How Athleta’s Purpose Shaped Its Response To The COVID-19 Crisis

As companies around the world adjust daily to new realities of the extended COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the global economy, businesses that have adopted a triple-bottom-line mindset—valuing people and planet as well as profit—face unique challenges. But through this commitment to multiple stakeholders, they have a long-term view of success and may serve as a model for other companies looking to survive turbulent economic times.

One example of this is Athleta, a premium fitness and lifestyle apparel brand for active women, which became a B Corporation in 2018, recognizing its commitment to sustainability, accountability and transparency. Athleta also has been one of the sales leaders among brands in the Gap Inc. family, attracting a following of loyal customers who appreciate its sustainable styles and empowering messaging. As part of my research on socially focused businesses, I had the opportunity to talk with Athleta’s Manager of Strategic Initiatives, Emily Allbritten, about how Athleta’s values shape its decisions during more routine times and amid the current economic challenges. Below are excerpts from our conversation.

Chris Marquis: How has Athleta’s identity as a socially responsive business shaped its response to the COVID-19 crisis?   

Emily Allbritten: Being a part of a global brand, under Gap Inc., we definitely had some foresight into the impact of Covid-19 after we had some of our China stores close and the impact that had.  

Regarding our stores, there was a lot of conversation and concern at Gap Inc. whether it was best to close brand by brand or close as an entire company. For retail businesses stores being closed presents a cash flow issue. So while it looks like it is just a financial decision, it’s of course a broader decision that impacts people now and in the future. Our leaders were not shy of thinking in terms of all the impacts. 

But also, we knew we could draw on our capabilities as an apparel brand to make an impact as well.  For instance, we made a quick pivot to design and offer masks and have donated over 100,000 to medical care providers. 

In this time of uncertainty, we are grateful to be part of a community we can both learn from and contribute to. We reached out to our partners at B Lab, the nonprofit that oversees Certified B Corporations, to ask what they were hearing from other companies, what guidance they could provide from a community standpoint. It was helpful just to collaborate on the struggles that all the companies were facing. That helped us realize we weren’t alone in the decisions, that we weren’t alone in the struggle of what we were trying to decide. These are really tough decisions.

Marquis: It would also be great to hear a bit more about the background of the B Corp certification.  How did the leadership team or the board respond to the idea of gaining B Corp certification? 

Allbritten: When we brought it to the rest of our leadership team, it wasn’t even a question or a debate. Everyone said, “Yes, let’s do it.” There was always support that, yes, this is something we want to do. 

The exciting thing was that we didn’t actually have to change anything to fit the original certification. The one thing we did do, which did give us extra points was, change our legal certification to become a benefit corporation. Those were the kinds of questions that we then had to bring back to the Board of Gap Inc. We never had pushback from our board on putting it in our legal amendment. 

Marquis: What did Athleta learn by going through the B Corp assessment process? How has it impacted your business?

Allbritten: It took us about a year to get through the B Impact Assessment and answer all of the questions. We didn’t change anything that we were currently doing to get our original certification. But we did get a lot of credit because as a part of Gap Inc. we do have a lot of programs through the sustainability team. 

Athleta has really been an influencer for the other Gap Inc. brands. We continue to have conversations with all of our different brands—Old Navy, Banana Republic, Intermix, and Gap—about what B Corp certification means and how they could potentially look at it from an assessment standpoint. In general, the world of retail is moving more in that sustainability direction and will continue to do so.

For us it was quite a humbling certification, in the sense that we were working on so many great things and we thought we would pass with flying colors. Once we were digging into these questions and the very specific nuances behind each of them, we realized we actually have a long way to go. So after we’ve gone through the certification, we have internal teams set up to be tracking how we can improve in the short term and the long term. 

We want to be a part of building the awareness of B Corp certification. Especially being a brand that people, consumers are aware of. We also had an internal debate when deciding how much we would do customer-facing and how much employee-facing. We decided to go forward with both. And it’s really paid off more than we expected.

In terms of employees, we’ve had so many more people come in through our recruiting process and mention one of the reasons why they applied is because of our B Corp certification—because Athleta is mission-driven and has that purpose. In raising awareness among customers, we put the B Corp mark on our windows and our apparel labels and tags. We have in-store posters that explain B Corp and more about our sustainability practices. 

What’s been exciting about the B Corp certification is I truly feel like it is this community of companies. It is unusual for businesses to talk about how they’re doing something—that could be a competitive advantage. But they’re willing to share these practices because it’s truly moving the world in a better place.