While there, Manuel developed strong relationships with clothing retailers like North Face and Columbia Sportswear.
As other outdoor clothing companies, such as Columbia Sportswear, have gone public, Chouinard has resisted the temptation.
Vietnam is Columbia Sportswear's largest manufacturing base, while about 5% of the company's apparel is made in Bangladesh.
But Ms. Boyle kept at it and eventually grew the business into the publicly-traded company known as Columbia Sportswear.
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For example, clothes from Columbia Sportswear, a maker of fleece jackets and sweatshirts, are popular in Herberger's small-town stores in Minnesota.
Columbia Sportswear said it didn't authorize this production, and cut ties with the Vietnamese factory soon after it found out about the practice.
Columbia Sportswear considers Vietnam a "safer" place to manufacture than Bangladesh, a spokeswoman said, because Vietnam has been making apparel for longer than some other countries.
In 1971, Gert Boyle was advised to sell Columbia Sportswear after the death of her husband Neal to a heart attack the prior year.
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"Every time a different brand's audit team goes into a factory, the factory has to move the fire extinguishers to be in compliance, " said Sandra Cho, corporate responsibility manager for Columbia Sportswear, which manufactures some clothing in Bangladesh.
Sportswear companies Columbia, Adidas and Nike are experimenting with Zeroloft for use in gloves and footwear.
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