Patagonia Partners With Artists Across the Country to Bring Environmental Focus to Midterm Elections

VENTURA, Calif., Aug. 21, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Patagonia today launched a crowdsourced art campaign inviting artists & designers to create a collection of designs to express why they believe the environment is the #1 issue in the upcoming election and inspire people to vote – especially young people. According to a Harvard University study, only 23 percent of Americans ages of 18-29 say they will definitely vote this midterm.

Patagonia worked with top graphic artists Alex Trochut, Natas Kaupas and Eric Junker to produce three new "Vote the Environment" t-shirt designs available at Patagonia retail stores and online today. The campaign is open for anyone to contribute their own designs – part of Patagonia's longstanding series of "Vote the Environment" campaigns to inspire voter engagement around the environmental crisis.

"We've rooted our business in the environment – we want to act responsibly, live within our means, and leave behind a planet we would want to live in," said Patagonia CEO Rose Marcario. "We need leaders who will act on behalf of the future and the planet and we know art can create a sense of pride and urgency and inspire real action for this movement."

The campaign is not a contest, and all submitted designs that meet the contribution requirements will be featured in the online gallery made available for sale as posters to spread the message. Forty percent of any net sales go directly to the artists, and 30 percent goes to support voter registration through HeadCount, a non-partisan organization that uses the power of music to register voters and promote participation in democracy. Posters may also be turned into buttons, stickers, signs, etc. and shared virtually in support of this broader movement.

The new "Vote the Environment" website provides resources allowing people to register to vote in their state, gives information on candidates scored by the League of Conservation Voters according to environmental issues, invites artists to showcase their work and features information about the artists. Five dollars from the sale of these shirts in Patagonia retail stores and online goes to HeadCount.

"We face a great crisis: climate change, extinction, destruction of wild places," said Lisa Pike Sheehy, Patagonia's global director of environmental initiatives. "That's why we must support candidates who push hard for clean, renewable energy, restore clean water and air and turn away from risky, carbon-intensive fuels. We cannot afford to sit out this election."

While the millennial generation does not show a large interest in voting, they consistently express passion and awareness for environmental issues. The "Vote the Environment" designs will allow people to display their support of environment and stress the importance of political participation to keep it protected.

In 2012, Patagonia successfully ran a similar campaign by partnering with the band Wilco to bring awareness to "Vote the Environment." They set up booths outside each concert during Wilco's tour in order to garner 110,000+ registered voters through HeadCount.

Visit "Vote the Environment" for more information. To read Patagonia's recently released Environmental and Social Initiatives book for 2014, click here.

About Patagonia

Founded by Yvon Chouinard in 1973, Patagonia is an outdoor apparel company based in Ventura, California. A certified B-Corporation, Patagonia's mission is to build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis. Since 1985, Patagonia has dedicated 1 per cent of sales each year to environmental causes. More information is available at www.patagonia.com.

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SOURCE Patagonia, Inc.