North Face, Timberland parent company in new actions to advance racial equity

VF Corp. is implementing new programs and actions to advance racial equity in the company — and beyond.

The parent company of The North Face, Timberland, Vans and Dickies Building said it is building on its Council to Advance Racial Equity (CARE) by adding a combination of actions and programs, community partners and public policy initiatives to address opportunity gaps that Black and Brown Americans face in such areas as access to education, economic equity and environmental justice.

As part of its new set of commitments, VF has set a goal of achieving 25% Black, Indigenous and People of Color within its staff at the director level and above by 2030. To achieve this, the company has partnered with Pensole, an innovative footwear design academy that provides students with the knowledge required to become professional footwear designers. 

The collaboration will introduce Black and Brown students to VF’s brands. Students will participate in a masterclass that will develop them into capable designers with robust knowledge of the footwear and retail industry. Top performing students will earn the opportunity to participate in a year-long rotational apprenticeship at VF’s brand offices to gain knowledge of each of the brands’ consumers, culture and ways of working, and to further develop their skills in footwear design.

In addition, VF will apply Mansfield Rule requirements, a recruitment benchmark originally developed for the legal industry, to its talent acquisition and development decisions across all company departments. The Mansfield Rule requires initial candidate slates to contain at least 50% diverse candidates (defined as women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+ individuals and individuals with disabilities) when hiring or promoting candidates.

By 2024, VF said it will assess and resolve any identified pay gaps for employees, sponsored athletes and influencers across the organization through a pay equity analysis. 

In another initiative. VF will create a supplier diversity program to double its spend with people of color- and women-owned businesses by 2025 through enterprise direct and indirect procurement and the activities of its brands. Also, The VF Foundation, the philanthropic grant-making arm of VF, will commit 10% of its annual U.S. grant funding to support community initiatives that advance VF’s racial equity strategy in alignment with the Foundation’s investment priorities.

For more on VF’s new programs to advance racial equity, click here.