Mountain Chalet Owner Don’s Vintage Patagonia Outfit to Win $5,000 Grant

While the focus of the show in Stone Mountain, GA was to preview and write orders for F13 product lines, Patagonia sponsored an evening event to celebrate their 40th Anniversary.

As part of the event, Patagonia hosted a contest with the Grassroots retailers. The best vintage Patagonia outfit worn by a retailer at an evening film presentation would win a $5,000 environmental grant to a local non profit of their choice.

While there was in impressive array of contestants, Dan Foster, owner of Mountain Chalet in Colorado Springs, CO proved to be the clear winner.

“We've sold Patagonia since their beginning, and since I'm kind of a geezer I've had a while to collect their stuff,” said Foster. “Their roots go back to Chouinard Equipment and Great Pacific Iron Works and I dug deep into my closet to find some vintage goods. I also contacted fellow Manitou Springs residents RJ Campbell and Pete Gallagher. They are long time friends, climbers and Patagoniacs and allowed me to borrow a few “ringer” items to round out my collection.”

“We're real excited to choose Colorado Springs Trails and Open Space Coalition (TOSC) as the recipient for these funds to help with their ongoing environmental efforts in the Pikes Peak region” said Foster. “Patagonia offered this grant to a Grassroots retailer and they didn't have to make the prize as large as they did to attract interest. Conservative citizens in Colorado Springs never met a tax they liked, but amazingly they voted in a sales tax years ago to buy open space and again later to extend it. I use the trails and daily enjoy the open space backdrop to Colorado Springs that has been preserved through TOSC. We have a lot to be thankful for and, in the spirit of the season and of the grant that Patagonia provided, we decided to match it.

The timing on this isn't perfect as far as our cash flow, but it feels right. Leveraging the grant from Patagonia for a local group is in our DNA- it is the type of thing that outdoor specialty retailers do in their communities.”

Patagonia offered the grant to help celebrate its 40th anniversary, which takes place in 2013, said Walt Bailey, East Coast sales manager for Patagonia.

Noting that the Grassroots Outdoor Alliance has a membership comprised of some of the best such specialty retailers in the industry, Bailey said Patagonia thought that celebrating its 40th anniversary with them was fitting. The company donates a percentage of all sales done through Grassroots retailers to local environmental organizations in their communities in an effort to protect places to play and ensure their future for the benefit of both the environment, the company and its dealers.

“We decided to focus on having some fun and donating $5,000 to the person with the best ‘old-school’ Patagonia outfit,” said Bailey. “There was stiff competition for sure and a lot of participation. But Dan’s outfit took top marks. And we’re really happy to donate this money to a great organization in his community and were blown away at Dan’s generosity to match the donation.”

“This co-promotion as a great example of outdoor industry cooperation and environmental stewardship,” added Roanne Miller, President of Grassroots Outdoor Alliance. “We want to thank Patagonia for their ongoing support of specialty retail and their amazingly generous financial contributions to a number of environmental causes.”