Cotopaxi1 is named for a volcano in Ecuador, and its Del Día packs are made in the Philippines from scraps that other brands left at the same factory. It is still a Utah company. Cotopaxi was founded in Salt Lake City in 2014 and is headquartered there today, though none of the factories it names is in Utah.
Quick answers
Is Cotopaxi a Utah company?
Yes. It was founded in Salt Lake City in 2014 and is still headquartered there.
Where are Cotopaxi products made?
Mostly in Asia. Its factory pages name plants in the Philippines, Vietnam, China, Indonesia, Cambodia and India, plus one studio in Portland, Oregon.
Is Cotopaxi a B Corp?
Yes, since December 2015, with an overall score of 125.6 in its 2023 impact report. It is also a public benefit corporation.
Who runs Cotopaxi?
Lindsay Shumlas has been chief executive since December 2024. Co-founder Davis Smith moved from that job to board chairman in 2023.
Where is Cotopaxi headquartered
In Salt Lake City. The company's 2023 impact report says Global Uprising, PBC, which does business as Cotopaxi, "was founded in 2014 in Salt Lake City, UT." Davis Smith started it with Stephan Jacob and CJ Whittaker.
Salt Lake City won on a vote of one. The Deseret News reported in 2016 that Smith and his wife weighed Seattle and San Francisco against Salt Lake City, and she chose Salt Lake City. Stephan Jacob, by Smith's account in Utah Business4, committed within 24 hours of their first talk to drop everything and move from Germany to Salt Lake City.
The address the government has on file is 74 South Main Street. The Federal Trade Commission's registry of apparel labeling numbers lists Global Uprising PBC there as a wholesaler and a retailer, and also as an importer. That last word answers the next question before you ask it. The same address is Cotopaxi's downtown Salt Lake store.
The headquarters is smaller than the brand. The 2023 impact report describes a distribution center and "small headquarters office in Utah," with retail stores and a remote-first workforce spread across the United States. Cotopaxi had about 379 full-time and part-time employees at the end of 2023, and the Deseret News3,6 reported that sales passed $100 million in 2022.
Smith announced in January 2023 that he would move from chief executive to chairman of the board that July. Lindsay Shumlas joined in April 2024 as president and chief financial officer and became chief executive in December 2024. Cotopaxi is independent and venture-backed. Wikipedia reports that a $45 million round in 2021 included Bain Capital.
Is Cotopaxi a B Corp
Yes, and it is also a public benefit corporation, which is a different thing. B Corp is a certification from the nonprofit B Lab, and Cotopaxi has held it since December 2015. The 2023 impact report gives its overall score as 125.6.
The benefit corporation part is legal structure, and it is why "PBC" sits in the company's name. Cotopaxi also gives at least 1 percent of its product revenue each year to the Cotopaxi Foundation, a Utah-based nonprofit that makes grants to groups working on poverty. A footnote in the impact report spells out the math: the 1 percent is figured on product revenue less discounts and returns, and less credit card processing fees.
Where are Cotopaxi products made
Overseas, mostly in Asia. The impact report calls the supply chain "multi-tiered and global, with many suppliers located in Asia," and Cotopaxi publishes pages on its own site about individual factories. Here is what those pages say.
| What it makes | Factory | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Packs, including Del Día | Dong-in Entech | Bataan province, Philippines |
| Packs | Pungkook | Binh Duong province, Vietnam |
| Jackets and insulated layers | Unicorn Recreation Products | Tianjin, China |
| Hats | Asia Sourcing International | Shanghai, China |
| Active apparel | Wonder Fashion Industrial | Yiwu, Zhejiang, China |
| Woven apparel and gloves | Asmara Karya Abadi | West Java, Indonesia |
| Athleisure | RSI Global | Phnom Penh, Cambodia |
| T-shirts and hoodies with organic cotton | Bestitch Knits | Southern India |
| Renovo line, from deadstock and old products | Portland Garment Factory | Portland, Oregon |
Dong-in is the one Cotopaxi calls "our principal pack maker." The company says the factory collects unused material that other brands produce there, and Cotopaxi turns those scraps into Del Día packs that come out one of a kind. Unicorn, in Tianjin, is Fair Trade Certified and makes jackets and insulated layers that are Responsible Down Standard certified, and a photo on its page shows a sewer working on the Teca fleece line. The hats come from a factory the company's page calls the first Fair Trade Certified factory in China.
The only American factory on the list is in Oregon, and its Renovo line is made from Cotopaxi deadstock fabric and past products. None of the factory pages is in Utah. That puts Cotopaxi on our founded in Utah list and keeps it off the made in Utah one. If you want a Utah pack company that sews here, ULA Equipment cuts and sews its packs in Logan.
Where can you buy Cotopaxi in Utah
Cotopaxi's store page lists four Utah shops. The downtown store is at 74 South Main Street in Salt Lake City, at the same address as the company. There is one at Fashion Place mall in Murray, one at 333 Main Street in Park City, and one at Salt Lake City International Airport, for anyone who packed for Utah weather and guessed wrong.
Everywhere else, Cotopaxi sells through its own site and through wholesale partners that SGB Media said include REI and Nordstrom. The same report counted four Cotopaxi flagship stores in Japan.
The apparel and packs and bags pages have the other Utah companies in the same aisles. Each brand page says whether the product is made here or only designed here.
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