Patagonia announced the launch of their public weblog, The Cleanest Line. Open to employees, customers, friends and industry insiders, participants are encouraged to share stories, photos, news, events and environmental action alerts.
The company also plans to utilize the blog as an open chain of communication and hopes get valuable feedback from its customers. The blog can be accessed on Patagonias homepage (www.patagonia.com) or via the URL: www.thecleanestline.com
“The blogosphere can be a scary place for a lot of people. There are a lot of haters, griefers and spammers out there. But far outnumbering them are genuinely passionate folks who care an awful lot about what theyre buying, how the worlds being run and what they can do to change it,” notes Kasey Kersnowski, Patagonias managing editor of E-Media. “We believe in the idea of an online dialogue and hope our friends and customers will feel comfortable visiting and speaking out on The Cleanest Line.”
The goal of The Cleanest Line is to further Patagonia's mission by encouraging dialogue about the products they build, the sports they love and the environmental issues theyre concerned about. By talking openly about the products they build, Patagonia users can help the company achieve greater standards of quality and functionality. By spreading the word about specific environmental issues, the company hopes to increase awareness and get folks taking action as quickly as possible. By sharing field reports, bloggers can inspire one another to keep experiencing the wonders of our planet.
“We also want to bring product discussions into the mix without turning the blog into a selling space. We're proud of the products we build and we put a lot of effort into making them the best they can be,” continues Kersnowski. “As proud parents, so to speak, we're interested in hearing about where people are going with our gear, how they're using it and how we might be able to make it better. We hope The Cleanest Line will shed a lot more light on what makes this company so special.”
Patagonia, with sales last year of over $260M, is noted internationally for its commitment to product quality and environmental activism. Incorporating environmental responsibility in to product development, the company has, since 1996, used only organically-grown cotton in its clothing line, and its most recent launch of synthetic fiber-to-fiber recycling – taking back its worn-out clothing and reincarnating it as new products, forever capturing the petroleum used in making virgin fiber.
