KONTOOR BRANDS ANNOUNCES GLOBAL DESIGN STANDARDS TO LOWER NEGATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL IMPACT

by John Russel Jones Apr 05, 2023

Kontoor Brands, Inc., the global company behind apparel brands Wrangler and Lee, today announced the launch of its Global Design Standards, a system created to lower the environmental and social impacts of Wrangler and Lee apparel. With a focus on developing products with preferred materials, low-impact fabric, and low-impact finishing, Kontoor aims to tackle the largest value chain factors to improve greenhouse gas emissions, water, and chemical use as well as worker well-being.

“At Kontoor, we produce millions of products each year globally. With that kind of scale, the choices we make about what goes into our products have the potential to guide the industry toward meaningful change,” said Jeff Frye, Kontoor’s VP, Sustainability, Innovation, Product Development, and Procurement. “Our Global Design Standards allow us to tackle the product stages that have an impact on people and our planet. While we initially aim to have each of our products meet one of the three standards, we are actively striving to reach new levels of innovation and sustainability that will continually improve the sustainable performance of our products.”

Above and top image, from Lee.

Kontoor’s global design standards will be  guided by three areas of focus:

  • Preferred Materials: To make Kontoor’s Preferred Materials List, the material must be backed by data validating its environmental and/or social impact. Currently, to meet our Global Design Standards for preferred materials, 70% of the fabric materials used in a product must be sourced from Kontoor’s Preferred Materials List.
  • Low Impact Fabric: Focusing on freshwater use in fabric manufacturing, for a product to meet this standard, the fabric must come from a denim mill that has achieved at least a 90% reduction in freshwater use from a 2018-2019 baseline. The savings must be verified by an independent third party through our Indigood Program.
  • Low Impact Finishing: A score for the finishing process of a garment is calculated via Jeanologia’s Environmental Impact Measure (EIM) tool that assesses water, energy, chemistry, and worker health areas. Scores that are designated as “low impact” within the EIM tool satisfy for Low-Impact Finishing standard.
Above from Wrangler.

Driving More Sustainable Apparel Through Purposeful Design

Kontoor’s Global Design Standards help take the guesswork out of how to create products with lower environmental and social impacts. Using the Global Design Standards as a guide, Kontoor’s Design and Product Development Teams carefully select the materials and processes being used to build garments while the Procurement and Sourcing Teams ensure collaboration with supply chain partners to execute the standards established by Kontoor.

“We are committed to developing responsible products, and that begins with approaching design through a purposeful lens and a commitment to using innovative processes and materials,” said Vivian Rivetti, VP, Global Design at Wrangler.“Our designers aren’t just passionate about making beautiful apparel that meets the brand standards our consumers know and love; we are committed to making our products more sustainable. Kontoor’s Global Design Standards provides a roadmap to guide our design approach as we work to make each season’s portfolio more sustainable than the last.”

Empowering Consumers to Drive Change Through Their Purchasing Power

Launching first on Wrangler.com, products that meet the Global Design Standards will be identified with a WeCare Wrangler badge. At this time, to earn the badge, products must meet one of Kontoor’s three Global Design Standards. A similar program will launch for the Lee brand under the For A World That Works global sustainability platform later this year.

To learn more about Kontoor’s commitment to sustainability, visit KontoorBrands.com/sustainability.