contrast to Ricardo’s principle of comparative advantage). By book’s end, through the flogging of the company’s donating one percent of gross sales to activist causes and related campaigns, the book becomes conventionally leftist and so uninteresting. Good for the brand, but disappointing in its failure to outstrip the paradigm. Perry Klebahn observes

Surfing

may appeal to baby boomers but is not certain to attract younger generations, and that in over 40 years of business, not one employee has made an identifiable contribution.