Greenie and the Man Truck: A Customer Story
Today’s post comes from Matt O’Conner of Boulder, Colorado. Matt’s currently running Franklin Handholds and sells climbing walls for the Eldorado Wall Company. He also keeps his own blog. His letter isn’t the first of its kind – we’ve received many similar stories from customers over the years – but it’s the first we’ve received since launching The Cleanest Line and we’re happy to share it. If you’ve had a unique relationship with one of our products, send us your story and a picture or two. Contact details are in the About section.
20 Years of Building Brand Loyalty – Greenie & the Man Truck
A lot of things have happened to me over the last 20 years. I attended UNH and climbed extensively in the North East. I moved to Colorado 15 years ago for better snow, many more sunny days, and the expansive quantity of rock. I met my wife and bought a house. I started fly fishing. Quite a bit if stuff, really. And if I look at everything I own now compared to everything I owned then, only a couple things are still around. One of them is Greenie – the lined Synchilla jacket in this photo.
My sister gave it to me for my high school graduation. I think it has done every possible task I could ask of a piece of outerwear – developed new boulder problems, established routes on Independence Pass, skied perfect spring corn and powder days, gone on trail runs and long dog-walks, and landed fish. It still works today as well as it did then (note the stylish zipper pulls). It may have not been the absolute best piece for any of these, but it did all of them really, really well.
It just so happens that this pullover is now over 20 years old, just like the truck it’s draped over. The Man-Truck (as it is affectionately known) is now also over 20 years old, and like that jacket, it may not be the best rig at anything, but it has been just about perfect at a whole lot of things, mostly durability. It’s that quality, attention to design, and materials that have made me loyal to Patagonia for 25 years now. You can bet that when the time comes to retire Greenie (b/c the arm melted by the campfire when I passed out in an all-to-closely positioned camp chair alongside the Gray Reef with a PBR can in hand), I will only look to one place. Thanks for such a great piece, and all the memories.
Happy holidays everybody; enjoy the weekend. Please be sure and tell your friends and family about Doug Peacock’s plea for Yellowstone Grizzlies and make a donation if you can.
[Photo: Matt O’Conner. Thanks for writing in Matt.]