--- description: Find out why Yvon Chouinard is one of the 100 most influential people of 2023. title: Yvon Chouinard: The 100 Most Influential People of 2023 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt99caf45dcc017c86/698a3bf0db298739fb268e5a/Yvon-Chouinard-time-100-2023.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 13, 2023 # Yvon Chouinard by Kris Tompkins  Yvon Chouinard, the founder of the outdoor apparel maker Patagonia, in Wilson, Wyo., Aug. 12, 2022\. Chouinard has forfeited ownership of the company he founded 49 years ago. The profits will now be used to fight climate change. (Natalie Behring/The New York Times) Yvon Chouinard, the founder of the outdoor apparel maker Patagonia, in Wilson, Wyo., Aug. 12, 2022\. Chouinard has forfeited ownership of the company he founded 49 years ago. The profits will now be used to fight climate change. (Natalie Behring/The New York Times)Natalie Behring—The New York Times/Redux I met Yvon Chouinard when I was 15—now I’m 72\. I can say that not very much about him has changed during that time. His love of nature is as steadfast as it was then, as is his refusal, all his life, to deviate from his principles. When I was working with him at Patagonia, Yvon didn’t care about conventional business wisdom; he cared about creating his ideal of what a great company should be: excellent quality, authentic stories, and focused on “making clothes for all of us”—that is, especially for the hardcore users. He managed to do that. Patagonia is a company that people look up to and marvel at because it is a genuine reflection of who Yvon is. Many people were surprised when [he and the family decided to give away the company](https://time.com/6213780/patagonia-founder-chouinard-climate/ "undefined") to defend the planet and combat climate change last year. No one else had ever done anything like it. But Yvon is used to going against the grain. For him, it was just bringing things full circle. _Tompkins is the former CEO of Patagonia and co-founder of Tompkins Conservation_ Yvon Chouinard Is on the 2023 TIME 100 List ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269833/yvon-chouinard/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269833/yvon-chouinard/"},"headline":"Yvon Chouinard","datePublished":"2023-04-13T10:32:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:22:07.225Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269833/yvon-chouinard/","keywords":["TIME 100","franchise","sponsorshipblock","TIME100 2023","T100ICONS2023"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt99caf45dcc017c86/698a3bf0db298739fb268e5a/Yvon-Chouinard-time-100-2023.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt99caf45dcc017c86/698a3bf0db298739fb268e5a/Yvon-Chouinard-time-100-2023.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269833/yvon-chouinard/","name":"Yvon Chouinard"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"TIME100 | The 100 Most Influential People of 2023","description":"See all the people on Time's 2023 Time 100 list","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/P6RIsapV/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2023-04-13T10:30:00.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/P6RIsapV.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269833/yvon-chouinard/","duration":"PT1M53S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269833/yvon-chouinard/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```