BOSTON. JUNE 21 2023 – The world´s biggest sportswear brand, Nike Inc., has recently made a huge step to improve animal welfare and changed its CSR policy by committing to the certified Responsible Wool Standard (RWS) in its product range.

This ground-breaking moment is a huge milestone for global animal welfare organization, FOUR PAWS, which has been advocating against the cruel procedure of mulesing for years and specifically with the launch of a campaign directed at Nike in 2022. Over 80,000 sports enthusiasts called on the biggest sportswear manufacturer to follow in the footsteps of Adidas and Puma and commit to certified wool. FOUR PAWS continues calling on textile brands to phase out this cruel and outdated practice.

After a successful campaign to #StopCruelWool, Nike, publicly states it will only use certified wool sourced with Responsible Wool Standard (RWS) from now on, which excludes the brutal procedure of mulesing. This method is only practiced in Australia, the world´s biggest supplier of Merino wool. Following a mass online protest mail in 2022, that gained over 80,000 signatures, running athletes joined Vienna´s and Hamburg´s marathons for impactful offline actions that raised additional public awareness about the mutilation of lambs. As Nike Inc. turned 50 last year, FOUR PAWS projected their call to end mulesing onto their main European Logistic Campus in Belgium.

Rebecca Picallo Gil, Head of the wool campaign at FOUR PAWS, stated, “We congratulate Nike on this important commitment which will benefit millions of lambs. With the upcoming mulesing season in Australia due to start, this news comes at a crucial time and sends a strong signal to the wool producers, being an influential brand with potential to inspire the entire apparel market. This win was only possible with the help of tens of thousands of supporters fighting together with FOUR PAWS for better animal welfare in the sports apparel market.”

FOUR PAWS has been campaigning for an end to the cruel mulesing procedure for many years. Mulesing involves cutting off large chunks of skin from two to ten-week-old lambs with sharp shears without necessary pain relief. For the lambs, this means fear and stress, but above all intense pain that can last for days. There have long been pain-free alternatives to this, such as switching to breeding sheep that are naturally flystrike resistant. There are also certification systems that enable traceability from the shop floor to the farms, in order to reliably exclude mulesing. 

Merino wool is used in sports apparel for its beneficial characteristics such as breathability and odorless qualities by all of the biggest sports brands globally as a report by FOUR PAWS revealed. Nike, as the world´s largest sportswear manufacturer at that time had not committed to reliably exclude mulesed wool in its product range. While many other brands – such as Nike´s biggest competitors, Adidas and Puma – already made public commitments to exclude the cruel and outdated method, Nike just did not respond to the public demand, until now.

Globally over 350 brands have already published anti-mulesing policies and over 70 brands even signed an open letter to the Australian wool industry to demand an end to the mutilation of lambs.

Background 

Merino wool is used in sports apparel for its beneficial characteristics such as breathability and odorless qualities by all of the biggest sports brands globally as a report by FOUR PAWS revealed. Nike, as the world´s largest sportswear manufacturer at that time had not committed to reliably exclude mulesed wool in its product range. While many other brands – such as Nike´s biggest competitors, Adidas and Puma – already made public commitments to exclude the cruel and outdated method, Nike just did not respond to the public demand, until now.

FOUR PAWS has been campaigning for an end to the cruel mulesing procedure for many years. Mulesing involves cutting off large chunks of skin from two to ten-week-old lambs with sharp shears without necessary pain relief. For the lambs, this means fear and stress, but above all intense pain that can last for days. There have long been pain-free alternatives to this, such as switching to breeding sheep that are naturally flystrike resistant. There are also certification systems that enable traceability from the shop floor to the farms, in order to reliably exclude mulesing. 

Globally over 350 brands have already published anti-mulesing policies and over 70 brands even signed an open letter to the Australian wool industry to demand an end to the mutilation of lambs.