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We’re back and it definitely feels like summer is well and truly over. This week there’s been lots of little bitty things going on that can easily fall through the cracks. Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. First up, we’re looking at what’s going on with Nike’s sustainability communications. What communications, you ask? Exactly. I also checked in on what Trump’s appearance in Rolex’s suite at the US Open was all about and give you the low down on the EU’s latest regulatory push to clean up fashion.
As always, send me thoughts, feedback and tips.
Why Do It?
Last week, Nike launched a campaign reframing its decades-old “Just Do It” tagline for the modern era. The new mantra: “Why Do It?”
Perhaps this is how Nike feels about its sustainability communications, which appear to be fading into the background of its corporate narrative.
(Nike says this isn’t true and it has plans to amp things up. Anyway, the new tagline is meant to encourage people to simply try, not suggest they shouldn’t bother in the first place. But, much like with the shift in the brand’s sustainability messaging, we’re getting into semantics).
What Actually Happened?
On Monday, the brand’s top sustainability executive, Jaycee Pribulsky, announced she was departing for a new opportunity after less than two years in the role.
This is notable not just because it marks the departure of yet another senior sustainability executive in the sector, but because when Pribulsky took on the position, Nike’s sustainability commitments were already under a cloud of doubt.
The function was hit particularly hard by the sportswear giant’s efforts to restructure and rebuild from a bruising — and ongoing — sales slump. An investigation by ProPublica and The Oregonian/Oregon Live found roughly 30 percent of the brand’s sustainability focused staff had been laid off or chose to leave between December 2023 and July last year.
Nike is probably getting tired of repeating that nothing has changed and it remains as committed to its sustainability efforts as ever. The restructuring was intended to embed sustainability topics across the business, rather than siloing them in an isolated division, the company said last year. It intends to find a replacement for Pribulsky “in due time,” it told my colleague, Shayeza Walid, earlier this week.
But over the last year, Nike has also noticeably changed the tone of its sustainability-related communications.
It used to publish glossy and prominent annual impact reports with lots of blah blah blah on its corporate climate efforts and diversity initiatives. This year, it’s put out a bunch of number-heavy data sheets that you have to be quite committed to reading to find on the company’s website. It’s condensed literally pages enthusing about the brand’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts into a single sheet titled “Representation by the Numbers.”
Nike said the change was to make the information “more engaging and accessible.” The company plans to do more to share its work on sustainability topics in other formats, it said.
So What?
Good question. Based on the data, Nike is delivering on its commitments just as it was before. There’s been no discernible pullback in the diversity of its employee base. Its greenhouse gas emissions are falling, even if hitting a goal to reduce the brand’s carbon footprint 30 percent from 2015 levels by the end of the decade still looks like a stretch.
It has not — as some other big businesses have — caved to pressure from the Trump administration and the adjacent backlash against so-called “woke capitalism” by dropping existing initiatives. It appears it has just become quieter about them.
But this is fashion, so everyone should understand why communication matters.
Make Rolex Great Again
Donald Trump would not have made my bingo card for 2025’s top fashion influencers, but he definitely made headlines when he appeared alongside Rolex CEO Jean-Frédéric Dufour in the company’s box at the US Open this weekend.
The Swiss watch brand is a tournament sponsor, hosting celebrities, VIP clients and business associates at its luxury suite, but a sitting president is an unusual guest (the last to attend the US Open while in office was Bill Clinton in 2000).
Trump’s appearance, alongside family members and high-profile White House officials, was met with a mixture of jeers and cheers.
It’s Just Business
Rolex is hardly the first company to cosy up to Trump. These days, the White House is basically a revolving door of big tech CEOs. LVMH chief executive Bernard Arnault and his children have made prominent appearances at events like this year’s inauguration. Usually it’s not hard to draw a link between these moments and the business agenda behind them.
Rolex’s invitation came just weeks after the Trump administration imposed 39 percent tariffs on imports from Switzerland, striking a devastating blow to the country’s already suffering high-end watch industry.
“Trump’s appearance in the Rolex suite at Sunday’s US Open final had the look of a Swiss diplomacy mission: Rolex is by far Switzerland’s largest watchmaker and heavily exposed to the US market,” Robin Swithinbank reported for BoF earlier this week.
I’d argue it also held the marks of a good sales pitch. The high-end watch market is under pressure, with or without tariffs. Rolex is taking a bet on where its bread will be buttered for the coming years. And it’s betting the MAGA crowd will buy watches.
Waste Not
Each year, the EU’s roughly 450 million inhabitants throws out an average of 12 kilos of clothing and footwear each. That adds up to more than 1 million elephants-worth of fashion trash.
Now, longstanding plans to make brands pay for the cleanup are getting real.
What’s Happened?
On Tuesday, the European Parliament signed off on new rules that require all EU countries to set up fee programmes that will ensure fashion companies cover the cost to collect, sort and recycle unwanted old clothes.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because regulation moves at a snail’s pace and the European bureaucratic process is particularly long and painful. But this is actually the final step, greenlighting the way for the new rules to get signed into law. Once that happens, member states will have 30 months to set up so-called Extended Producer Responsibility schemes.
Some countries, like France, already have this kind of thing in place and it’s not just Europe that’s looking to move here. For instance, California has also moved ahead with plans to establish an EPR programme for textiles.
What Comes Next?
That’s the tricky part.
At the moment, Europe doesn’t actually have the infrastructure to process all the unwanted old clothes getting Marie Kondoed out of closets.
In fact, rag traders, who deal in fashion castoffs, say the market is already collapsing under the strain. More low-value fast fashion is pouring into the system; sorting is expensive; and plans to scale textile recycling capabilities are still nascent.
So What’s the Plan?
The industry says it has one.
ReHubs, a coalition of brands, trade groups and recyclers, is set to unveil a strategy to industrialise textile circularity later this month. It promises to reveal a roadmap that will enable the recycling of 2.5 million tonnes of textile waste by 2032.
We’ll see.
What Else You Need to Know This Week:
- Union Busted: A crackdown on garment sector union representatives in Cambodia and Myanmar highlight a “chilling trend” of manufacturers using criminalisation to silence labour rights defenders in the region. [Sourcing Journal]
- Next-Gen Shutdown: NFW, a well-established next-gen materials startup that had attracted investment from Ralph Lauren, is winding down in the latest blow to efforts to scale innovative, lower-impact materials in fashion. [Central Illinois Proud]
- Dashed Dreams: The fashion industry is producing fewer emerging designer success stories as young brands struggle just to stay afloat. [The Business of Fashion]
- Don’t Buy American: Last week, Levi’s warned that brewing anti-American sentiment could hit international sales, though industry watchers are divided on whether a backlash against the Trump administration’s trade and social policies is really likely to hurt US brands abroad. [The Business of Fashion]
- War on Science: President Donald Trump’s administration has gone to war with climate science, reducing the amount of high-quality information that policymakers and business leaders can use to guide their decisions, potentially for years to come. [Bloomberg]