Columbia Sportswear

Columbia Sportswear is renowned worldwide for its large, complex supply chain. And that comes from the diverse modes of collaboration that they have with various brands, industry and multi-stakeholder partners. They’ve been taking a multi-tiered approach to collaboration actively contributing to working groups that are improving industry-wide practices and standards as well as working directly with partners where there are shared needs and interests. The different forms of collaboration existed within Columbia’s supply chain that can be named are licensing, franchising, joint venture and management contracts.

However, in their work with manufacturing suppliers, they collaborate with mostly factories and organizations that share Sustainable Manufacturing approach and also other brands whose products are produced in the same factories as theirs. Many contract factories regularly manufacture goods for multiple brands simultaneously. So Columbia tends to share their audit findings with those of other brands to reduce redundant auditing, allowing the company to focus their resources, and those of the factories, on making sustainable improvements.

So the two main modes of collaboration that they have with the manufacturing suppliers are outsourcing and non-equity strategic alliances. As we’ve just mentioned, 100% of Columbia’s international products were produced by contract manufacturers located outside of the US, mostly Vietnam and China. Aside from leather and fabric, some other raw materials like wool, cotton or fiber are also provided by these countries. You can also see the huge gap in the number of employees that they have between the US and other countries. So here, Columbia are outsourcing labors from other countries. Having employees physically located in these regions enhances their ability to monitor factories for compliance with their policies, procedures and standards related to labor practices.

The non-equity strategic alliances is an alliance in which two or more firms develop a contractual relationship to share some of their unique resources and capabilities to create a competitive advantage and Columbia Sportswear has been making the most out of it in their relationship with the manufacturing suppliers. Approximately 95% of the leather Columbia sources comes from tanneries that are members of the Leather Working Group. The Leather Working Group is a multi-stakeholder group that develops and maintains a protocol to assess the compliance and environmental performance of tanners, and promote sustainable and appropriate environmental business practices within the leather industry. This collaboration ensures that they don’t have to work with the tanners during the manufacturing process.

59% OF their SOURCED FABRIC FROM BLUESIGN® SYSTEM PARTNER TEXTILE MILLS. This is an organization that helps eliminate harmful substances right from the beginning of the manufacturing process and sets and controls standards for an environmentally friendly and safe production. This not only ensures that the final textile product meets very stringent consumer safety requirements worldwide but also provides confidence to the consumer to acquire a sustainable product.

They also work with The OIA Sustainability Working Group (OIA SWG) as their Advisory Council and chairs the Social Responsibility Working Group. In addition, Columbia actively participates in the Chemicals Management Working Group, Materials Traceability Working Group and the Adoption Working Group. The company is a founding member of the SASC, which is transforming the apparel, footwear and home textiles industry through system-wide collaboration in pioneering assessment tools and supply-chain transparency with the Higg Index suite of tools. They are also affiliate of the Fair Labor Association (FLA) as a Collegiate Licensee, participates in the Better Work program, which is a unique partnership between the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the American Apparel & Footwear Association’s (AAFA) Social Responsibility to learn and share information and best practices with industry peers.