Dear Partners:

At Cole Haan, our mission is to inspire people to live extraordinary, purpose-filled lives. Naturally, this includes the millions of people who buy and wear Cole Haan products every year. However, it also includes our dedicated employees around the world and extends to our innovative manufacturing partners and their dedicated employees as well.

To become a respected global lifestyle brand and a company that maintains profitable growth, we believe we must do our part to create meaningful social impact through our business practices. This begins with our greatest opportunity for impact: our global supply chain.

Less than 20 years ago, Cole Haan implemented its first Supplier Code of Conduct, setting forth basic requirements for all manufacturers who seek to conduct business with Cole Haan. Today, as part of our efforts for ongoing improvements, we are innovating beyond a checklist compliance Code approach. This means the implementation of management systems and multi-stakeholder engagement to help inform improvements to working conditions in accordance with performance criteria based on relevant International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions and national law within our supply chain.

Corporate Social Responsibility, which spans both environmental and social issues, is an ongoing concern to governments, investors, suppliers, employees, consumers and numerous other members of society. Given this, we are initiating the integration of our social policies into all day-to-day business activities.

While Cole Haan recognizes there are different legal and cultural environments in which our suppliers operate, our Code of Conduct & Code Management Systems Guidance Program sets forth the basic requirements all suppliers must meet in order to conduct business with Cole Haan. These policies and operating practices will not only provide you with tools to help advance the economic and social condition in which we mutually operate, they will also enhance the competitiveness of your company and the stability of your workforce.

To help you implement these management systems, we will provide technical assistance and training. Moreover, we welcome your input and feedback. We are committed to partnering with our suppliers in an ongoing two-way dialogue, meant to support positive management practices.

We are making a long term commitment to continuous improvements in the labor conditions and social performance in our supply chain. Moreover, looking to ways to make social compliance a routine part of our supplier evaluation and purchasing process. We are initiating programs to ensure all partners receive a consistent message from our production, technical, and Corporate Responsibility teams. One area of particular importance is the use of sub-contractors; we will provide you additional details on this in a subsequent communication.

Thank you for your efforts in continual evaluation and improvement and for your ongoing dedication to our mutual success. We have a unique opportunity to inspire everyone who has a stake in Cole Haan’s extraordinary success. Cole Haan can and will be an example for the industry of “living it’s mission” in everything our company and our partners do. This is a journey that should inspire us all to do our part, however large or small, to help shape an extraordinary world in which we all wish to live.

With Regards,

Jack A. Boys
CEO