Yvon Chouinard: What We've Learned from Patagonia's First 40 Years

Let My People Go Surfing

Yvon Chouinard · Reading rank 31 · in 12 other episodes

Host ranks this among his top five books covered on the podcast and recommends it to entrepreneurs and makers.

Cross-episode reference · Explicit praise

Unscaled

Hemant Taneja with Kevin Maney · Reading rank 359 · in 5 other episodes

Cross-episode reference

The Innovator's Dilemma

Clayton M. Christensen · Reading rank 382 · in 5 other episodes

David names The Innovator's Dilemma while explaining Chouinard Equipment's decision to replace its best-selling pitons with less-damaging chocks, framing the move as the rare willingness to obsolete a successful product before someone else does.

Founder theme

Patagonia Catalogs

Patagonia · Reading rank 431 · in 1 other episode

David describes the 1972 Chouinard Equipment catalog's fourteen-page clean-climbing essay and reports that, after it mailed, piton sales collapsed while the less-damaging chocks promoted by the catalog sold faster than the company could make them.

Founder theme