Adidas, Reebok, M&S and H&M named most transparent brands

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Apr 27, 2017

Adidas and Reebok are the world’s most transparent brands, but despite achieving the highest scores, they still have a long way to go towards being completely transparent,  according to Fashion Revolution.

The organisation, which is running the worldwide campaign Fashion Revolution Week until Sunday, has published the results of its latest Fashion Transparency Index.

Adidas and Reebok scored 121.5 out of 250, achieving only 49% of the total possible points, followed by Marks & Spencer with 120 points and H&M with 119.5 points. The average score was 49 points, a disappointing less than 20% of the total possible points and only 8 brands scored higher than 40%. These included Adidas, Reebok, Marks & Spencer, H&M, Banana Republic, Gap, Old Navy and Puma.

When it comes to luxury and premium brands, 9 scored between 21-30% (higher than the average) including Bottega Veneta, Gucci, YSL, Hermès, Hugo Boss, Burberry, Coach, Hudson’s Bay Company and Saks Fifth Avenue. 10 further brands including Dior, Chanel, Miu Miu and Louis Vuitton had 15% or less.

The good news is that 32 brands are publishing supplier lists including Asos, Benetton, C&A, Esprit, Gap, Lululemon, Marks & Spencer, Uniqlo, and VF Corporation brands. This is an increase from April 2016 when Fashion Revolution surveyed 40 big fashion companies and only five were disclosing supplier lists.

Additionally, this year 14 brands are publishing their processing facilities where their clothes are dyed, laundered, printed or treated.

The research has also found that few brands disclose efforts on living wages, collective bargaining, and reducing consumption of resources, in fact, on average only 9% of the information required in these categories was disclosed, said Fashion Revolution.

“People have the right to know that their money is not supporting exploitation, human rights abuses and environmental destruction. There is no way to hold companies and governments to account if we can’t see what is truly happening behind the scenes. This is why transparency is so essential,” said Fashion Revolution Co-founder Carry Somers.

“Through publishing this research, we hope brands will be pushed in a more positive direction towards a fundamental shift in the way the system works, beginning with being more transparent.”

Brands were awarded points based on their level of transparency across 5 categories, including: policy & commitments, governance, traceability, supplier assessment and remediation and spotlight issues which looks at living wages, collective bargaining and business model innovation.