The Tendo View

Patagonia knows its market. The manufacturer of clothing for the outdoors adventurer has taken environmental sustainability—a core concern for its target audience—to a new level with the Footprint Chronicles website. It’s a broad-strokes effort to explain the environmental impact of the manufacturing sector, viewed strictly through the lens of Patagonia products.

It’s a brilliant concept, with execution that lives up to the company’s lofty ideals.

BRAVO

The Footprint Chronicles essentially serves as a learning tool. Environmental awareness at a local level is a daunting topic as it pertains to a global company’s worldwide operations, but Patagonia has managed to raise a significant number of consideration-worthy topics in a straightforward and concise manner.

The menu is simple to read and navigate, consisting of 14 items from Patagonia’s lines of pants, shirts, jackets, and shoes. Each product links to a global map featuring points of interest in the item’s creation, with multimedia presentations explaining the process and sustainability of each link in the supply chain. From green practices at a Taiwanese manufacturing plant to lessons on organic cotton farming in Turkey to ozone-based wool treatment in Japan, the topics are varied and interesting—and arm conscientious consumers with questions to ask of any large producer of goods.

One excellent touch is the overview panel that accompanies each product, with headings “The Good” and “The Bad.” That the Talus jacket performs well and can be recycled through Patagonia’s innovative recycling program is good information. But listing the harmful chemical in the jacket’s water-repellant finish gives the site instant credibility. (It’s necessary to the jacket’s performance, says the company, adding that it’s researching acceptable alternatives.)

Even more beneficial to Patagonia is that the site establishes its credentials as a company at the vanguard of the environmental movement. It’s difficult to fake this level of commitment.

TRY AGAIN

This is a simple site with a singular purpose, and it’s pulled off very well. A few of the videos run on a bit and one is shockingly out of focus, and some of the slideshows are slow loading.

But that’s nitpicking about what is ultimately a valuable and satisfying user experience.