Our Requirements for Brands and Products | Sport Conrad Blog | Advices, Guides, News and Outdoor Equipment

The largest share of our company’s CO₂ emissions arises from the extraction of raw materials and the production of the products we sell. That is why we place particular importance on the careful selection of our partner brands and products. To meet this requirement, we developed our two-stage WDU evaluation process, which we use to regularly review our suppliers and products.

Brands that we label as WIR DENKEN UM brands are committed to taking responsibility in their supply chain, promoting fair purchasing practices, and ensuring fair working conditions in their production facilities. They produce in an energy- and resource-saving manner, rely on short transport routes as well as the use of environmentally friendly packaging. In addition, we focus on clothing, gear, and footwear made from recycled or renewable raw materials.

We label innovative products with our WIR DENKEN UM logo in our stores and in our online shop. Our goal is for our textile range to consist of 70 % (by 2030: 90 %) more sustainable products by 2025, and for our hardware range to consist of 40 % (by 2030: 70 %) more sustainable products. To extend the lifespan of our products, we offer repairs through our stores and provide care tips. Another step toward extending the product life cycle is our NOMOI second-hand concept.

Good for your karma – and good for the climate. We carry approx. 200 brands in our range, about 100 of which meet our WIR DENKEN UM requirements. Out of around 20,000 products, we label about 10,000 with our WIR DENKEN UM label – to simplify product searches and enable sustainable decisions that have a positive impact on our planet. Responsibility is not borne solely by the manufacturers and by us at Sport Conrad, but by each and every one of us! Enduring change begins with conscious consumption and includes using products for a long time – including repair, reuse (e.g. second-hand), upcycling, and recycling – in order to move closer to the ultimate goal of a sustainable circular economy and collect some karma points along the way.

We introduced our WIR DENKEN UM evaluation process in 2018 and have been continuously developing it ever since. At the company level, at least 9 out of more than 25 criteria must be met. At the product level, we have defined four sustainability categories:

Material Selection, Circularity, Certifications, and Climate.

These categories are divided into 22 so-called attributes that identify our WDU products based on their sustainability features.

Our requirements for WIR DENKEN UM brands and products

Mandatory corporate criteria

🙐 Responsibility & fairness

Responsibility throughout the supply chain
Audited suppliers, own production facilities or production in the EU
Fair working conditions for workers

🙐 Environment & Climate

Environmentally friendly, resource- and energy-saving production
Resource-saving use of packaging materials
Short transport routes and active environmental and climate protection

🙐 Transparency & reporting

Regular and transparent sustainability communication

Additional product criteria

🙐 Choice of materials

100% vegan
Renewable raw materials
Organic cotton
Fair wool
Fair down
Fair leather
Recycled materials
FSC certified
made without PFC/PFAS
PVC-free
Bio-based fibres

🙐 Climate

EU production

🙐 Circularity

Recyclable
Service & repair
Resoleable
Lifetime warranty

🙐 Certification

Fair Wear
Bluesign
Fairtrade
Grüner Knopf
OEKOTEX Made in Green

The most sustainable product? Is what we already have!

Yes, that’s right: the best product is the one we already have. Unless we are talking about personal safety equipment, which loses its guaranteed protective function after a certain period of use. That’s why it’s extremely important to properly care for and repair textiles, equipment and shoes, to pass them on and – as a last resort – to dispose of them correctly to enable recycling. As a last resort, we offer take-back and recycling campaigns in collaboration with various manufacturers, such as Scarpa Re-Shoes or Tecnica Recycle your Boots.