Patagonia Now Open in Chicago's Magnificent Mile®

CHICAGO, Dec. 13, 2011  /PRNewswire/ -- Just in time to greet holiday shoppers, outdoor clothing manufacturer and lifestyle outfitter Patagonia today opened the doors on its second Chicago retail store at 48 East Walton Street in the heart of the city's Magnificent Mile/Gold Coast area.

To celebrate, the public is invited to stop in for the store's Grand Opening starting at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 15. Visitors will enjoy live music by the Parkington Sisters and locally grown food provided by City Farm, the Chicago group that turns vacant city lots into productive urban farmland. Additionally, Jared Rouben, pub brewmaster of Goose Island Brewery will be pouring the new "Bitter Cold" brew, created especially to celebrate the Patagonia grand opening.

Visitors to the new store can browse Patagonia's wide selection of technical garments, including its new line for skiing and snowboarding, casual wear, footwear and children's apparel, amid stunning views of the historic Magnificent Mile shopping area, thanks to two massive walls of windows that also provide ample natural light to align with the store's environmentally friendly operations and highlight its outdoor apparel.

"We invite both new and existing customers to come and check us out in this amazing new space here in the Magnificent Mile shopping district and look forward to being just as involved in this community as we are at our Lincoln Park location," said Vickie Achee, head of marketing with Patagonia Retail. "And, since we're opening just in time for the holidays, this event is a great way for shoppers get into the holiday spirit and wrap up their shopping with food and entertainment."

With a long history of celebrating the adventurous spirit and outdoor lifestyle, Patagonia emphasizes quality, durability and functionality in its product offerings and demands the same level of reliability from its suppliers.

The company is also a staunch supporter of environmental issues, with their retail stores advocating for local environmental causes in the form of cash and product donations, as well as letter writing campaigns and events. Over the last eight years, Patagonia's Lincoln Park store at 1800 North Clybourn Street has granted over $100,000 to local grassroots environmental groups working on solutions to numerous issues in the community, including a $10,000 grant for the Alliance for the Great Lakes (www.greatlakes.org) and a hoop house for The Resource Center's City Farm (http://www.resourcecenterchicago.org/70thfarm.html).

About Patagonia
Patagonia, Inc., based in Ventura, California, is a leading designer of core outdoor, surf and sport-related apparel, equipment, footwear and accessories. With sales last year of $414M, the company is noted internationally for its commitment to authentic product quality and environmental activism, contributing over $43M in cash and in-kind donations to date. Incorporating environmental responsibility into product development, the company has, since 1996, used only organically grown cotton in its clothing line. Committed to making its products landfill-free, the company's entire product line is recyclable thorough its Common Threads Initiative. The company also advocates corporate transparency through its interactive website, The Footprint Chronicles, which outlines the environmental and social footprint of individual products. Patagonia was featured as The Coolest Company on the Planet on Fortune Magazine's April 2007 cover.

SOURCE Patagonia