The company’s non-voting stock, worth close to $3 billion, will be owned by a collective that will use all profits that aren’t reinvested into the business to fight climate change.
The company expects to contribute about $100 million a year, depending on the health of the business.
Further down:
The trust will get all the voting stock, which is 2% of the total, and will use it to create a “more permanent legal structure to enshrine Patagonia’s purpose and values.” It will be overseen by members of the family and close advisors.
In other words, nothing really changes, they still get to do whatever they want, but they just got a huge amount of free advertising, the workers got screwed, the family reaps the rewards, etc.
They could have created a workers coop, issued voting stock to the employees who helped build them, etc. Instead this feels like a PR move.