Outdoor Retailer Report - Patagonia wants your underwear

Their products may be pricey, they might be the target of some resentment among their peers, and one can get the sense that they're a little too into themselves...but you've got to admit - they've got balls.

At the super-secret media-only Patagonia press conference at the 2007 Outdoor Retailer, president and CEO Casey Sheahan announced that the Ventura, California-based company would launch a bold advancement to their clothes recycling program. They've been offering to recycle consumers' old and no longer used Patagonia gear for years, and now they're taking a step further and really stepping on others' toes. They will now be accepting ANY old Polartec garment, not just their own, for their recycling program. If you've got a North Face, Cloudveil, Arc'teryx, or any other company's gear that has Polartec, they want it, and they're going to turn it back into Patagonia gear.

Yes - they're taking their competitors' old stuff, and using it to make new clothes of their own to sell. An unprecedented move to expand an already progressive recycling program, yet another trophy in the environmental case at Patagonia, and really, quite a "oh yes we DID!" statement to the rest of the industry.

They'll be releasing program details on their website in the near future, as well as the hilarious underwear-themed movie they also premiered at the press conference (with the help of Timmy "How can he always be so ON?" O'Neill).

Throw in some free pizza, beer, and shiny new Patagucci schwag for those in attendance, and we all came away pretty stoked on Patagonia.