Vaude

Vaude falls into the ​‘Leader’ category of the Fair Wear Foundation (FWF). Since 2010, Vaude has been working with the FWF to improve their working conditions, and with success! The brand scored 91 points out of 100 with the 2022 Brand Performance Check. 

Vaude works with suppliers and manufacturers in 13 different countries, namely: Austria, Bangladesh, China, Germany, India, Cambodia, Lithuania, Myanmar, Portugal, Romania, Taiwan, Ukraine and Vietnam. Vaude is a partner or even owner of some of these partners, allowing them to influence the working conditions and wages paid.

To ensure good working conditions, 100% of the producers in high-risk countries are monitored. For 60% of the total production purchased, factories are audited in this way. Vaude also has its own production site at its own headquarters in Tettnang, Germany. 17% of production took place here in 2021, including mainly bicycle bags and backpacks. 

Long-term business relationships are very important for the brand, with 79% of the production sites Vaude has worked with for more than 5 years. This gives them better insight into how things are going in the factories and makes them more involved. Also, Fair Wear’s 2022 report indicates, among other things, that Vaude has a strong and systematic evaluation system for assessing suppliers’ compliance with the Code of Labour Practices and that Vaude makes good efforts to calculate and pay correct living wages. The latter is great news! Although there are still challenges to overcome.

Vaude also ensures a pleasant working atmosphere at headquarters. They want to give everyone equal opportunities and are against any kind of discrimination.

Vaude makes every effort to minimise its impact on the climate as much as possible. To achieve this, company-wide measures are taken, but decisions are also made on a product-by-product basis. 

The Vaude brand and products have been completely climate-neutral since 2022. Before this, only the head office had been declared climate-neutral. Vaude achieves this by calculating its carbon footprint, reducing it as much as possible through design and production process choices and offsetting unavoidable emissions using myclimate. 

Vaude makes material choices with the functionality of the clothing and equipment and the ecological impact in mind. They always try to find the right balance in this. For each product, the webpage always indicates which materials they use for which reason. This ranges from GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) certified organic cotton and recycled polyester to RWS (Responsible Wool Standard) certified merino wool and GRS-certified recycled down.

The brand has set itself the goal that by 2024, 90% of items should be made of at least 50% recycled or bio-based materials. In this, natural materials such as hemp and organic cotton, fibres extracted from wood and bioplastics play a major role. On the other hand, recycled synthetic materials such as polyester from PET bottles, polyamide from used tyres and plastic from recycled household packaging have an important function in this evolution.

Vaude is also a real pioneer in the field of eco-friendly coatings, which are needed to make products weatherproof. They developed their own ​“Eco Finish”, which makes raindrops bead off your clothes or bag without the use of environmentally harmful fluorocarbons (PFC), also known as PFAS. Vaude itself admits that some trousers and zips still contain PFC because they could not be made sufficiently waterproof otherwise. COSH! appreciates that Vaude communicates openly about the process they are going through. 

To further eliminate chemicals from their production and collections, Vaude has created a Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (MRSL) with the help of the organisation ZDHC (Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals). This list prohibits the use of certain chemicals; they have also signed a Detox commitment with Greenpeace. Moreover, many materials have been tested for harmful chemicals by Bluesign, and Vaude has included in its Green Shape criteria standards around ecological dyeing. 

What is this Vaude Green Shape label? Vaude founded this label itself; to get a Green Shape label, a product must consist of more than 50% bio-based or recycled materials. Another label you see a lot on Vaude’s products is the German state seal ​“Green Button” which is controlled by the government. The Green Button (Grüner Knopf) includes criteria for due diligence, social conditions and ecology. For example, they check the materials used and the certificates applicable to a particular product. 

Also very important in the fight against climate change are collaborations and partnerships. Vaude cooperates with the German Alpine Association, experts, universities and the government, among others. In this way, they want to initiate a movement that goes beyond just making their own brand sustainable and influencing industry as well as politics. In a working group with universities, for example, they are working on a bio-based alternative to polyester fleece to combat microplastics.

66% of SS23 clothing products are made with recycled materials. Another way Vaude participates in a circular economy is that it emphasises the quality and reparability of the products. This keeps it in the user phase of the circular cycle for as long as possible. 

They are also increasingly trying to implement the cradle-to-cradle principle through the Green Shape label. This includes every step of the circular cycle, from production to materials to reparability and recycling. 

Vaude currently has room for improvement in this area. Because they work a lot with blends of different materials, recycling many products is yet to be possible with current existing techniques. This is easier if a product consists of 100% of one material, such as polyester or cotton. 

One effect of the high percentage of synthetic materials in Vaude’s collections is the release of microplastics while wearing and washing clothes. The pieces are not biodegradable. Fortunately, the brand is aware of its responsibility and is working to move forward. 

Packaging sustainability in the supply chain is also a focus at Vaude. They try to distribute as much packaging efficiently as possible and choose (RCS-certified) recycled polybags to protect the items during transport. Under the umbrella of the European Outdoor Group, they work with other brands and retailers to find alternatives to plastic packaging.

How many kilometres a Vaude product travels can vary from product to product, although the majority of products are produced in Asia. In contrast, the number of intermediaries in the supply chain will be limited because they are in direct contact with the manufacturers, and some even have (partial) ownership.

Some of Vaude’s products are vegan; only its shoes made of chrome-free tanned leather and garments and sleeping bags made with wool or down are not vegan.

For these animal materials, the brand always chooses an animal-friendly and certified source. For example, the (merino) wool is certified by the RWS, which monitors the welfare of the sheep and soil, allowing farmers to avoid mulesing, among other things. For down, they generally choose GRS-certified recycled down. Only some very warm sleeping bags require new down, in which case they use RDS certified down. Thanks to this certificate, we can be sure that the five freedoms of animal welfare are respected and, among other things, force-feeding and live plucking are forbidden. Most of the leather comes from Terracare®, which is a company that uses leather that is residual from the German cattle industry and is efficient with the material they have. The tanning of this leather is also done ecologically. However, exactly how the animals lived is difficult to find out.

“Buy less and buy better” is an important philosophy for Vaude. The brand wants to ensure you can use your purchase for as long as possible and experience great moments with it. To support that, they optimise the quality of their products and provide care and repair tips. You can also order spare parts to repair your Vaude item when needed.

Vaude uses Trustrace to display where a product is assembled, giving the exact address of the factory (Tier 1) and the year they have been working with this. The suppliers of the materials and where the weaving, for example, takes place (Tier 2, 3 and 4) are not disclosed. About which materials are in the products, the amount of plastic packaging, etc., Vaude reports very transparently in their sustainability report. In doing so, they show great commitment towards sustainability and identify ways in which they can still improve.