Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Is Patagonia anti-hunting?

I was just reading the Patagonia DAS thread below. I love mine, I'm on my second. They are nice! I just talked my brother into getting one. I heard Patagonia was trying to stop caribou hunting in Alaska. Is that true? If it is, I think I would rather give my mnoney to a company that isn't anti-hunting. Does anyone know if Sporthill, Lowa, Petzl, TNF, or any other big backpack hunting companies are anti-hunting? I'm not trying to be a jerk, I just don't want to help the anti-hunting movement.

You're thinking right Milt, let us know what you find.
Pretty sure REI and Backcountry.com are anti-hunting.
It won't stop me from buying from them, but it does make me look for someone that is supportive first.

I doubt if Sporthill is anti.
Patagonia and TNF I would believe to be, whether or not they admit it is another story.
I'll stay tuned...

I don't see a link to the thread that Milt referenced.

What are you guys basing this on?

Personally I don't care if Patagonia's corporate policy lean to anti-hunting... I buy their stuff and take pictures of me with dead critters. (emailing them Patagonia is an option ).

Like this one ("Porn-Star Camo" as Dober says):

REI sells hunting licenses here in Colorado so they can't be all that anti-hunting. I can say that the one by me sells licenses so infrequently that they are challenged to do it.

However the cusotmer service person bailed out my buddy who had forgotten his hunter safety card back in Illinois. She went online looked it up at the Illinois DOW site and printed out the necessary information for him so he could get a license... at Sportsman's Warehouse. She didn't appear to be a hunter but not a hint of anti-hunting came through and she certainly went out of her way to make sure he had the legal opportunity to kill fuzzy animals.

I've also worked with REI at the corporate level and if that is their policy, they don't seem to make a big deal of it.

It seems they are on both sides and I like there stuff at (least when I find something big enough),

I know they support with $$$ the work Trout Unlimited and groups to protect native trout with World Trout� Initiative grants.

But years ago I applied for a IT position they had open in southern California they seemed like a surfer company that was pro protecting the environment and never mentioned a anti hunting bias but it seemed to be there...reading there web page 10 years ago gave me that feeling..

I am a huge fan of Patagucchi. However, that they show no hunting in their catalogs nor make anything remotely resembling camo, my thoughts are they don't see us as the market force we probably are.

Everything I bought in a pro deal 14 years ago, I still use and the stuff still looks like it did when I bought it. It might be expensive but the stuff works and lasts ...I love my pataguchhi.

On more than one occassion while on the phone with Patagonia customer support I clearly told them my intended use for their gear - backpack elk hunting in the Rockies. Never a hint of discontent. If anything, they appeared interested.

Grantid, this is at a personal level not corporate. I am very interested in seeing proof of an anti hunting stance by Patagonia corporate.

Brad, nice pic. I guess you didn't get the memo that one can kill nothing without camo gear

Many of the backpacking/climbing companies are not anti-hunting even if they don't advertize to the hunting market.

I have never had a problem reviewing gear from TNF, Mont-Bell, Petzl, BA, Black Diamond, Go-Lite and many others for the hunting market. Yet with the exception of Big Agnes, I don't recall seeing advertizing in a hunting magazine.

Some of it is a lack of undrstanding of the hunting market and the belief of many specialty outdoor shops that the "Hook & Bullet" crowd are all a bunch of beer swilling road hunters that don't spend money on high ticket gear. Of course those that have that atitude couldn't be more wrong.

I was a hard goods buyer ( basicly all the gear and a bit of the technical clothing) for a specialty outdoor shop. The owner, even though he is a hunter never thought the hunting market was one worth persuing. I explained to him many times that the hunters were the customers that had no problem buying the Bibler tents and Western Mountaineering sleeping bags where as most of the cross country skiers and many of the backpackers were only interested in low end gear. He never really got though.

My take was that serious hunters were used to spending hundreds if not thousands on optics, rifles etc, and understood the concept of buying high end gear.

A couple companies owners that were main stream specialty outdoors saw the light and now are very focused on the hunting market. These being Dana Gleason of Mystry Ranch who founded Dana Designs and Kifaru's Patrick Smith who founded Mountain Smith.

So, IMO there is more of a lack of understanding rather than a actual anti hunting stance with most of these companies.

I believe there was a thread a couple years back about this. Someone asked is they were anti, I belive the answer was yes. As since they all want us to buy their gear and most of it is pretty good, they probably will not want to piss off the bunny hugging, Birkenstock wearing granola eaters by having pictures of their gear in hunting situations in their catalogs.


ML

Most of the climbing companies are not anti-hunting, they are pro-environment which is a good thing for us. This thread comes up once a year or so and no one can provide a link of them trying to stop hunting. As for REI I have hunted with managers and I know one of the higher ups is working on his grand slam.

Not everybody wants camo either, I know I dont. They probably dont market toward hunters because the ones that use high end technical gear are few and far between. When it comes down to it they make plenty of money with out having to re-tool and pay trademark on camo fabric.


My R2 has spilled some blood........

I have been hunting in their stuff for a good while. But just like everything else it seems like their quality is going down hill. Old standup pants, shorts, the old style fleece was tough as hell. The new ones don't hold up nearly as well.
Still tough to beat against most other peoples stuff. Chouinard is a huge trout fisherman and bonefish fisherman. Don't know if he does any gun hunting, but he was big into falconry in the 60's and 70's.

I know Sporthill isn't anti hunting, they have a line of clothing designed specifically for hunting. As for REI, I could care less if they are anti hunting or not, they carry top notch gear at a good price, stuff I can't get at 99% of the sporting goods stores.

a few years back when montana first planned to revive bison hunting outside the park, Patagonia was offering to buy the permits from people so the did not kill a bison....seems anti hunting to me. This was in many of the local papers at the time.

copied the following form an online Buffalo Field Campaign newsletter.


"We also have some great news: Patagonia has agreed to pay the $75 fee for every buffalo kill permit secured by a BFC supporter that isn't used. THANK YOU PATAGONIA for always coming through for the buffalo! Applications must be turned in to Fish, Widllife and Parks no later than 5:00 pm MST on January 3, 2005. The drawing takes place on January 7, 2005, and if your name is drawn, you will receive a phone call from FWP. Stay in touch with us! For FWP's information on the canned hunt visit "

>>Does anyone know if Sporthill, Lowa, Petzl, TNF, or any other big backpack hunting companies are anti-hunting?<<


Looking at the Lowa website I would feel confident to say they aren't anti-hunting.

http://www.lowaboots.com/catalog/ShowBoot.cfm?StockNum=2108860492&Category=2&Type=M

Also, I had read about the response of Patagonia to the buffalo hunt. I got the impression they weren't anti-hunting in general as much as they were not wild about the herd-reduction plan that they saw as a canned hunt. I'm not defending Patagonia but that was my impression.

I love Patagonia. If they are anti-hunting, they certainly have assisted me in my comfort when killing animals. Capiline is good stuff. Have about 20 years worth of hero shots with all sorts of wildlife carnage with Patagonia clothing being worn. The grey windproof fleece jacket is 16 years old and I still wear it, the bottom picture was from the 2008 season. I especially like the added touch of a Montana Traditional Bowhunter's cap with 300 Mag kills..

Just did a little digging on the subject and found a few websites that had there stand on the subject. They weren't against the hunting part of it but the park service's stand on the free ranging of the buffalo. There was pressure from ranch owners about the buffalo grazing in there winter grounds for cattle. The yellowstone heard of buffalo is the largest natural heard and patagonia wanted the park service not to cave to pressure from private land owners.

That was my take on it. If you see something different would love to hear it. Maybe they were just anti government

Greenhorn, it's always a pleasure to see you post, especially your pictures. What a hog of a mulie ! How big is that thing ?
I've got a few thousand dollars worth of Patagonia stuff too. Love every bit of it. Has allowed me to tolerate and hunt conditions I never though possible.
Brad, I think I have the same top. A merino wool base layer ? E