Kodiak

Dec 04, 2020

Kodiak is a Canadian footwear manufacturer founded in 1910 in Kitchener, Ontario. It creates safety shoes, casual shoes, work boots, winter boots, sneakers, and sandals for women and men.

Kodiak is committed to making the world a better place. It preserves the world, the people, and the environments through quality, collaboration, innovative functionality, and unrivaled craftsmanship.

Kodiak strives to lead with values such as authenticity, uncompromised safety, and hard-working durability. It perfected a shoemaking technique to earn a position of supremacy in the Canadian footwear industry.

American clothing and footwear manufacturer VF Corporation owns Kodiak as well as other brands such as Eagle Creek, The North Face, Timberland, Vans, Dickies, Eastpak, JanSport, Terra, and Altra.

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Sustainability Rating: 4/10

Rating FAQ

Category: Shoes

For: Women, men

Type: Boots, sneakers, sandals

Style: Casual

Quality: Medium

Price: $$

Sizes: 5-14

Fabrics: Cotton, polyester, nylon, polyurethane, rubber, leather, wool

100% Organic: No

100% Vegan: No

Ethical & Fair: Yes

Recycling: Yes

Producing country: Albania, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, France, Georgia, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Keny, Mauritius, Mexico, Republic Of Moldova, Morocco, Nicaragua, North Macedonia, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United States, Vietnam

Certifications: FSC, RWS, LWG

Sustainability Practices

Kodiak is part of one of the biggest apparel retailers in the world. It believes it has a responsibility to make the world a better place. It leverages its scale and impact to protect people and the planet.

The brand wants to help limit climate change by dramatically reducing the impact of its materials. Its Scale for Good business approach focuses on the environment, key materials and products, and worker wellbeing.

However, most of the fabrics used by Kodiak are highly polluting synthetic petroleum-based fibers such as nylon, polyester, and polyurethane.

The apparel brand has a Code of Business Conduct and Global Compliance Principles that apply to all its suppliers and subcontractors and sets a clear minimum standard for supply chain partners.

As part of VF Corporation, Kodiak publishes a list of its manufacturing and processing facilities and makes it available publicly on its corporate website. It monitors most of its supply chain and all its main production sites to ensure compliance with social and labor standards.

The company is expanding its traceability and transparency efforts as well as collaborating with human rights experts, governments, international organizations, and non-profits to conduct ongoing human rights due diligence.

The 2020 Fashion Transparency Index gave VF Corporation a score of 59% based on how much the group discloses about its social and environmental policies, practices, and impacts. VF Corporation earned 7th place in the top 10 most transparent brands.

Kodiak doesn't use any exotic animal skin, or hair, fur, angora. But it uses leather and wool to manufacture many of its products.

These animal-derived materials are cruel and unethical. They also harm the environment by producing greenhouse gases and wastes. More sustainable alternatives exist.

Sustainability Goals

Kodiak commits to being a leader in the large-scale commercialization of circular business models by 2030.

It wants to contribute to local communities and empower consumers to live more active and sustainable lifestyles.

Kodiak has greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in line with meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement.

It partners with global consultancy the Carbon Trust to gather data from its suppliers and plans an absolute reduction of Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 (2017 baseline).

Kodiak also plans an absolute reduction of Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030 (2017 baseline) through a focus on farm-to-retail materials, sourcing operations, and logistics.

Kodiak aims to halve its upstream environmental impact, farm-to-front door by 2050. It has a system in place to improve the lives of 2 million workers and their communities by 2025.

Buy Here

Discover Kodiak collections at kodiakboots.com.

Reviews And Experiences With Kodiak

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What We're Up Against

Multinational corporations overproducing cheap products in the poorest countries.
Huge factories with sweatshop-like conditions underpaying workers.
Media conglomerates promoting unethical, unsustainable products.
Bad actors encouraging overconsumption through oblivious behavior.
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