Why Cotopaxi’s outdoor gear is designed to last 61 years

When Cotopaxi, an adventure gear and apparel company based in Salt Lake City, launched three years ago, founder and chief executive officer Davis Smith decided to get creative. “We bought two llamas on Craigslist and brought them to a bunch of college campuses around Utah,” he says. “Hundreds of students took selfies, so we had 30,000 social media posts by the end of that first day.” Though the strategy sounds like something dreamed up on the fly, the idea for a socially minded, sustainable outdoor brand was something Smith had been working on for a decade.

The son of a civil engineer, the Utah native had spent most of his childhood living in some of the most impoverished countries in Central America and South America: Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Peru. “I remember being four years old and seeing kids younger than me on the side of the streets, completely naked, ” he says. “I felt that I had a responsibility to give back from an early age.”

As an undergraduate he spent time in Brazil, where he saw how he could make a difference simply by giving away his lunch or spare change. It was around that time that he committed to “the idea of building a brand around giving back,” Smith explains. And though the company gives back 2 per cent of its annual revenue, the charitable ethos extends as well to its sustainably sourced materials and factories in the developing world that are known for fair wages, working conditions, and maternity care. “I’m not talking just part of the profits, but in terms of everything we do – the manufacturing process, even the delivery.”

After spending a couple of years back in Bolivia, Smith moved his family to Utah and tapped a friend from Wharton Business School, Stephan Jacob, to be his co-founder. Cotopaxi’s e-commerce site initially launched with backpacks and water bottles. Over the past three years, it has added jackets, dopp kits, organic wool sweaters, and technical tees, tripling profits annually and expanding the team from six to 60.

Working with a factory in the Philippines to make Cotopaxi’s signature fluorescent, colour-block nylon windbreakers and bags, Smith was inspired by the vivid textiles of South America. In order to reduce the waste that comes with manufacturing them, he launched the Del Dia Collection, a series of fanny packs designed by factory workers, who use leftover scraps to make each one-of-a-kind piece.