Patagonia offers customers $100 store credit to help three friends plan to vote in the US midterms

Key Takeaways

• Patagonia has launched the 11.2 Million Vote Project, a nonpartisan get-out-the-vote push ahead of the November 2026 US midterms.

• Customers who help three people make a plan to vote can claim a $100 Patagonia credit, or send $100 to the League of Conservation Voters instead.

• The brand is committing up to $11.2 million, enough for 112,000 participants, which could reach 336,000 people.

• Sign-up opened on 26 September, Public Lands Day, through the Relentless platform on Patagonia's website, with instructions sent by text.

Most brands pay for referrals that are guaranteed to end in a sale, but not Patagonia; they're paying for a referral that ends at the polling station. The outdoor brand's 11.2 Million Vote Project gives US customers $100 to spend with Patagonia if they help three friends or family members plan how they will vote in November's midterms. It doesn't tell anyone who to vote for. The whole idea rests on something any PR person will recognise: a message from a friend gets through where an advert doesn't.

The name comes from research by the Environmental Voter Project, led by founder and executive director Nathaniel Stinnett. It estimates that 11.2 million Americans who see climate and the environment as a top priority don't vote. Patagonia's budget is sized to match: up to $11.2 million, covering $100 per participant for up to 112,000 participants.

From 26 September, customers can sign up through Relentless, a platform embedded on Patagonia's site, and agree to receive instructions by text. They enter details for three people, and the platform builds each of them a personal voting plan based on their address, covering polling locations, early and mail-in voting options and ID requirements. Patagonia says a plan to vote "identifies relevant deadlines and voting locations to remove the guesswork for voters."

Participants then send those plans on by text or email and confirm they've done it. The reward is store credit rather than cash, usable online or in stores, and people can choose a $100 donation to the League of Conservation Voters instead. Crucially, the credit depends on the outreach, not on whether the three friends actually vote, so Patagonia is rewarding the conversation rather than checking up on anyone's ballot.

"We're trying to cut through the apathy," chief executive Ryan Gellert told The New York Times. The people Patagonia wants to reach already care about the environment; the problem is turning that concern into a trip to the polls, and the brand has chosen the most personal channel it can. As Corley Kenna, who leads Patagonia's communications and policy team, told Fast Company: "I think the best way to break through with that is a text or an email or a phone call from a friend."

It also ties neatly to the brand's long-running work on public lands, and launching on Public Lands Day draws that link without needing a slogan. The mechanics keep things practical and nonpartisan: deadlines, locations and ID rules are the kind of friction that stops people from voting whatever their politics.

SOURCES

[1] Fast Company

[2] Patagonia