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steveA
Trad climber
bedford,massachusetts
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Topic Author's Original Post - May 18, 2009 - 11:02pm PT
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I was attending my son's graduation from the University of Pennsylvania today and to my suprise, Ivon Chouinard was also there
receiving an honorary Doctor of Letters degree for his efforts in saving the environment.
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mooser
Trad climber
seattle
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May 18, 2009 - 11:12pm PT
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Congrats on your son's graduation!
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hagerty
Social climber
A Sandy Area South of a Salty Lake
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May 18, 2009 - 11:18pm PT
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Is this Ivon Chouinard related to Yvon Chouinard?
;-)
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Captain...or Skully
Social climber
North of the Owyhees
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May 18, 2009 - 11:22pm PT
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a bastard brother, maybe?
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GDavis
Trad climber
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May 18, 2009 - 11:31pm PT
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"That guy is a dick. Period. "
Most hardcore environmentalists are. They have to be.
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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May 18, 2009 - 11:32pm PT
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Me wonders if he's ever met & spoken to him. . . .?????
just sayin'. . .
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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May 19, 2009 - 12:03am PT
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"Just saying....."
You saying Ivan is a Russian?
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Captain...or Skully
Social climber
North of the Owyhees
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May 19, 2009 - 12:41am PT
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Well? Ivan....hmmmm. Russian?, hmmmmmmmmm.
What are the chances there?
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
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May 19, 2009 - 12:49am PT
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RR and I used to call him "Frenchy", privately
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jstan
climber
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May 19, 2009 - 02:38am PT
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Dick Dumais who, for some reason seemed to know about such things, gave me a fifteen minute lecture on how to pronounce Schwinard. I, being a poor student, didn't get it right even then.
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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May 19, 2009 - 02:46am PT
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Chouinard's family was Quebecois (French-Canadian) - many people in New England have ancestors from Quebec or New Brunswick. Yvon (sometimes Yvan) is not an unusual name in Quebec.
The cartoonist/satirist Garry Trudeau is also of Quebecois descent. A distant cousin of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau - all the Trudeaus in North America are apparently descended from someone of that name who arrived in the late 17th century.
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GBrown
Trad climber
North Hollywood, California
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May 19, 2009 - 03:19am PT
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I always thought that a Doctor of Letters was a elbbarcS champion (that's "Scrabble" for someone who has a Doctorate). And where the hell is Dick Dumais these days JStan? I'm wondering if I would see him around when I'm back in the Gunks in October.
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steveA
Trad climber
bedford,massachusetts
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Topic Author's Reply - May 19, 2009 - 07:31am PT
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Sorry I incorrectly spelled Yvon's name on my original post. I managed to catch a few words with him before I was chased away by PENN security. I did a few climbs with him and TM Herbert in the Tetons back in 1971. He introduced me to fly fishing which I still love to do everytime I go into the Wind Rivers. I'm going in there this August-can't wait!
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RDB
Social climber
way out there
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May 19, 2009 - 12:27pm PT
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Tami, have you read "Let My People Go Surfing" by YC?
Interesting read for anyone who has been around since the '70s.
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Anguish
Mountain climber
Jackson Hole Wyo.
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May 19, 2009 - 01:24pm PT
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He also has an honorary degree from Yale. Which makes him Dr. Dr. Chouinard, now.
This from U Penn:
Honorary Degrees
May 2009
Yvon Chouinard, Founder, Patagonia, Inc., Co-founder, One Percent For The Planet: Doctor of Humane Letters
George H. Crumb, Pulitzer Prize winning Composer, Walter H. Annenberg Professor Emeritus in the Humanities, University of Pennsylvania: Doctor of Music
Jennifer Yvonne Mokgoro, GL’90, Judge, Constitutional Court of South Africa: Doctor of Laws
Eric E. Schmidt, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Google, Inc.: Doctor of Science
Susan Solomon, Senior Scientist, Earth System Research Laboratory, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, Co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2002-2008: Doctor of Science
Muhammad Yunus, Founder and Managing Director, Grameen Bank, With Grameen Bank, recipient of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize: Doctor of Laws
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hagerty
Social climber
A Sandy Area South of a Salty Lake
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May 19, 2009 - 01:25pm PT
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If you don't want to buy products made in China, you really need to do careful homework. Although Company X "manufactures" their product in the US, they may well be merely assembling components that are actually made in China. Where is the ideological line?
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Roger Breedlove
climber
Cleveland Heights, Ohio
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May 19, 2009 - 02:00pm PT
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It's a doo wop song.
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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May 19, 2009 - 02:21pm PT
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Let My People Surf is Yvon's book, part memoir and part manifesto. It is fairly readable, and it has some fascinating stories in it, like Chouinard and Frost finding some ancient corduroy mill in Italy and contracting for unusually beefy fabric for knickers until the machine needles wore out.
I find it amusing that folks call Patagonia "Gucci." Patagonia's pricepoint is pretty consistently about the same as Banana Republic or JCrew and for far better designed, manufactured, and sourced goods. There are exceptions, but they're easy to identify and avoid.
To get cheaper stuff, you need to shop WalMart or Old Navy or Sheplers. And then you get cheap-ass materials that fall apart.
I find Patagonia pretty impressive in terms of the consistency of their design and production. Doesn't mean that Yvon isn't a diva on site. Never met the guy.
Edit: DMT posted while I was typing: "The POINT is its hard to make some lofty enviro claims when the company is sourcing its clothing in China. Feet of clay in other words."
I disagree, sort of, at least mildly: Patagonia is really open about sourcing (esp. when compared to other outdoor industry competitors), and the interactive routing map on the website offers a pretty frank discussion of the costs and trade-offs of production.
I do agree this far: I think that a lot of clothing manufacturers could do more production in the US-- there are still dozens if not hundreds of textile mills in the mid-South that could be fired up for production. If shipping/transport costs continue to rise, then that may provide some spark. I also agree that Yvon's tone can be annoyingly self-righteous.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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May 19, 2009 - 03:03pm PT
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I worked for Patagonia for ten years and I agree that the Company and Yvon can appear as self righteous. There is also a bit of a cult feel in Ventura, to some extent you have to drink the cool aid(sp?) to prosper- but, having been there, I disagree with the general tenor of the posts on this topic.
Yvon is a very committed conservationist and what he does with Patagonia is not green marketing. When he announced that he was going 100% to organic cotton we reps just about crapped our pants. We thought that we would price ourselves out of the market. YC said it was the right thing to do and if sales suffered so be it. It turns out he was right.
When clothing production started shifting to China and elsewhere, he resisted and continued as much production in the SE as he could. The problem became more of the quality he was getting than the price. As an Alpinist I often was at odds with some of the fabric/design decisions made by Patagonia, but I was always very impressed with the consistently high level of quality. I am still wearing some of my samples that are 20 years old.
As with any company that succeeds in corporate America, Patagonia is not without it's warts, but I'll always believe that they were instrumental in getting other companies to look at their business's in a much friendlier environmental context.
I am sure that Yvon Chouinard would like to be considered a committed and effective environmentalist more than anything else.
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