To our community,
We are a brand founded on natural human movement with the goal of supporting our customers to move better in outdoor spaces. We are making organizational choices to ensure our support applies to all people. In honor of Black History Month, we want to update you on some of the choices that are helping to make Topo Athletic and the running and outdoor industries more inclusive spaces.
We are proud to partner with 901 Consulting for a second year of Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (JEDI) training for our employees. 901 Consulting was founded and continues to be led by Khalil O. Saddiq, a local Boston Black Consultant, community organizer and runner. Our partnership began in early 2021 with monthly trainings and will continue in an extended format through the rest of 2022. Our work with 901 Consulting is designed to promote and implement anti-racist principles of inclusion and belonging.
In 2021, we made our 2nd annual donation in support of DEI efforts to the Running Industry Diversity Coalition (RIDC). The RIDC unites the running industry to provide resources, measure progress, and hold the industry accountable to equitable employment, leadership, and ownership positions and improve inclusion, visibility, and access for Black, Indigenous, and people of color. In addition to a company donation, we had 85% of our employees opt to make a personal donation, which we met with an additional employer match.
We continue our partnership with Camber Outdoors, a nonprofit organization that equips partner organizations in the outdoor recreation industry to implement best practices in Workplace DEI. We’re dedicated to In Solidarity’s The Pledge, which is focused on enhancing representation across staff and executive teams, media and marketing, and athletes/ambassadors.
We remain dedicated to learning and growing as a company and as a team. Internally, we have reviewed and revised several of our internal policies regarding recruiting, hiring, and marketing to take steps to promote inclusivity in our standard policies. We will stay committed to doing the necessary work to help transform our industries and to make running and outdoor pursuits more accessible and inclusive for all.
In solidarity,
The Topo Athletic Team