Patagonia is bringing direct embroidery back – just not on the front of its garments.

The popular clothing brand, available to promotional products distributors through supplier Driving Impressions (asi/50864), will allow co-branding on locations that include the back yoke and the sleeve of its garments, according to an email Driving Impressions sent to customers last week.

Patagonia products like this jacket (83580) available from Driving Impressions (asi/50864) could now have logos embroidered directly on them, thanks to a policy reversal from the outdoor apparel brand.

It’s a reversal of a decision Patagonia made two years ago. In April 2021, the company stopped allowing direct embroidery on its products, citing sustainability concerns. In a blog post at the time, Patagonia said it believed that co-branding on its garments would shorten their lifespans. For example, when someone changes jobs, they don’t necessarily want to continue wearing a branded fleece from their old gig. The thought was that co-branding limits the reusability of apparel, making it more likely to end up in a landfill, rather than entering the reuse market.

“Patagonia is in the outdoor industry. That’s our main focus,” Shaun Willhite, group sales manager for Patagonia, told ASI Media, adding that group sales have always been more of a side project for the brand. “We’ve found some really great partners in the ASI world. … The thing that happened a few years ago was we weren’t feeling good about all this logoed apparel going into landfills or stashed in people’s closets. We said, we’ve got to pause what we’re doing until we figure out next steps.”

Patagonia’s decision to start allowing limited embroidery on its products coincides with an expected expansion of the company’s Worn Wear program, which allows people to trade in used Patagonia gear for store credit – or buy pre-worn Patagonia clothing at a discount. In the past, Patagonia said it couldn’t accept branded apparel in the program. In the near future, however, the Worn Wear program will begin accepting qualified styles that have other company’s logos, though the store credit offered will be different than standard pricing, since the logos will need to be altered, according to the email from Driving Impressions.

“They have developed new solutions to either remove, repair or repurpose embroidered Patagonia products, to better extend their usable lifespan and to keep them out of the landfill,” Driving Impressions noted.

The Worn Wear department is experimenting with solutions like covering up corporate logos with a “really creative patch,” Willhite of Patagonia told ASI Media. Sometimes, however, removing logos requires a more labor-intensive effort, like taking a whole panel off a jacket and replacing it with a new one. “We’re still organizing Worn Wear to take back in a big way all of these logoed items in closets,” Willhite said. “We’re really excited about that.”

Promo distributors expressed enthusiasm at the prospect of working with Patagonia products again.

“Our clients never stopped asking for the Patagonia brand, and we’re excited to be able to offer this purpose-driven retail brand again,” said Mel Hubner, director of social impact and sustainability at Brand Fuel (asi/145025).

Hubner added that Brand Fuel, a Certified B Corp like Patagonia, was especially glad to learn that the Worn Wear program would be accepting branded merch. “This will raise the bar for other suppliers, and it will create a greater collective impact in preventing our industry’s products from ending up in the landfill,” she added.

Thomas Rector, CEO of Screenbroidery (asi/305623), likes that Patagonia’s mission-driven purpose will have a place in the promo industry. “We can talk about why Patagonia products have longer staying power, are produced responsibly and support those in need,” he said. “I do understand Patagonia wanting to be selective on what corporations are branded on their products. Their compromise is perfect, and I’m excited to be able to again offer Patagonia to our customers.”

Even when direct embroidery was off-limits, there were workarounds for distributors and their clients. Removable branding options, like logoed zipper pulls, woven hem tags or patches, were acceptable for decorating Patagonia garments. Distributors could also sell the apparel blank to their customers.

But the addition of direct embroidery options is a game-changer, said Mitch Silver, vice president of marketing and sales at Printable (asi/299458), who noted that his company frequently got requests from financial services clients for Patagonia apparel.

“Our clients are really going to like this alternative sleeve or back-of-neck location option,” Silver said. “Many of them don’t necessarily want left-chest embroidery anyway.”

Driving Impressions noted in its email to customers that the new directive from Patagonia isn’t a free-for-all: “Orders will continue to be approved and accepted on a per-order basis,” the supplier wrote. Driving Impressions encouraged distributors to send them the end-user and its website for preapproval before pitching the Patagonia brand to customers, to avoid issues.

How to handle unwanted and unused logoed apparel and promotional products has been a hot topic as the promo industry focuses on sustainability and creating a more circular economic model. Many charities that accept clothing donations, for example, say they cannot take anything that has a corporate logo on it. But several suppliers – including Everywhere Apparel (asi/53059) and Marine Layer (asi/68730) – accept preowned logoed T-shirts for recycling. And industry programs like SwagCycle will help end-users donate or recycle unwanted or unusable merch.

Patagonia has had a somewhat fraught relationship with branded merch. A few years before its 2021 decision on direct embroidery, the company shifted its corporate sales strategy “to increase the number of Certified B Corporations, 1% for the Planet members and other mission-driven companies that prioritize the planet” that it works with.

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