Every year, millions of Australian merino lambs are mutilated for their wool. Mulesing is an extremely painful procedure where large folds of skin around the lamb’s buttocks are cut off with inadequate pain relief. 

With pain-free alternatives available and over 3,000 Australian woolgrowers going mulesing-free, it’s clear that Australia could leave these inhumane methods in the past. But unless the fashion industry demands it, change can be slow. 

Our recent report, Sweating the Details, investigated the use of wool by the ten largest sportswear brands and found that despite being the market leader, NIKE are lagging behind major competitors like Puma and Adidas, who unlike them are making plans to switch to certified mulesing-free wool.  

We need NIKE to step up and make the commitment to phase out mulesed-wool, so that they can send a signal to wool growers that mulesing must stop.  

Incredibly, there have now been over 50,000 emails sent to NIKE from supporters around the world since we first told you about their inaction. This is no mean feat, and we are hopeful it will encourage NIKE to finally bring about change in their animal welfare policy   

We will keep working hard to show the public support for NIKE to phase out mulesed-wool once and for all, but in the meantime, you can find out which brands are already against mulesing here, so that you can make an informed choice in your future purchases.