The Shitthropocene: Patagonia's Film on Buying Less, Better

Buy Less, Buy Better

Patagonia recently released a short film called The Shitthropocene: Welcome to the Age of Cheap Crap. Its premise is uncomfortable and true: today we consume a staggering amount of cheap stuff — products we use once and toss, content we forget the moment we’ve scrolled past it. It’s worth 45 minutes of your time.

How did we get here?

Commerce used to be personal. You’d meet the craftsman or vendor who made your goods, hear their story, and shake their hand. So how did we get to the convenient but impersonal Amazon age? The film’s answer: the science of marketing was born. Advertisers learned to turn dissatisfaction into the illusion of happiness — if you just bought one more thing. Factories scaled to meet the demand, and the personal touch got stripped right out of commerce.

We get a hit of dopamine when we buy — and it fades almost as fast. Most products today simply aren’t designed to be cherished for life.

Our take

At Antigua Threads, we’re not in the business of slinging cheap crap. We set out to make a belt people cherish and wear their whole lives — and ours are built for exactly that. The foundation of our business is the people who handcraft our products and the place that inspires them. Every belt is made by artisans using a 3,000-year-old Mayan technique, stitch by stitch. That’s special, and it makes your purchase a little more personal.

The “Shitthropocene” is hard on us and harder on the planet. Let’s bring the humanity and craftsmanship back to commerce — and choose things designed to be kept. Start with a belt made to last a lifetime.