Transparent information for customers who want to make responsible choices

Customers need information about a product’s material composition and the place of manufacture in order to be able to really compare products and have a true purchasing choice. This is a genuine concern for us here at VAUDE – informing our customers as extensively as possible. 

There are however, different regulations and guidelines for labelling products. The requirements for the labelling of textiles and shoes are complex and not always easy to realize in practice

To label our products properly, we work very closely with our material suppliers. They provide detailed information on the fiber composition and provide us with the specific care instructions. In our product lifecycle management system (PLM), this information is stored in a separate workflow, including control loops, so that we can reliably manage queries and labels.

Product labels are checked each season. When there are small changes in the materials used, we pass along this information. So far, there have been no violations of mandatory labelling.

The regulations for product labelling must be respected to avoid distortion of competition and to meet consumer protection requirements.

According to textile labelling laws, fiber percentages and percentages of materials of animal origin must be listed on the label. All of our textile products are subject to this labeling law.

In addition to the textile labelling law, our textile products have a care label in accordance with ISO 3758, an international standard for care labelling of textile products.

We provide the following information for our products:

• fiber content
  
• care instructions
  
• country of origin
  
• date of manufacture
  
• "Green Shape"
  
• "bluesign® product"
  
• percentage of materials of animal origin
  
  

We offer our customers additional valuable information on product hangtags. These hangtags provide information about environmental and technical aspects, as well as information on our system suppliers such as Polartec and Sympatex, sketches and photos of the product, and information about awards and patents.

In addition we label those products that fulfill the strict ecological criteria with the VAUDE Green Shape label. Details on Green Shape here.

Starting in the Summer Collection 2016, we will also label products with that consist of at least 30% recycled materials or at least 30% renewable materials in addition to Green Shape and bluesign® labels.

We make sure that our care instructions are as ecological as possible and recommend, for example, washing at low temperatures and, whenever possible, air drying. We also work with our material suppliers on this issue. Every season, we check all labels to ensure that the material compositions and therefore the care instructions have not changed.