Equip Outdoor Technologies, 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 its global supply chain.

As Fair Wear states in its 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, comments: “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.

www.fairwear.org

www.equipuk.com