Business transparency might take a while longer to get to the top of the ordinary shopper's agenda, but the ethical shoe company, Worn Again, is already way ahead of the game. Worn Again has put its best and most transparent foot forward, by putting detailed information about its supply chain and product costs on its website - even including some details that might prove controversial for uncompromising customers.
What can you learn from Worn Again?
Transparency needs to be focused on the things that really, truly matter to you - and on the things your customers actually care about. Being open about everything you do, even the areas where you still need to make improvements, is the best and quickest way to cement ongoing trust. Get in touch for inspirational suggestions on how transparency can boost your brand.
Worn Again is the brainchild of the activist group, Anti-Apathy and the sustainable footwear company, Terra Plana. Since Galahad Clark (seventh generation of the Clark’s shoe family), took over Terra Plana about four years ago, sustainability has been in the forefront of their entire operation. From designing the shoes, right through to the materials used, and the methods of transporting the
finished product.
Clear beginnings
Galahad was spurred into action when he attended a conference put on by the authors of ‘From Cradle to Cradle’ and decided to turn Terra Plana into a sustainable shoe company. When he met Cyndi from the political grass-root organisation, Anti-Apathy, they decided to create a shoe brand together. It would be owned by Anti-Apathy, but licensed and manufactured by Terra Plana, with a shared vision of raising the ethical standards of the industry to a whole new level.
A significant part of Worn Again’s ethical policy is focused on transparency, in terms of both product finances and supply chain. Information is easily accessible on the company’s website, where the cost for the consumer of a pair of Worn Again shoes is broken down to the penny. If customers are interested, they can also check what factory has manufactured the shoes, how far they have been transported and the method of transportation.
Getting everyone on board
Worn Again requires its suppliers to complete a ‘flow of goods’ form for each product style, in which all ingredients should be listed, and the distance the components have travelled to and from the factory is specified. The suppliers are also asked to provide photographs from the production line and evidence that they follow local and international labour and environmental regulations.
The ‘flow of goods’ section on Worn Again’s website is updated every season and at the moment it tells us that the Worn Again ‘Bigger Shoes’ are being produced in a factory called Brilliant in China. The contact details of the suppliers of the different components are disclosed, and they even mention that some of the components from Britain have been airfreighted. This could potentially put off environmentally aware customers, but Worn Again is quick to emphasise that although the company has offset the flights, it also endeavours to transport all its products via land or water. The fact that Worn Again admits that it’s not perfect makes the more positive things about Worn Again more credible. It invites customers to say to themselves “If this company owns up to the less popular aspects of the way it conducts business, then we know we can count on it to be completely honest about everything else too”.
Damian Peat, manager of Worn Again, explains that when a company decides to be transparent, it is very important that nothing remains deliberately hidden. He says, “Financially successful companies and companies that say ‘we try to do everything perfectly’ will be scrutinised, so if you don’t talk about the less positive aspects of your company then you set yourself up for a fall”. He adds, “Nobody is 100% perfect, and in our case, what is the most ethical shoe anyway? Everybody will have a different idea of what that means, so by just being honest about everything people can see the whole picture – good and bad – and make up their own minds whether what we do fits into their idea of what an ethical shoe is”.Transparency is a great platform, but only if you
build on it
Perhaps surprisingly, Damian doesn’t see Worn Again’s transparency as a selling point at the moment. “Although transparency is very much part of the Worn Again brand, the brand tagline, so to speak, is the recycling aspect. Social awareness is also part of the brand and I suppose you can say that we wouldn’t be able to communicate these things in a believable way without demonstrating our practices through transparency. But we don’t get a lot of feedback on transparency as an isolated issue”, he says.
He continues, “I think it’s because people have not been exposed to business transparency until now and because many companies usually are very guarded and non-transparent, people don’t think that they have the right to know and they don’t expect it. But that will change soon, I’m sure. With the internet, people are now used to getting vast amounts of information on anything, and they will soon expect to be able to get transparent information about companies, too”.
Beyond shoesWith regards to the future, Damian says, “I’d like companies not to shout about being green, but made to shout about not being green. Instead of companies using labels explaining how sustainable and socially aware they are, I’d like those practices to be so normal, that it is companies that don’t do these things that have to wear a label saying that they are not being green”.
Worn Again’s way of communicating transparency and sustainable living is purely web-based, which enforces the theory that the ‘transparency obsession’ has its roots and platform in technology. It is therefore only fair to assume that as more and more people become internet savvy, the need for business transparency will grow – and so will businesses like Worn Again.
I bought my first pair of Worn Agains based on the environmental/recycled side of things. But I would have been even more impressed if I'd known about their transparency too. It's the best policy, it should be a legal requirement for all businesses. PS They're brilliant trainers.
|
Tracy
|
