Closed again for Black Friday: “The environmental and social consequences are just too big”

Haglöfs has been taking a stand against the environmental and social perils of excessive consumption for many years now. On Black Friday, the most notorious shopping day of the year, Haglöfs has responded with actions ranging from increasing prices and giving profits to charities to promoting second-hand products instead.

“The environmental and social consequences of Black Friday are just too big for us to ever consider participating,” says Fredrik Ohlsson, CEO at Haglöfs. “We hope that our contrary actions will at the very least help draw attention to the problems of excessive consumption and systematic and large-scale discounting which are taking us in the wrong direction.”

While seasonal sales have long been an integral part of the clothing industry, providing a way to reduce overly high stock levels, recent years have seen a trend toward utilizing frequent discounting as a sales strategy. Companies often produce discounted products specifically for sales events like Black Friday with the sole aim of increasing their sales even more. The consequences go beyond excessive consumption and the associated environmental pressures. The systematic discounting that typically underlies Black Friday events heavily contributes to driving down production costs and worker salaries across the entire supply chain.

This year, Haglöfs won’t do anything around Black Friday. Instead, they will close down all stores, operations and activities wherever possible and encourage staff to spend time outdoors. Haglöfs is done enabling or contributing in any way to the most aggressively sales-focused day of the year.