SÜK Revisited

Brand Faces Backlash for So Many Things

Following the recent uptake of an article published in the Meddler in 2023, further revelations have surfaced about the ‘ethical’ fashion brand, SÜK Workwear. The original article raised questions over the ethics of a “responsible and inclusive” business which has links to live animal exports to Israel through SÜK’s co-founding director Alan Schmidt’s Otway Livestock Exports company (‘Otway’). In 2020, Schmidt was found by the Supreme Court of Victoria Court of Appeal to have breached his duties as a director of Otway, and ordered to pay a sum of around $3.6m to two former partners following his misappropriation of contacts from a joint business. These contacts involved Israel’s two largest importers Bakar Tnuva Limited Partnership and Dabach Slaughterhouse Ltd, both of whom have made headlines in Australia for their abusive abattoir practices. The original Supreme Court decision was decided on 2 April 2019, the same date that Schmidt ceased his position in SÜK as a director. In 2021, external administrators were appointed to Otway Livestock Exports.

In response to the recent media furore, SÜK creative director Mimosa Schmidt posted a statement which temporarily appeared on SÜK’s official Instagram page. Her comment appeared to diminish the links between SÜK and the live animal exports company, of which she was a director between 2008 and 2015. SÜK, who state explicitly on their website that they operate “on the stolen lands of the Wurundjeri people’’ responded to questions over their links to Zionism with a desire for “peace”, referring to the stolen lands of the Palestinian people simply as “those areas”. The creative director, whose “all femme” marketing campaigns often front diverse gender and ethnic identities and body sizes, stopped short of criticising Israel due to being “unaccustomed to weighing in on political issues.”

Mimosa and her mother, Rachael, also run another company called ‘Mimra Holdings Pty Ltd’. It is unclear what function Mimra serves, however it is the sole shareholder in a company called ‘Ethical Textile Manufacturing Co’. This company, starting in mid-2019, shortly after SÜK did, was originally under the directorship of Mimosa and Rachael, however in 2022, Mimosa’s brother, Rudolf Schmidt, became its sole director. At the time of SÜK’s statement being published, Rudolf was noticed to have been quietly unfollowing accounts on his personal TikTok, including “Israel.4.eva.1948”.

Many commenters on social media have thus far been unimpressed with SÜK’s response to the connections to the live animal export industry and providing business to the Israeli state. One former worker has now come out with allegations of worker mistreatment, and a former SÜK model and social media producer was “deeply disappointed” by the lack of response from the company.

SÜK’s brand depends upon their reputation as responsible, worker friendly and ethical. The latest revelations cast further doubt upon their commitment to these values.

New customers to SÜK are unfortunately too late to purchase items from their militaresque ‘Camo Collector’s Edition’, but the Cowhide and Oxblood are still available for the morbid shopper.

By Edwina Snagge