Businessman and crusading conservationist who cofounded the Ի . Relying on knowledge gained through decades of rock climbing, whitewater kayaking, and mountaineering, Tompkins created TNF in San Francisco as a mail-order gear company that produced cutting-edge tents and hard goods beginning in the 1960s. Like his expedition partner and contemporary Yvon Chouinard, Tompkins helped shape the technology-and-performance mission of the modern outdoor industry. In the seventies, he founded women’s-apparel-and-footwear company Esprit with then wife Susie Buell. Today, the North Face moves more than $2 billion in product every year, and Esprit’s public stock is valued at more than $14 billion. Tompkins has since disavowed capitalism and lives in Patagonia, .
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