Carhartt teams with Metallica to support community colleges
Carhartt is supporting an initiative founded by a legendary heavy metal band to promote skilled trade education.
The Dearborn, Mich.-based workwear brand is dedicating its fall "For the Love of Labor" grant to Metallica's All Within My Hands foundation and its Metallica Scholars Initiative. The Metallica foundation's nationwide program is receiving a donation from Carhartt to expand its support of skilled trades training for community college students as enrollments rise at vocationally focused schools.
Carhartt's For the Love of Labor grant donation will benefit the foundation's Metallica Scholars program to support 60 community colleges across all 50 states – including 18 new schools that joined the program in July 2024.
Funding provided by Carhartt will support school tuition at local community colleges, as well as wraparound services like childcare and transportation.
"The Metallica Scholars Initiative was born from our collective passion to dismantle the stigma associated with the skilled trades, and we are so proud of how this program is changing lives across the nation," said Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich. "The importance of skilled trades education cannot be overstated, and we are immensely grateful for organizations like Carhartt that are making a meaningful difference by breaking down barriers and investing in the future of skilled labor."
All Within My Hands is a non-profit, philanthropic organization created by the members and management of the Metallica band and dedicated to creating sustainable communities by supporting workforce education, the fight against hunger, and other critical local services.
Carhartt is following in the footsteps of home improvement retailer Lowe’s (which sells a Carhartt workwear collection at select stores and online), which provided a $500,000 donation to Metallica's All Within My Hands and its Metallica Scholars Initiative in June 2024.
[READ MORE: Lowe’s dives deeper into apparel with partnership]
This collaboration isn't the first time Carhartt and All Within My Hands have teamed up to support workforce development within the skilled trades. In March 2024, the workwear brand donated all proceeds from Carhartt.com, Reworked.Carhartt.com and all of its retail locations to All Within My Hands on International Women's Day (March 8) to assist women seeking to enter the skilled trades.
In addition, the retailer and the non-profit also collaborated on a nationwide campaign, "Hard Rock is Hard Work," aimed to recruit young workers to the trades in live events such as concerts, launched to coincide with Labor Day 2021.
"All Within My Hands and Carhartt share a common mission to strengthen communities by closing the skilled trades gap," said Todd Corley, senior VP of inclusion, sustainability and community at Carhartt. "Skilled trades education can be the start of a life-changing career path, and when workers and their families are taken care of, they are able to invest themselves back into their communities. We are proud to support the organizations that are inspiring the next generation of workers from diverse backgrounds by showing them how they can make their own history through the skilled trades."
Since its inception in August 2020, Carhartt says the For the Love of Labor grant program has received hundreds of applications and awarded 24 grants – totaling nearly $2.7 million – to eligible U.S.-based 501©3 designated organizations in recognized apprenticeship industries that serve at least 100 individuals annually.
