Factories best in class social & environmental
We promote safe and fair working conditions by empowering workers and creating solid relationships with our partners.

A main priority at Oberalp is the health and wellbeing of everyone who makes our products - not just our own employees. We dedicate a lot of effort and resources with the goal to make garment production more fair and equal worldwide.

 

 

Factories & people highlights 
At first, we focused on promoting fair working conditions in our factories. We have and will continue to strive for improvement, and aditionally, we are working towards having partner factories that are "best in class" also environmentally. We have set standards, are auditing our suppliers and actively engaging them, to jointly improve their environmental performance.
Oberalp code of conduct
Our code of conduct tells the world how we work as a company and the standards we follow. Every one of our suppliers has to sign and commit to it.
Fair Wear Foundation

Back in 2013, we chose to partner with the most rigorous labour conditions expert in textiles that we know of: Fair Wear Foundation (FWF). This helps us ensure that the wellbeing of people in the factories where our products are made, remains a top priority. FWF is an independent, non-profit organization that aims to improve labour conditions in the textile industry. It performs and shares research on workplace-related issues, provides a platform for open exchange of information with other brands and stakeholders, and has available local teams in various countries, who carry out worker trainings, seminars, and audits. After each factory audit, a corrective action plan (CAP) is made and shared with management, and a timeline for improvements is set jointly. Another important part of FWF's work is to collect worker complaints filed by workers in their own language and communicate them to us. Partnering with FWF is a big commitment. They don’t just audit our factories – they also verify that we walk our talk through the yearly Brand Performance Check. Through this check, they review our work to see whether we're implementing our code of conduct in an effective way. They assess our internal organization and processes, our approach and handling of the year's main events, worker complaints and audits, and give us a rating in a report which is published on their website. Read the results in our latest Brand Performance Check.

In 2022, Salewa, Wild Country, and Dynafit were awarded the highest distinction, "Leader" status, by FWF for the sixth time in a row. The latest member of the Oberalp Group, LaMunt, a premium mountain sports brand by women for women, also joined as a "Leader" for the second year since it was founded. It’s only given to brands who are “doing exceptionally well and operating at an advanced level” and “showing best-practices on complex issues”. This tells us we’re going in the right direction.

 

FWF’s requirements get higher every year, and we’re continually being challenged to try harder. It's tough, but that's also what we like about them.

 

 

Collaboration & worldwide production

Where we do not own the factories, we make sure to pick our production partners carefully and to install fruitful and long-term partnerships.

We always look for the best production location, considering technical expertise and knowhow. Many factories with cutting and sewing skills are located in Asia, and we select the partners that follow strict social requirements and collaborate with them to reach even higher standards of working conditions.

                                                 

 

We care for our community
With our 12 locations, we actively integrate into many communities. In addition, various causes close to our hearts are supported by our brands, subsidiaries and colleagues. Here is a selection of projects we currently support.
Salewa Garden
Zebra
Salewa Brillenscahf and Shepherd's hut
Hemp in South Tyrol
Snow Leopard
Dynafit & WWF
Wild Country Mediterranean Hope and the “Flamingo Loophole”
Pomoca and the Saimaa Seals
Evolv The story of a few becomes the goal of many
LaMunt supporting girls in Bolivia
Want to know more?
Read up
Read more on our latest Sustainability Report in the downloads section.
Reports & Downloads
Get in touch
Contact our sustainability team if you have any questions or requests.
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