We produce millions of products each year globally. With this kind of scale, transparency and accountability are of utmost importance.
Kontoor Brands is committed to appropriately sourcing our apparel and accessories in a way that’s good for people and the planet. Below, learn more about our suppliers, our commitment to sustainable design, our material sourcing policies, and our preferred chemistry initiative.
At Kontoor Brands, we put thoughtful care into designing every product with style, fit, quality and sustainability in mind. Using virtual design drastically reduces the physical prototypes delivered to our designers. This significantly cuts the impacts of product development. When all Kontoor Brands products are virtually designed, we will have saved enough water for the daily usages of more than 72,000 Americans and reduced the equivalent carbon emissions of nearly 1 million passenger-vehicle miles. Kontoor Brands plans to virtually design all of our products within the next ten years.
“An example of a pair of Lee® Jeans being designed in a virtual environment.”
As a leader within the apparel industry, we take social responsibility seriously. We are committed to sourcing products and materials from companies that share our values for human rights, ethics and environmental responsibility. On the Resources page, you will find our materials sourcing policies.
To ensure social responsibility and environmental sustainability within our complex supply chain, we expect our contract supplier factories to comply with Kontoor Brands’ Terms of Engagement and our Global Compliance Principles, which are regularly audited by our internal and third-party auditors. These Principles are brought to life through our Factory Facility Guidelines and Factory Audit Procedures. Our goal is for every supplier factory to operate with the same high standards as our owned manufacturing facilities.
Factory ListEvery day, consumers around the world have the opportunity to vote with their dollars by choosing which products they buy and where they buy them from. At Kontoor Brands, we are committed to ensuring each product we make, whether through our owned manufacturing facilities or through our third-party partners, is safe for consumers. Our teams utilize industry best practices, processes and controls to monitor the safety and quality of our products and are continually refining and improving our protocols every day.
From dyes to finishes, chemicals often play an essential role in building quality apparel. However, if not properly managed, the use of chemistry can contribute to negative environmental impacts and jeopardize worker safety.
As a global lifestyle apparel company that produces and sources more than 170 million units each year, we are committed to working with our contract supplier factories so that the people who work in roles that support the production of our products are treated fairly and work in safe environments. We work with our contract supplier factories and look for opportunities to deploy programs designed to have positive impacts on the surrounding communities.
Impact in ActionAs a company committed to transparently reporting our environmental impacts, by 2023 we will only source from suppliers who complete the HIGG Facility Enivronmental Module (FEM). Below, we report on our suppliers energy and water data during the 2019 calendar year.
The below supplier information is updated as of December 2019. Our suppliers list can fluctuate over time, as it reflects the seasonality of our business and production schedules.
by Supply Chain Tier
by Supply Chain Tier
