There are certain numbers that Madison Avenue cannot resist, and Patagonia appears to have found one: 11.2 million, which is both the dollar amount the outdoor retailer is investing in its new get-out-the-vote effort and, not coincidentally, the estimated number of Americans who consider themselves environmental voters but did not cast ballots in the last presidential election.

The symmetry is the kind of thing that makes a communications team very happy.

Beginning September 26, Patagonia will invite customers to sign up through a platform called Relentless, embedded on the company's website, and provide contact information for three people they believe should vote. The platform then generates a voting plan — polling locations, early voting options, identification requirements — which the recruiter can text or email to the recruited. In exchange, Patagonia offers a $100 credit toward its merchandise or a $100 donation to the League of Conservation Voters.

(The credit arrives whether or not the friends actually vote, which makes this less a get-out-the-vote campaign than a get-out-the-text campaign, but one takes what victories one can.)

"We couldn't believe that," said Corley Kenna, who leads the company's communications and policy team, referring to the 11.2 million figure. "If we know these people, we maybe can help get them out to vote in this election."

The effort represents what the company describes as relational organizing rather than traditional advertising — a distinction that may be meaningful to organizers but that functions, for the brand, much like advertising does: it associates Patagonia with civic virtue while generating email addresses and purchase intent.

Patagonia, which has been part of no holding company since its founder gave it away to a climate-focused trust in 2022, traces its electoral encouragement efforts to a 1978 newspaper advertisement in Ventura, California, supporting local pro-environment candidates. In the 2024 cycle, according to Ms. Kenna, roughly 5,000 people voted or volunteered through company programs.

Whether 11.2 million dollars can move 11.2 million voters remains, as they say in Ventura, to be determined.

Original story published in Fast Company: "Patagonia will give you $100 to get your friends to vote"