Patagonia isn’t slowly backing away from paddlesports—they dropped their gun and are making a mad dash for the bank’s exit. The outdoor retailer is closing down all their paddling gear immediately. They’ve already sent closeout lists of the gear piled in their warehouses, so we can look forward to seeing women’s small Lotus Designs PFDs sit on SteepandCheap overnight. Patagonia makes some fantastic gear, and you can’t argue with their responsible growth practices or the great treatment of their employees—but they’re certainly not infallible. I said they’d regret the decision to open all those stores in markets where they already had strong retailers years ago—and so far I’ve been wrong—but what I should have said was, “Their paddlesports line will certainly collapse.” Also, I think they made a mistake robbing a lot of their retailers of business by building their own stores.

via Snooze