North Face refuses to supply jackets with company logo to #Innovex who produce oil and gas even though the jackets are made from oil and gas:https://t.co/X7opb85Gra
Can’t make this up.— Patrick Moore (@EcoSenseNow) December 17, 2020
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Northface admits using #SlaveLabor#NorthFace's response:
"We continuously work to improve supply chain transparency. Over the past several years, we enhanced our cotton traceability efforts to better identify third party suppliers that may be complicit in human rights abuses." pic.twitter.com/Hew82Sb3yn
— 💥 ClimatePoet 💥 (@ClimatePoet) December 17, 2020
The North Face Fashion Brand Refuses To Serve Oil Firm: A Texas-based oil company that ordered jackets for its employees from The North Face was rejected because it was an oil firm, with its CEO pointing out the irony of such a decision. “They told us we did not meet their brand standards,” Adam Anderson, chief executive of Innovex Downhole Solutions, told CBS7. “We were separately informed that what that really meant is was that we were an oil and gas company.”
The outdoor wear company said it did not want to support the oil and gas industry in the same way as it did not support the porn industry or Big Tobacco.
Anderson was quick to call The North Face out, pointing out how essential the products of the oil industry were for their own business. “The recreational activities they encourage are all ones that require hydrocarbons to make the products, to provide the means to get to whatever activity folks want to perform,” he said, as quoted by CBS7. “It’s just so intertwined with everything that we do.”
Full Adam Anderson of Innovex here: https://ipanm.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/North-Face-Oil-and-Gas-Response.pdf
The North Face called out for ‘virtue signaling’: The North Face is being accused of being hypocritical for refusing a jacket order from a Texas-based oil and gas company because the brand’s business significantly relies on fossil fuels. The incident gained attention because Adam Anderson, CEO of the Houston-based Innovex Downhole Solutions, penned an open letter on LinkedIn to Steve Rendle, CEO of VF Corp., The North Face’s parent, that has gone viral among the oil and gas industry’s supporters.
Innovex had intended to gift The North Face jackets, customized with the Innovex logo, to employees as Christmas gifts. Mr. Anderson said the company was informed by The North Face that it doesn’t want to support the oil and gas industry, in the same way they don’t want to be associated with alcohol, tobacco and adult entertainment businesses.
“They told us we did not meet their brand standards,” Mr. Anderson told CBS7 in Odessa, TX. “We were separately informed that what that really meant is was that we were an oil and gas company.”
In his open letter, he argued that oil and gas has enabled a quality of life “unfathomable only a century ago” and insisted climate change activists are over-estimating the threat of hydrocarbons. He called The North Face’s decision not to sell to Innovex “ironic” and “counterproductive virtue signaling” because The North Face jackets are made from petroleum products, and activities such as ski and canoeing, promoted by The North Face, often require travel supported by fossil fuels.
The North Face didn’t respond directly to the case, but in a statement to the Financial Times said it “thoroughly investigates product requests to ensure they align closely with our goals and commitments surrounding sustainability and environmental protection.”
“Support the preservation of the outdoors” has long been part of The North Face’s mission statement, and the brand has been more assertive in recent years in taking actions against climate change.
On VF’s second quarter call in mid-October, Mr. Rendle noted that over two-thirds of Millennials and Gen-Zers have changed their purchasing habits due to climate change. He added that VF’s overall commitment to combating climate change is the backbone of its “purpose-led positioning.”
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Why Innovex’s CEO Spoke Up about North Face’s Stance on Oil and Gas: A viral letter by the CEO of a Texas-based service company sparked a social media frenzy by oil and gas supporters bringing the importance of industry messaging to the forefront.
