Identify a retail brand that you believe is socially or ethically responsible.

A retail brand that I believe to be socially or ethically responsible is Bombas. What started as a sock company, donating a pair of socks for every pair purchased has grown into a HUGE success selling not only socks but a plethora of clothing items. With their continued mission to donate one clothing item per item purchased coupled with the fact that they’ve donated over 150m clothing items, selecting Bombas for this blog entry seemed like a no brainer.

How do you believe the company conducts business in a socially responsible way? Support your answer by discussing specific examples.

Bombas conducts business in a socially and ethically responsible way through their donation process and brand message. If you’ve ever seen a Bombas advertisement they heavily focus on the fact that they donate an item for every item purchased leading me to believe this is something they care more about than making a profit (other than making enough money to operate successfully). I feel most companies who make such donations normally don’t do so year round let alone on every item purchased.

Has the company ever been involved in any incidents in which they were accused of not conducting business in an ethical or socially responsible manner? If so, briefly discuss the legal issues related to the incident(s).

The closest thing I’ve found is that in 2014, hackers gained access to the credit card information of nearly 40,000 Bombas customers. Bombas initially only notified payment card companies, and didn’t notify customers until March 2018. They settled with the New York Attorney General over their failure to properly notify customers. Obviously this was a massive fault in transparency and accountability from the company and raised concerns for consumers. Since then the company hasn’t had any issues that I have found.

Do you feel the company is “green” for profit or “green” for the environment?

In my opinion I feel this company is very obviously “green” for the environment. Through all of the donations they have made and continue to make as a company you can clearly tell that they don’t mind taking less profit to give back to the community and those in need.