Adidas
Adidas said in 2019 that it has “never manufactured goods in Xinjiang and has no contractual relationship with any Xinjiang supplier.” However, Adidas confirmed in a separate statement that year that Xinjiang features in its global supply chain, as the company is supplied cotton from that region via a sustainability program called the Better Cotton Initiative. Adidas said it found no cases of forced labor on farms participating in that initiative.
In March 2020, Adidas was named in ASPI’s report as one of at least 82 global brands whose supply chains were highly likely to contain Uyghur forced labour. ASPI’s report identified Adidas as a customer of Haoyuanpeng Garment Group (HYP), a company with ties to Uyghur forced labour and labour transfers. In response to the report, Adidas told ASPI that it has no direct relationship with HYP and that they are investigating HYP’s use of their brand name and logo.
Adidas was also identified in a report from the Helen Kennedy Centre (HCK), published in November 2021, as one of many international brands whose supply chains were linked to textile companies known to source cotton from Xinjiang, who also own subsidiaries documented to have employed state-sponsored labour transfers.
In response to the HKC report, Adidas said “We can confirm that none of the yarn or fabric used for adidas products in these manufacturing units originate in China and we hold no sourcing relationship with the textile firms listed in your research.”
When asked for more information regarding how Adidas ensure that their products are Xinjiang cotton free, Adidas stated that “We have a nomination process in place for our materials and a materials traceability tool. Suppliers are only permitted to use authorised materials when making our products and none of the yarn manufacturers named in your case studies are a part of our supply chain.”
In May 2022, researchers at the Agroisolab in Jülich and the Hochschule Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, both in western Germany, say an isotope analysis has found traces of Xinjiang cotton in Adidas T-shirts. In response, a spokesperson for Adidas said the company “sources cotton exclusively from other countries and takes a variety of measures to ensure fair and safe working conditions in its supply chain”.