In reply to UKC Gear: Re environmental credentials:
All their cotton in their "lifestyle" range is organic. Cotton is one of the most agressively sprayed crops in the world as the plant is delicate and easily ruined - take a read if you can be bothered:
http://www.patagonia.com/us/patagonia.go?assetid=2077
Also it lasts forever and a day - I used to work in a shop that sold their gear and one pair of trousers I had from their lifestyle range have lasted me 12 years so far - yeah, their now used for grovelling under cars and the like, but hey. So the extra IMO is worthwhile.
Fabrics are a big part of it - they use hemp (to avoid the pesticide use of cotton) have returned to pure synthetics for some items, as they can use recycled fibre rather than cotton, they avoid using chemicals to produce their wool thus avoiding contaminating water sources, and as someone else mentioned they use recycled poly bottles for fleeces.
In addition the support many environmental causes and charities
http://www.patagonia.com/us/patagonia.go?assetid=2329
About 15 years ago they were not advertising at all because Choinard wanted to limit their expansion - I think they then realised that if they did advertise then having put into place some of their measures they could raise more money and be better placed to have an impact...
Am i a groupy? Yep.