Skechers

Aug 23, 2022

Skechers is a American fashion retailer founded in 1992 in Los Angeles by Robert Greenberg. The multinational clothing-retail company specializes in athletic footwear for men, women, and children.

Skechers makes clothing, accessories, shoes, and underwear and is now the third largest athletic footwear brand in the United States. It designs, produces, and sells athleisure, casual, and performance styles.

Skechers operates more than 4,350 stores worldwide and has more than 11,000 employees in stores, factories, logistics across over 180 countries where it does business.

Skechers is committed to improving its global impact for humankind and conservation. It incorporates an Earth-friendly philosophy into its growing footprint through green building, renewable energy and reducing waste and water use.

Skechers offers a collection of sustainable products called Our Planet Matters made from recycled materials to help reduce its environmental impact.

Panaprium is independent and reader supported. If you buy something through our link, we may earn a commission. If you can, please support us on a monthly basis. It takes less than a minute to set up, and you will be making a big impact every single month. Thank you!

Sustainability Rating: 2/10

Rating FAQ

Category: Clothing, accessories, shoes, bags

For: Women, men, children

Type: Basics, activewear, underwear, loungewear, outerwear, boots, sneakers, flats, sandals

Style: Casual

Quality: Low

Price: $

Sizes: XS-2XL, 2-14 (US), 4-16 (UK), 34-44 (EU), 6-18 (AU)

Fabrics: Cotton, linen, jute, lyocell, modal, viscose, acetate, polyester, nylon, spandex, acrylic, neoprene, polyurethane, rubber, leather, wool

100% Organic: No

100% Vegan: No

Ethical & Fair: No

Recycling: Yes

Producing countries: not transparent enough

Certifications: FSC

Sustainability Practices

Skechers takes wide-ranging measures to reduce its consumption of water, energy, and other resources, avoid waste, and combat climate change.

Its Planet Matters shoes provide environmentally conscious supporters with an option to help protect our planet. However, the majority of its business remains detrimental to the environment.

Skechers doesn't use organic materials such as organic cotton but a tiny proportion of recycled materials such as recycled polyester, rubber, and cotton.

Only very few of its collections are dedicated to sustainable fashion. Most of the fabrics it uses are either natural without relevant certifications, such as regular cotton or linen, or synthetic petroleum-based fibers such as polyester, nylon, acrylic, and more.

Skechers also uses a little amount of semi-synthetic fibers or regenerated cellulosic fabrics such as Tencel lyocell, modal, acetate, and viscose.

Tencel is an eco-friendly fiber made with wood pulp from certified sustainable forests. But only a tiny proportion of the materials used by Skechers are environmentally friendly and sustainable.

Skechers doesn't publish a list of all its manufacturers and processing facilities on its corporate website. It doesn't disclose how it chooses its network of suppliers.

The 2021 Fashion Transparency Index gave Skechers a score of only 8% based on how much the group discloses about its social and environmental policies, practices, and impacts.

The American footwear retailer doesn't show any labor certification standard that would ensure good working conditions, decent living wages, health, safety, and other important rights for workers in its supply chain.

Skechers has a code of conduct that applies to all its suppliers and subcontractors based on the regulations set by the International Labor Organization (ILO).

Skechers assesses compliance with its Code of Conduct by informal visits or third-party audits with or without notice. It has committed to working only with vendors who conduct their business ethically and are socially responsible.

Skechers doesn't use any exotic animal skin, hair, fur, or 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 waste. More sustainable alternatives exist.

Sustainability Goals

Skechers doesn't have clear sustainability goals, science-based targets, or timelines to improve in the future.

Buy Here

Discover Skechers' sustainable collections at Skechers.com.

Reviews And Experiences With Skechers

Have you had (good) experiences with shopping at or the products of Skechers? Then leave us your rating below.

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.
- - - -
Thankfully, we've got our supporters, including you.
Panaprium is funded by readers like you who want to join us in our mission to make the world entirely sustainable.

If you can, please support us on a monthly basis. It takes less than a minute to set up, and you will be making a big impact every single month. Thank you.