Looking Sideways: 10 Things
My favourite cover, Impact Report fallout, and my books of the year
1. It was interesting to be invited to the Substack Bestsellers Christmas drinks in London the other night, where I had fun chats with Farrah @Substack, Clyde Rathbone and Isaac Rangaswami.
As is usually the case at these things, it was full of semi-famous people craning their necks to work out if they recognised the person across the room. (Well, and me).
‘What’s your Substack about? was the evening’s most common question, and it was refreshing and timely to be reminded that ‘looking at creativity through surfing, skateboarding and snowboarding’ (my stock answer these days) is still an incredibly niche pursuit for most people out there in the real world.
2. Back in January, I released my series The Announcement, in which I used Patagonia’s decision to make ‘earth’ their only shareholder as a lens through which to explore a number of key modern topics of discussion: the democratic impact of unelected billionaires, the reality of ‘business for good’ and purpose marketing for brands, the current state of philanthropic capitalism, among others.
It was widely acclaimed, not least by Surfer Magazine, who called it ‘the definitive statement on sustainable business’. If you’ve yet to listen, check out the first episode of three above.
If you HAVE listened to those three and subsequent episodes, or read my Kendal blog from the other day, you’ll know there’s something missing - a ‘data-led analysis of what the brand’s move has actually achieved on the ground’, as I put it in that piece.
All of which is why it has been so fascinating to digest some of the brilliant commentary that is starting to come out around the brand’s latest Impact Report, like this piece below:
I’m currently trying to book a follow-up Announcement interview with somebody from the brand, in which I want to discuss the findings of the report, and some of the critiques of Patagonia’s position that the report has elicited.
No joy as yet, but I’ll keep you posted with that one. In the meantime, let me know what you’d like me to ask the brand in the comments below:
3. Related, and with I assume purposeful timing: my friends at the Re-Action Collective have just released their first Collective Action Report. As with everything this group do, it paints a very different vision of the outdoor industry than that peddled by…well, the outdoor industry. Download/read it below.
4. ICYMI - this week’s Insights blog featured my now traditional top 5 books of the year (spioiler alert). Catch up below for the full breakdown, and be sure to let me know what I should add to the list for 2026:
As regulars will have gathered by now, as usual I kept a record of everything I read in 2025 in a regularly updated reading list, which you can see here.
And I also began a Looking Sideways book store, which has been a great move.
Why? I get a LOT of messages from people saying how much they enjoy my recommendations and have bought books off the back of them - mostly still, I assume, from Amazon.
Sure, you need to sign up, and it’s about 30 seconds less convenient than Amazon. But to make the point again - buy anything from my book store and you’ll be buying directly from independent UK book stores (which means your money won’t be helping to finance Jeff Bezos’ next ab-lift, for one) as well as helping finance Looking Sideways (I get a 10% commission) in a really simple and (I humbly propose) righteous way.
Get involved here.
5. This exhaustive 6-part investigation into author Kate Clanchy’s infamous 2021 ‘cancellation’ is the type of ‘step away from the internet’ story in which nobody comes out with any credit. A slightly enraging, yet compelling listen.
6. RIP legendary guitarist Steve Cropper. He appears on this Big Star take on the Velvet Underground’s Femme Fatale, which is one of my favourite ever covers, and a thing of real beauty ❤️
7. This soul-searching piece on the colonial legacy we carry with us when we travel by Sam Hill is the best thing I read on Substack this week.
8. Andrew O’Hagan on Oasis is predictably great (£).
9. My favourite Brian Eno record (above) was this week’s featured album on Stuart Maconie’s reliably excellent Freak Zone radio show.
10. Finally, to round things off this week: another reminder of how you can potentially support Looking Sideways - and save yourself some cash - as we head into present-buying season.
Use:
LOOKINGSIDEWAYS10 for 10% off any order from Finisterre (as sported by me above)
LOOKINGSIDEWAYS for HUGE savings on ski and snowboard hire with Intersport this winter.
LOOKINGSIDEWAYSXDB for 15% off anything from Db
LOOKINGSIDEWAYS for 15% off any Stance order
LOOKINGSIDEWAYS2025 for 15% off any Albion purchase
LOOKINGSIDEWAYS for a whopping 20% off anything from Goodrays.
Alright.
Thanks for reading and supporting Looking Sideways! If you have any thoughts about any of the stories I discuss this week, let me know:
I would be interested to know whether Patagonia still believe that their model - of making loads of clothes and giving away some of the profit to different environmentel orgs - is still appropriate in 2025? Specifically two questions actually:
1. Would they consider a massive and drastic change to their business model in order to reduce their impact on the earth? As the impact report shows - it seems incredibly hard for them to actually reduce the impact that making a shit load of clothes every year has (and yeah sure I am also a proponent of "progress over perfection" but there are also limits to that - especially when your tagline is "we are in business to save our home planet").
Would they for example consider cutting half their clothing production in order to shift their business model to clothing repair and selling second hand?
2. Is the model of giving small amounts of money to lots of different environmental ngo's and orgs still appropriate in 2025? In my opinion we really need to build up very well organised mass movements to go up against the rise of the far right and the well funded corporations and their massive lobbying power. Would Patagonia ever use their financial and marketing might to genuinely try to do this? Would they ever send an email to their entire email list in America calling on people to take part in civil disobedience to challenge the Trump administration for example?
I would be interested to hear whether these are the types of questions they are asking themselves internally - its all well and good to be transparent but for me there was something lacking in the impact report.
I’m glad to hear you are diving deeper into the narrative of eco-saviour that Patagonia has been known for - and perpetuated(?). The link you shared from the Minority Report sheds important light on the image that Patagonia has marketed themselves as. I’ve both bought into the story - if I buy this jacket I will help a brand do ‘good’ - but it’s also been unsettling, like something just doesn’t feel right about participating in consumerism as a way of healing the world.
Do you have any other recommendations on articles or op-eds that are critiquing the messaging that Patagonia and other outdoor brands are communicating about doing ‘good’ for the planet.