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Polartec history
Polartec company history timeline
By 1977, Patagonia’s sales had grown by 50%, almost all powered by the repurposed pile fabric made in New England.
In 1981, Yvon Chouinard, owner of a small mountaineering company named Patagonia, was looking for a lighter, faster-drying alternative to wool and found Malden Mills.
Introduced in 1981 and initially marketed as Synchilla, this new cozy-to-the-touch fabric was an instant success.
Since inventing modern synthetic fleece in 1981, our engineers have advanced the science of fabric, creating fabric technologies that solve problems and improve the way products are designed and used.
Simplified in 1991 with the adoption of the catch-all name Polartec, the front end of the consumer business was renamed the same.
In 1993, Polartec introduced recycled fleece made from plastic bottles (to date, Polartec has recycled over 1.8 billion of them). Two years later, the business almost wholly went up in smoke.
In 2001, Malden Mills declared bankruptcy again, and the company’s creditors paid little heed to Feuerstein’s corporate sainthood (his benevolence was thought by many to be one of the reasons for the bankruptcy) and he was removed.
However, not enough to prevent the firm again filing for bankruptcy protection in January 2007.
Polartec Alpha—a technical baselayer launched in 2012—resulted from a collaboration with United States Special Forces and is now part of what Polartec calls the Active Insulation category.
WWD and Women's Wear Daily are part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2022 Fairchild Publishing, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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Polartec competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cocona | - | $1.1M | 35 | - |
| Saint-Gobain | - | $45.1B | 180,000 | 525 |
| Worthen Industries | - | $61.0M | 375 | 1 |
| Rexam | - | $5.0B | 8,000 | - |
| Moldex | 1980 | $45.0M | 500 | - |
| Duracell | 1924 | $2.0B | 2,700 | 49 |
| Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings | - | $19.5B | 54,111 | 3 |
| Sika | 1910 | $7.4B | 25,000 | 209 |
| FLEXcon | 1956 | $130.0M | 1,200 | 10 |
| E-BEAM Services | 1985 | $5.0M | 6 | - |
Polartec history FAQs
Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of Polartec, including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about Polartec. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at Polartec. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by Polartec. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of Polartec and its employees or that of Zippia.
Polartec may also be known as or be related to Polartec, Polartec LLC and Polartec, LLC.