Equip receives Fair Wear Leader status for second consecutive year

Equip Outdoor Technologies Ltd. (owner of British outdoor brands Rab and Lowe Alpine) has received the Fair Wear Leader status for the second consecutive year. Despite using an updated methodology that is aligned with the OECD guidelines on Human Rights Due Diligence, including new indicators in 2023, Fair Wear has acknowledged Equip’s exceptional progress in protecting workers’ rights along their global supply chain.

As Fair Wear states in the brand performance check: “Equip has shown advanced results on performance indicators and has made exceptional progress. With a total benchmarking score of 66, the member is placed in the Leader category.”

Matt Gowar, Equip’s CEO, explains: “This is a result of continued hard work from our teams, constant scrutiny of our processes and the standards we expect for workers in our partner factories, along with commitment from the factory managers to work on improvements.”

For the future, Equip has expressed its ongoing commitment to supporting the implementation of living wages in key production factories, and more focused activity around gender and anti-harassment in the workforce, aiming to change the garment industry and the lives of its workers, for the better.

The Fair Wear Brand Performance Check is a tool to verify how a Fair Wear member’s business practices help improve labour conditions across their supply chain and contribute to more transparent and responsible relations with its manufacturing partners. Every year, Fair Wear reviews the brands’ efforts by measuring how well they have identified, assessed and prevented, mitigated or remediated (potential) risks with their suppliers. Making the results of these checks open to the public ensures transparency and keeps member brands accountable.

The Leader status is awarded to member companies who are doing exceptionally well, and are operating at an advanced level. Leaders show best practices in complex areas such as monitoring, remediation and training to empower workers to raise issues in their factories.

Equip’s 2023 Brand Performance Check Report can be found HERE, HERE and HERE.

Equip’s 2022-23 Social Report is available HERE.

Equip’s 2023 Sustainability Report can be downloaded HERE.

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About Fair Wear Foundation

Fair Wear Foundation is showing that it’s possible to make clothes in a fairer way – a way that supports workers’ rights to safe, dignified, properly paid employment. Fair Wear is a multi-stakeholder organisation that partners with brands and supports workers to find answers to problems others think are unsolvable. With other industry influencers, they push towards a new normal, aiming at creating a world where fashion is fair for everyone. www.fairwear.org.