Rab and Lowe Alpine join Fair Wear Foundation - Important milestone within Rab's & Lowe Alpine's sustainability strategy Gear News

© Equip Outdoor Technologies UK Ltd.

British outdoor brands Rab and Lowe Alpine, owned by Equip Outdoor Technologies UK Ltd., are excited to announce that they are now an approved member of Fair Wear Foundation. Fair Wear is an independent multi-stakeholder organization that works with garment brands, garment workers and garment industry influencers to improve labour conditions in garment factories.

Equip CEO Matt Gowar visiting a factory in Myanmar.   © Equip Outdoor Technologies UK Ltd.
Equip CEO Matt Gowar visiting a factory in Myanmar.
© Equip Outdoor Technologies UK Ltd.

For Equip brands Rab and Lowe Alpine, this is an important milestone within their corporate responsibility strategy, underlining the brands' commitment to improving their ethical, social and environmental standards and their responsibility towards their stakeholders and community.

Debbie Read, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager at Equip, explains: "As brands, we want to do our best to ensure social and environmental sustainability and also be meaningful, open and transparent about what we do. Being a Fair Wear member strengthens our commitment to improve the lives and working conditions of those on the factory floor. Especially now that Covid-19 is having a significant impact on lives and businesses it's our responsibility to continue to ensure that we are protecting all the people in our supply chain."

The overall aim of Fair Wear membership is to constantly improve labour conditions along the full supply chain. Every year, the brands' efforts are reviewed by measuring how well they have assessed, identified and resolved issues with their suppliers in the past year. In a first step, Equip will now prepare for the first Brand Performance Check which happens after the first year of membership. Afterwards, a roadmap for further action is drafted which guides the brands through their next steps.




9 Jun, 2020

Good to see but it begs the question, what were they doing before?

Mountain equipment have been an approved member since 2012 and now have "Leader status", Patagonia is Fair Trade sewn (mostly since 2014) and part of the sustainable apparel coalition, Montane joined Fair Wear last year I think, even the North Face has been a part of the sustainable Apparel Coalition (via VF, their parent company) for ages. I guess it's a step in the right direction.


Product News at UKH presents climbing, walking and mountaineering equipment posts that will be of interest to our readers. Please feel free to comment about the post and products on the associated thread.
Loading Notifications...
Facebook Twitter Copy Email