At Fjällräven we have always done our best to ensure that animals are treated fairly. We were among the first companies to reject mulesing, the surgical procedure carried out on merino sheep in Australia in order to prevent flystrike. As soon as this treatment became known, we were one of the few who pulled all of our merino products from the market. We have also removed real fur from our products after having developed our own Arctic Fur, a synthetic fur that shares many of the positive characteristics of fur.

Recent Swedish TV stories and German newspaper articles have raised a concern about the issue of “live-plucking” and “live-harvesting” of down and feathers from geese and ducks. We were also featured in one of the shows.

First of all, we like condemn live picking. It is simply not accepted by us. Through our history we have only ordered and purchased down from the food industry, not picked from live geese. In China there are general two types of down; down from birds that have become food and down that are live picked. Down picked from live birds is made upon special order and is in China more expensive than down from birds that have become food. Our producers have followed our instructions and guarantee that our products only contain down from geese that has become food, not picked from live birds. Our own controls on spot confirm this. 

Nevertheless, one hidden camera showed that one of our smaller producers after continuous questions from Swedish Television tried to get hold of down picked from live birds. This is poor judgment from his side. However, once again it is confirmed that our products do not contain this type of down.

In order to ensure that our policies are followed and that our products only contain the type of down we accept we are now concentrating our down purchase to only one down supplier to get an even better control. We are also taking an active role in ensuring that no live picked down should exist. The first step has been to take part in an international down meeting in China in March 2009.

But not only do we respect the rights of all living creatures, we also are working proactively to secure the future of a creature that is dear to us, the arctic fox. Read more about our arctic fox support under the heading Partners.