In 2018, on a four-day backpacking trip along the Continental Divide, Wyn Wiley put on a pair of black, knee-high boots with six-inch heels he鈥檇 packed on a whim. In the process of kicking up dirt and parading over societal assumptions, his alter ego, Pattie Gonia, was born. Post-trip, Wiley created a new Instagram account and uploaded clips from the trail. In less than a week, @pattiegonia had 12,000 followers. Today, she has more than 340,000.
Pattie鈥檚 fearlessness, love of 鈥淢other Natch,鈥 and unequivocal joy soon attracted outdoor brands, forcing her to grapple with just what type of influencer she wanted to be. What鈥檚 emerged is an advocate with an innate business savvy, a no-bullshit brand of environmentalism, and a deep commitment to elevating marginalized voices in the outdoor space.
Wiley, 28, agreed to answer some of our spicier questions about privilege, cancel culture, and industry accountability. But it was Pattie who showed up on our Zoom call, dressed to the nines. And as you鈥檒l see from the following conversation, Pattie means business.
You鈥檝e shared on Instagram how you didn鈥檛 feel welcome in the climate movement as a gay man. Why not?
Growing up, I experienced the climate movement as an extremely white, cisgendered, and straight space鈥攇ate-kept by one-uppery and perfection. I saw no leaders that were BIPOC or queer that showed me that it was a space that would welcome my efforts. Diversity wasn鈥檛 embraced at all. Nature shows us that diversity is important to any environment, so why isn鈥檛 the environmental movement focused on embracing diversity? Instead, nature has been weaponized against queer people for forever鈥擨 was told that my queerness was unnatural. These spaces are gate-kept to anyone who doesn鈥檛 fit this perfect little mold, and I鈥檓 not perfect. I鈥檓 in progress.
At the end of the day, you鈥檙e still a cisgender white male. How do you reconcile your privilege, platform, and popularity with the industry you want to see?
I started doing Pattie because I needed a form of self-expression that liberated me as a queer person and created queer community for others. I鈥檓 extremely grateful for the following that鈥檚 come of it and it鈥檚 not something I take lightly. My goal is to bust through that door for myself but to also hold it open and create opportunities for other people, including those with less privilege than myself. This often looks like me passing on an opportunity and suggesting someone else for it.
As Wyn, I do hold a lot of privilege. I look like and talk like and feel familiar to people who hold a lot of power in this industry. I want to utilize the familiarity to ally not only the queer community but also other diverse communities in the outdoors. For years before Pattie was born, I did creative direction for brands like Disney and Adidas, which is another form of privilege. Because I understand and can speak marketing language, I鈥檝e been able to make space for other people.
That initially looks like creating diverse relationships built on trust and authenticity. Then, I build on those relationships by using my platform and privilege to amplify, volunteer for, and fundraise for diverse organizations and nonprofits. In fact, that鈥檚 my main priority outside of supporting my immediate team. I know I am a Beyonc茅, but more often than not my role is to be a Kelly, you know?
What would you say is another industry gatekeeper?
This is going to be controversial, but wokeness in many forms鈥攅specially in woke language and woke culture鈥攇ate-keeps people out of movements. If you need to know a hundred little right things to say or wrong things that will get you canceled before you even have a conversation, that鈥檚 not practical. I鈥檓 not saying we should be disrespectful, but I think there鈥檚 a delicate balance. We need to make accommodations for people and we need to always listen to feedback. But I think we also need to not be so worried about saying the right things all the time.
How do you feel about cancel culture?
I feel exhausted when I hear the words 鈥渃ancel culture.鈥 Like any tool, it can be used for good, but it can also be used to cause harm, and I think it鈥檚 causing a lot of harm right now. Cancel culture is a social media guillotine and it doesn鈥檛 allow for actual transformation. In the outdoor space, it鈥檚 often used as a weapon from one marginalized community against another to laterally oppress. It also creates this fear mindset that can keep potential allies and brands from taking their first steps forward. We all need to divest our energy from cancel culture and allow for systems that work on restorative justice.
Social media can feel like an endless series of campaigns or superficial activism. How do you reconcile that with bringing about real change?
We need to demand accountability from brands, but we also need to realize that brands and capitalism aren鈥檛 going to save us. What鈥檚 going to save us is the outdoor community at large. Every single time I have a sponsored content opportunity, I earmark 25 to 100 percent of it for a giveback to a nonprofit. My team keeps track of where everything goes so that we stand by our ethics and so that every sponsored undertaking has a community component to it.
That allows me to support people with no questions asked. To me, brand partnerships are just that, partnerships. It鈥檚 not just a sponsored post, it鈥檚 actual community impact and support. That鈥檚 what I鈥檓 excited to lead brands toward because that鈥檚 what actually has return on investment and value.
Why haven鈥檛 you worked with Patagonia yet?
I鈥檝e been approached and I believe in Patagonia鈥檚 potential, but what they have presented is not a partnership that would create impact. When Patagonia is ready to step into a partnership to increase diversity in the outdoors far beyond the queer community, I鈥檓 ready and I鈥檒l do my best to make it happen. But I鈥檓 just not taking the crumbs鈥攁nd I don鈥檛 mean from a dollar standpoint. I鈥檒l be far more interested in working with Patagonia when I see diversity represented at a C-suite level, but they鈥檙e not there yet.