Adidas opens its supplier list to public scrutiny

Adidas has become the latest major clothing retailer to disclose the names of all its supplier factories.

The German footwear manufacturer said that a review of data management systems following its takeover of Reebok had prompted the decision. The company does not intend at this stage to identify the 205 factories in 37 countries that manufacture for its licensees.

Its rival Nike was the first company to make public its full supplier list in 2005, after a campaign by anti-sweatshop groups. Puma and Gap have since followed suit.

Retail companies had previously resisted making such disclosures on commercial confidentiality grounds, and Nike originally admitted that it had no idea how making the information public would affect its supply chain. However, it recently declared that the move has led to greater co-operation with other retailers on managing social and environmental issues (EP9, issue 3, p6).

Adidas’s decision was welcomed by the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation, whose general secretary Neil Kearney said: ‘The rest of the industry now needs quickly to follow the trend. Such transparency breeds a much keener attention to detail in supplier relations.’