Hundreds of Greenpeace volunteers in cities around the world have today challenged sportswear giant Adidas to act upon its Detox commitment and rid its supply chain of hazardous, toxic monsters. Filipino activists staged a Detox fashion show at the adidas store in Cubao to add their voices to the growing movement demanding beautiful fashion that should not cause toxic pollution or harm people.
“Despite its commitment to Detox, adidas gives us nothing more than half measures and paper promises,” said Abigail Aguilar, Toxics Campaigner from Greenpeace Southeast Asia. “Adidas needs to follow its own campaign slogan and go ‘all in’ by taking real, credible steps towards a toxic-free future.”
From Hamburg to Manilla, volunteers revealed the hazardous Little Monsters hiding in Adidas’ clothes at stores across the world.
This is not the first time that local Greenpeace activists callled on adidas to Detox. Back in July 2011, the green group urged the brand to remove toxic chemicals from their supply chain and products after a report revealed how adidas contributed to the worsening water pollution in China and how their chain of custody tracks back to the Philippines and to other markets worldwide. Adidas replied a few months later and promised to Detox. But since then, no concrete steps were made.
Today’s activities follow the Detox campaign’s latest report into children’s clothes made by a range of brands. The findings revealed that a number of adidas products tested contained PFCs and NPEs, chemical groups which can break down in the environment to form toxic and hormone-disrupting substances.
“Toxic-water pollution affects us all–these hazardous Little Monsters are being released into our waterways around the world. Committed big brands like Puma and Zara are already taking definite steps to clean up their act, so why doesn’t adidas do the same?” Aguilar added.
Thanks to global people power, 18 major brands, including Mango and Uniqlo have already committed to Detox their clothes and production processes of hazardous substances. Many are taking credible steps towards supply chain transparency and chemical elimination. Greenpeace is calling on bands like adidas and Nike to take effective steps to follow through on their commitment to achieve zero discharges of hazardous chemicals by 2020.