Case Study: A Product Line Analysis for Eco-Designed Fashion Products

3.1. Case Company Selection

In this paper, we examine the outdoor sportswear brand Patagonia. The case company is a leading global outdoor sportswear retailer that aims to provide consumers with high-quality, fashionable, and sustainable outdoor sportswear. There are several reasons that we have selected Patagonia as the investigated company. First, Patagonia emphasizes sustainability and social responsibility as its competitive advantage. The majority of Patagonia's products are made by at least one eco-material. For the other responsible retailers such as H&M, the North Face, etc., a part of their product line is produced by eco-materials. We admit that only analyzing Patagonia's product line has limitations. However, Patagonia is representative of the impacts of eco-design in sustainable fashion companies. Second, to the best of our knowledge, it is rare for fashion retailers to share product line information online with consumers, except in the case of Patagonia. We collected Patagonia's product line data from its official website (www.patagonia.com). This product line analysis is an instrument that enables us to assess all impacts and identify insights on Patagonia's production processes.