VAUDE CSR-Report – Labelling

Sewn-in product labeling

Customers need information about what a product is made of and where it was made in order to be able to accurately compare products and make a choice that’s right for them. Giving our customers as much information as possible is a genuine concern for us here at VAUDE.

There are, however, a variety of legal regulations and guidelines for labeling products by means of sewn-in care labels.

VAUDE provides more information than required by law

According to textile labeling laws, fiber percentages and percentages of materials of animal origin must be listed on the label. Additional information such as “organic” or “recycled” is no longer permitted and must be in a different form such as on a product hangtag. All of our textile products are subject to this labeling law.

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

For some products Conformity according to EU safety law is necessary, so we label this products with a CE label. These include clothing components with UV protection or products that should provide better visibility in road traffic, such as our reflective cuffs.

We provide the following information for our products:

Fiber content
Care instructions
Country of origin
Date of manufacture
Green Shape
percentage of materials of animal origin
CE conformity

Additional information on the product

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 PrimaLoft ®, Polartec® and Sympatex®, sketches and photos of the product and information about awards and patents.

However, detailed information on the product can also be made available to our dealers. By using the link to the Loadbee platform, for example, more in-depth technology and material information can be displayed in their online shops.

VAUDE Green Shape Label

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

We use the Green Shape label directly on the product as a hangtag, and also in our purchasing documents for our specialist retailers and in the web shop. More details on the Green Shape concept  here

VAUDE products with a special ecological benefit are given additional labels. We select only the most important for the paper hangtag to avoid consuming paper unnecessarily. Online in the webshop, we present all of a product’s ecological advantages, our "Eco Benefits".

Our own rule applies: A product must contain at least 30 % of a particularly environmentally friendly material in order to be given this label. If several materials are used, each one must be at least 30 % environmentally friendly.

When it's not the material itself, but a processing technology that is particularly environmentally friendly, we also label this, (such as water-repellent, fluorocarbon-free VAUDE products, with the Eco Finish Label.) Read more about water-repellent materials here

No Label Jungle

This also applies to products that do not meet the strict Green Shape criteria.

As of the Summer Collection 2016, we also began labeling products that consist of at least 30 % recycled materials or at least 30 % renewable materials.

We want to make it even easier for our customers to recognize eco-friendly products and make informed purchasing decisions, even if the product does not yet meet all Green Shape criteria.

However, to avoid creating a "label jungle" on the product, we have established a hierarchy of labels. VAUDE products carry only one of the following eco-labels:

Green Shape - if the product meets the strict Green Shape criteria.
Recycled materials - if the product isn't a Green Shape but consists of at least 30% recycled materials.
Renewable materials - if the product isn't a Green Shape but consists of at least 30% renewable materials.

Our customers can recognize the ecological value of a product right at the point of sale. At the same time, we evaluate our products in these four categories - for example, by market segment or product groups in sales and volumes. Read more about it here.

Technical products – child carriers, panniers, avalanche backpacks and tents – are given additional product-specific instructions on use, assembly, maintenance and special safety instructions.

Care instructions as ecological as possible

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

In 2018 no violations of labeling regulations

We work very closely with our material suppliers to label our products properly. 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 that includes 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.