Eddie Bauer
OVERALL |
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Owned |
USA |
Rating |
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Clothing retail
Acquired in 2021 by SPARC Group, a joint venture between Simon Property Group and Authentic Brands Group.
Company Ownership
Eddie Bauer LLC | USA | website | ||||
SPARC Group LLC ![]() owns 100% of Eddie Bauer LLC |
USA | website | ||||
Retail Joint venture between Simon Property Group, a retail real estate company and Authentic Brands Group, a brand development company. SPARC stands for Simon Property Authentic Retail Concepts. In 2023 Chinese fast fashion company Shein bought a 33% stake. | ||||||
Authentic Brands Group LLC ![]() owns 33% of SPARC Group LLC |
USA | website | ||||
Brand development and licensing Purchases brands in the sports, celebrity and fashion categories and licenses the intellectual property to leading retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers worldwide. Acquired Juicy Couture in 2013, Tretorn in 2015 and Nautica and Nine West in 2018. Bought Van Heusen, Arrow and Izod from PVH, and Reebok from Adidas in 2021. Acquired Ted Baker in 2022 and Boardriders and Rockport in 2023. Private equity firms BlackRock, CVC and HPS own significant stakes. | ||||||
Simon Property Group Inc ![]() owns 33% of SPARC Group LLC |
USA | website | ||||
Real estate investment trust The largest owner of shopping malls in the United States. | ||||||
Zoetop Business Co Ltd ![]() owns 33% of SPARC Group LLC |
SGP | website | ||||
Fast fashion Founded in China in 2008 by Chris Xu, Shein has quickly become the world's largest fashion retailer, surpassing H&M and Zara. The company has no physical stores and exists almost entirely on social media. While production is still primarily in China, Shein moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2022 in an attempt to distance itself from China. Ships to 220 countries. Acquired 33% of Forever 21 parent company SPARC in 2023. |
Company Assessment
PRAISE | CRITICISM | INFORMATION | ||
Eddie Bauer LLC | ||||
The 2023 Fashion Transparency Index reviewed 250 of the world's largest fashion brands and retailers and ranked them according to how much they disclose about their human rights and environmental policies, practices and impacts. Brands owned by this company scored 5%, signifying it has little to no information about their supply chain practices or policies available to the public. The average score was 26% and the highest score was 83%.
Source: Fashion Revolution (2023) |
'Naughty' rating on the 2009 Naughty/Nice List, the Scorecard on the Catalog and Direct Mail Industry by Forest Ethics. [Listed under information due to age of report]
Source: Forest Ethics (2009)
This 2008 investigative report into a sewing factory in El Salvador reveals how workers are: paid well below living wage, illegally forced to work overtime, fired for attempting to unionise, and cursed at and humiliated. Their customers include North Face (VF Corporation) and Eddie Bauer. (Listed under information due to age of report)
Source: Institute for Global Labour & Human Rights (2008)
Major corporations, including this one, use prison labour in the USA, where prisoners are paid slave wages as low as 23 cents an hour doing work which is often dangerous, toxic and unprotected. While much of the work done by prisoners is for the military, other major corporations are taking advantage of the cheap labour in both federal and state US prisons.
Source: Global Research (2013)
This company signed the Uzbek Cotton Pledge with the Responsible Sourcing Network, signifying a public commitment to not knowingly source Uzbek cotton for the manufacturing of any of their products until the Government of Uzbekistan ends the practice of forced labor in its cotton sector. However the Pledge was lifted in March 2022 after the Uzbek Forum for Human Rights, who monitored the annual cotton harvest since 2010, found no state-imposed forced labor in the 2021 harvest.
Source: Cotton Campaign (2022)
Brands owned by this company are listed in Human Society International Australia's Better Wool Guide as using 100% non-mulesed wool from a robust certification scheme, or has a time-bound commitment to do so. Mulesing is the controversial practice of removing strips of the skin of a lamb's rear and is often done without pain relief. In Australia, the only country where mulesing still occurs, an estimated 10 million merino lambs are subjected to mulesing each year - equivalent to 19 lambs per minute.
Source: HSI Australia (2023)
This company has taken angora items off the shelves and promised not to use angora again, following a PETA campaign launched in Dec 2013 which revealed the cruelty inflicted on angora rabbits in Chinese factory farms, where 90% of the world's angora is produced.
Source: PETA (2018)
This company has committed to making products with RDS-certified down. The Responsible Down Standard (RDS) is an independent, voluntary global standard which ensures that down and feathers come from ducks and geese that have been treated well, with no live plucking or force feeding. However the RDS has been criticised by PETA, who claim live plucking still occurs at RDS farms. (https://bit.ly/3TAiNB6)
Source: RDS (2022)
This company is a member of the Textile Exchange, a global non-profit that works closely with its members to drive textile industry transformation in preferred fibres, integrity and standards and responsible supply networks. They identify and share best practices regarding farming, materials, processing, traceability and product end-of-life in order to reduce the textile industry's impact on the world's water, soil and air, and the human population.
Source: Textile Exchange (2019)
California, the UK and Australia have all enacted legislation requiring companies operating within their borders to disclose their efforts to eradicate modern slavery from their operations and supply chains. Follow the link to see this company's disclosure statement.
Source: company website (2021)
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre digital platform presents news and allegations relating to the human rights impact of over 20,000 companies. Their enhanced Company Dashboards also include financial information, key data points based on corporate policies, and scores from prominent civil society benchmarks. Follow the link and use the search function to view this company's dashboard.
Source: BHRRC (2022) |
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SPARC Group LLC | ||||
This company is listed as having best practice on a report card on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality in corporate America.
Source: Human Rights Campaign (2021) |
The Chinese government has facilitated the mass transfer of Uyghur and other ethnic minority citizens from the far west region of Xinjiang to factories across the country. Under conditions that strongly suggest forced labour, Uyghurs are working in factories that are in the supply chains of international brands. The 2021 Laundering Cotton report investigates how forced-labour-produced cotton and cotton-based goods from the Uyghur Region wend their way into international supply chains of well-known international clothing brands, including brands owned by this company.
Source: Sheffield Hallam University (2021)
SPARC Group is a joint venture between Authentic Brands Group, Simon Property Group and Shein, all of which have criticisms in the Shop Ethical database.
Source: Shop Ethical (2023) |
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre digital platform presents news and allegations relating to the human rights impact of over 20,000 companies. Their enhanced Company Dashboards also include financial information, key data points based on corporate policies, and scores from prominent civil society benchmarks. Follow the link and use the search function to view this company's dashboard.
Source: BHRRC (2022) |
Company Details
Type | Wholly-owned subsidiary |
Founded | 1920 |
Contact Details
Address | Seattle, Washington, USA |
Website | eddiebauer.com |
Products / Brands
Eddie Bauer
Eddie Bauer Outdoor Wear |