Mindful Marketing: Patagonia's Worn Wear Program

The product re-use program that sparked a movement

Happy Thursday, y'all! For several years, I worked with Adobe as part of its Adobe Insiders influencer group. In 2016, 2017 and 2019, I attended Adobe Summit, and each year I worked with Adobe to create content at the event to promote the Summit. I also advised Adobe before, during and after the event on how to increase engagement, attendance and partnership opportunities from the event.

In 2017, as I was preparing for my second trip to Las Vegas for the Summit, I decided to invest in a brand new iPhone 7 Plus. At the time, this was the best iPhone on the market, and it's the phone I still own and use everyday.

It's effectively been bulletproof for me (other than one of the two cameras finally failing a year or so ago), and that's a problem for Apple, because its phones are designed to be replaced every few years. First, the phones typically break down after a few years, I've been very lucky with mine in that regard. But if the product itself doesn't fail, the iOS eventually will. Many apps I would like to use on my iPhone (including Substack's) won't work because my older iPhone no longer has support for the latest and greatest version of iOS.

So Apple's model is to do everything it can to encourage you, or even force you, to buy a new product every 2-3 years. Patagonia, on the other hand, has the exact opposite model. Patagonia wants you to buy a garment, and if you never replaced that garment and wore it from now on, Patagonia would be just fine with that. In fact, Patagonia even goes out of its way to ensure that happens.

One way they do so is with the Worn Wear program.