Country Road will return to its local roots, the result of a 12 month brand re-alignment.
Country Road MD Elle Roseby said the retailer, which has an extensive sustainability and ethical sourcing program, will now extend this to community-based initiatives.
This means major global sporting partnerships such as the Australian Open, which the retailer has been Official Lifestyle Fashion Partner for, have been revised.
Instead, the retailer has put the focus to driving change, become a presenting partner for the National Indigenous Fashion Awards, part of the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair Foundation.
“We’re moving away from big corporate sponsorships,” Roseby told ragtrader.com.au.
“The last 12 months have been a year of reflection and a driver of change and we’ve asked how we can support local; local farmers, local sporting clubs, Indigenous communities?
“In 2019, we ran cultural awareness training on how to work with indigenous partners with respect and sensitivity.
“Then we met with the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair Foundation and from that conversation, we became presenting partner.”
Roseby revealed the retailer will also be a presenting partner for the Country to Couture runway event in late 2020.
“We’re also about to launch a campaign going into NSW bushfire areas and talking to local heroes and local indigenous communities about their stories,” Roseby said.
This will extend on a localised execution in 2018, when Country Road supported local farmers via its traceable wool collection.
Country Road marketing channels manager Paul Conti said social media is no longer just a “big, global space” to tell these stories.
“After the devastating bushfires earlier this year and I guess the economic impact on COVID19, there’s been a macro shift towards supporting local businesses and local suppliers.
“We’ve seen things like support local stickers online on Instagram and even as a big national retailer, we’ve seen this shift towards our local community stores as we slowly started to reopen.
“We’ve had incredible success for our campaigns supporting local farmers including verified Australian merino and cotton.”
Moving forward, Roseby acknowledged the challenge of operating stores amid varying state restrictions during COVID-19.
“Western Australia and Queensland is different to Victoria for example and it’s a complex process.
“But we absolutely believe in the power of our stores and we are continuing to invest both in our stores and online.
“We have new store openings and new refurbishments planned throughout this year, including Kotara, Canberra and Southland.”
The National Indigenous Fashion Awards will be broadcast digitally on NITV on August 5.