Rose Marcario

THERE ARE TWO SMALL HOLES IN THE CHEST OF my black fleece, as if a vampire took a nip, but Rose Marcario, the CEO of Patagonia, does not think I need a new one. The outdoor-apparel retailer would make more money if Marcario pushed one of the supple pink and purple pullovers on sale for $119 in the Patagonia store downstairs. Instead she suggests a different idea. “You can just patch it,” she says, sitting near an open window at Patagonia’s camplike Ventura, Calif., headquarters, wearing brown Buddhist prayer beads on her wrist. It’s an odd statement for the head of a retailer, but she shrugs and says, “I’m not really a buyer of things.”

Patagonia has long been at the forefront of what is