A Clothing Company Discourages Customers From Buying Its Stuff - And Business Is Booming

Patagonia, an outdoor clothing company, famously tells customers to think twice before buying.

On Black Friday last year, the brand had an "anti-black Friday" event and encouraged customers to get their items repaired instead. Patagonia also famously ran an ad with one of its garments that said "don't buy this jacket."

This strategy is paying off big-time, reports Sapna Maheshwari at Buzzfeed.

The "socially and environmentally conscious practices" have helped profits triple since 2008, Maheshwari writes.

Patagonia's business model, which rejects overt consumerism, bucks the trend of fast fashion retailers like Forever 21 and H&M.

"We design and sell things made to last and be useful. But we ask our customers not to buy from us what you don't need or can't really use. Everything we make--everything anyone makes--costs the planet more than it gives back," the company told Fast Company in 2012.

This philosophy is great for the brand's image.

"Patagonia's audience trusts the brand, admires its values, and aspires to live by the same principles," Jeff Rosenblum writes in Fast Company. "Very few brands can compete on quality and price alone."

Consumers are increasingly drawn to quality over quantity, the Wall Street Journal reported last week.

"A generation of consumers has grown up wearing what is often referred to as 'fast fashion' - trendy, inexpensive versions of runway looks that shoppers wear for one season, or one occasion, and often toss," according to WSJ. "Now, many of these shoppers are graduating to a philosophy of quality not quantity."

While Americans are spending more on clothes, the quantity has gone down since its peak in 2005, WSJ reporter Elizabeth Holmes writes, citing the American Apparel and Footwear Association.