Bared Footwear’s 2026 Modern Slavery Statement

This article was contributed by Bared Footwear.

We’re making sure the people who make our shoes receive a living wage

Our 2026 Voluntary Modern Slavery Statement is published, and it marks a milestone we’ve been working towards for years: 100% of workers across our Tier 1 factories, approximately 812 people, have been assessed against a regional living wage benchmark. For context, the Baptist World Aid 2024 Ethical Fashion Report found only one in 60 fashion companies could confirm paying a living wage at their final-stage factories.

The new voluntary statement, prepared under the Australian Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth), also confirms our first independent audits of Tier 2 suppliers, booked for July 2026, and our fifth consecutive year of B Corp certification. We publish this statement voluntarily. Bared sits below the Act’s mandatory reporting threshold, but we report because we believe transparency should be standard practice, whatever a company’s size.

What’s in Bared Footwear’s FY26 Modern Slavery Statement?

The result we’re proudest of is full coverage of our Living Wage Audit Program. Every worker at our Tier 1 footwear and sock factories was assessed quarterly against the Anker Methodology living wage benchmark for their region. For our primary manufacturing base in Dongguan, China, that benchmark is RMB 3,785 per month (Anker Research Institute, November 2024). Our coverage has grown from 87.5% of Tier 1 workers in FY24 to 100% in FY26.

We want to be candid about what this means. Assessment gives us a complete, verified baseline. Closing any gaps between actual wages and the benchmark is longer-term work, and where audits find workers earning below it, we sit down with factory management to understand the gap and build a pathway to close it.

Alongside the living wage program, in FY26 we:

• Independently audited all Tier 1 suppliers through Intertek’s Workplace Conditions Assessment (WCA) program. All of our current suppliers score 91% or above, and we introduced WCA-HR audits, a human-rights-focused variant covering freedom of association, worker voice and grievance mechanisms.
• Booked our first Tier 2 audits for July 2026. All four of our primary Tier 2 suppliers, covering outsoles, biomechanical footbeds, leather and packaging, will be independently audited for the first time. We’ll publish the results in our next statement.
• Hired two supply chain managers on the ground in Dongguan, giving us direct, day-to-day oversight of our main manufacturing region alongside formal audits.
• Strengthened supplier onboarding and offboarding. We onboarded three new suppliers against firm ethical labour requirements, and offboarded two factories after a six-month structured support period where our standards were not met.
• Recertified as a B Corp, marking five years of certification with a 127.5-point score improvement.

Does Bared Footwear pay a living wage?

We’ve committed to working towards a living wage for every worker in our Tier 1 supply chain, and to extending that commitment into Tier 2. The 2026 audit means every Tier 1 worker has now been assessed against the Anker benchmark, which gives us a complete baseline to track wage adequacy year on year. For any new supplier, a commitment to a living wage pathway is a condition of working with us.

From 2027, we’re moving from quarterly assessments to monthly wage-specific PayCheck audits across all Tier 1 suppliers, tracking actual wage movements month by month, with a structured review of the approach due at the end of 2026.

Where are Bared shoes made?

We design our footwear in Melbourne. Most of our women’s styles are manufactured in Dongguan, China, with men’s styles produced in Portugal and Dongguan, and our biomechanical footbeds made in Dongguan and Vietnam’s Binh Duong Province. Our primary supplier is a family-owned factory that has worked exclusively with Bared for ten years. All of our leather comes from Leather Working Group certified tanneries (90% Gold-rated in FY26), all of our polyester and nylon is certified recycled, and 83% of our materials by volume carry certification.

Why We Voluntarily Publish a Modern Slavery Statement

We report voluntarily because transparency matters. Publishing a Modern Slavery Statement creates accountability for us, for our suppliers and for our leadership team. It requires us to regularly assess risks, review our progress and clearly document where improvements are needed.

Voluntary reporting also reflects our commitment as a Certified B Corporation to operate in a way that benefits people, communities and the planet. For us, modern slavery reporting is not a compliance exercise. It’s a tool that helps guide better decisions as we grow.

Why we keep reporting on our people and who we’re working to protect

Our founder and CEO Anna Baird, a podiatrist who launched Bared in 2008, put it plainly in this year’s statement: “This year, more than any before, I am proud of how much we have learned, and honest about how much further we have to go.”

The apparel and footwear sector remains one of the industries most exposed to modern slavery risk. We publish named auditors, benchmarks and dated results so that anyone can check our claims against evidence, and we’ll keep doing that every year and keep that updated on our Sustainability Tracker profile too.

At the heart of our approach are the people who make our products. Footwear supply chains are complex — the average shoe contains more than 30 components, sourced across multiple tiers and geographies. This complexity increases the risk of labour exploitation, particularly for migrant workers, workers in outsourced or subcontracted facilities and workers in material processing and raw material supply chains.

Our focus is on protecting workers across our supply chain by improving visibility, strengthening standards and working with independent experts to verify conditions.

Everything is a work in progress

At Bared, we’re transparent about the fact that this work is ongoing. Modern slavery risks cannot be eliminated overnight, particularly in complex global supply chains. What we can do and what we’re committed to is continuous improvement, independent verification and honest reporting about where we’re at. Our Modern Slavery Statement helps keep this work visible, measurable and open to our customers as we continue to improve.

Read our 2026 Voluntary Modern Slavery Statement via our Sustainability Tracker profile.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Does Bared Footwear pay a living wage?
We’re committed to working towards a living wage for every worker in our Tier 1 supply chain. In 2026, 100% of our Tier 1 factory workers were assessed against the Anker Methodology living wage benchmark for their region, giving us a complete baseline to close any gaps year on year. A living wage pathway is a condition of onboarding for every new supplier.

What is a living wage audit?
A living wage audit assesses whether the wages workers actually receive are enough to afford a decent standard of living in their region, covering food, housing, healthcare, education, transport and modest savings. We use the Anker Methodology, a peer-reviewed benchmark developed by the Anker Research Institute, and our audits are conducted with independent assurance specialists Intertek.

Where are Bared shoes made?
We design our footwear in Melbourne. Most of our women’s styles are made in Dongguan, China, our men’s styles are made in Portugal and Dongguan, and our biomechanical footbeds are made in Dongguan and Vietnam. Our primary supplier is a family-owned factory that has worked exclusively with Bared for ten years.

Is Bared Footwear a B Corp?
Yes. FY 2026 marks our fifth year of B Corp certification, and our most recent recertification improved our score by 127.5 points.

Does Bared Footwear have to publish a Modern Slavery Statement?
No. Bared sits below the mandatory reporting threshold of the Australian Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth), but we publish a voluntary statement every year because we believe transparency should be standard practice in footwear.

How does Bared Footwear audit its suppliers?
All Tier 1 suppliers are independently audited every year by Intertek under the Workplace Conditions Assessment (WCA) program, and all currently score 91% or above. In July 2026 we’re extending independent audits to our four primary Tier 2 suppliers for the first time, covering outsoles, footbeds, leather and packaging.