VF Corporation

Nov 27, 2020

VF Corporation is an American clothing and footwear manufacturer founded in 1899 and headquartered in Denver, Colorado. It creates shoes, clothing, and accessories for consumers around the world with more than 30 outdoor, activity-based lifestyle, and workwear brands.

VF Corporation is committed to using its diverse skills, experience, and scale, to make the world a better place. It preserves the world, the people, and environments through collaboration and innovation.

VF Corporation strives to lead movements to inspire everyone to live active and sustainable lifestyles for the betterment of people and our planet.

Some of the most iconic brands owned by VF Corporation include Eagle Creek, The North Face, Timberland, Vans, Dickies, Eastpak, JanSport, and Terra.

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: 5/10

Rating FAQ

Category: Clothing, shoes, bags, accessories

For: Women, men, children

Type: Sportswear, basics, denim, dresses, loungewear, underwear, outerwear, sneakers, boots

Style: Casual, rock

Quality: Medium

Price: $$

Sizes: XS-XL, 4-12 (US), 6-14 (UK), 34-42 (EU), 6-14(AU), plus size

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

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, Kenya, 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, RDS, LWG, PETA

Sustainability Practices

"We believe in doing business better: designing better products to maximize their life span and using materials and processes that enable products to be deconstructed and fed back into the production cycle – time and time again. It’s our circular approach to business – Made for Change."

VF Corporation is 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 group 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.

VF Corporation only uses a small proportion of sustainable materials such as better cotton (BCI), recycled polyester, and regenerated nylon.

Most of its fabrics are highly polluting synthetic petroleum-based fibers such as polyester, nylon, spandex, and acrylic.

VF Corporation also makes a small number of its garments with semi-synthetic fibers or man-made regenerated cellulosic fabrics such as lyocell, modal, acetate, and viscose.

The apparel group 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.

VF Corporation 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.

VF Corporation doesn't use any exotic animal skin, or hair, fur, angora. But it uses leather, wool, and down feathers to manufacture some of its clothing.

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

VF Corporation 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.

VF Corporation 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).

VF Corporation 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.

VF Corporation 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 The North Face collections at thenorthface.com, one of the most sustainable and award-winning brands owned by VF Corporation.

Reviews And Experiences With VF Corporation

Have you had (good) experiences with shopping at or the products of VF Corporation? 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.