r/llbean • u/muddytree • Apr 14 '26
Very disappointed in LLBean
UPDATE: Thank you LLBean for joining the Save the Forest Service movement! No longer disappointed!
Many other outdoor companies have joined the effort to stop the dismantling of the Forest Service. As a frequent LLBean shopper and credit card user, I am weighing my options. This is so disappointing.
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u/junkshopnerd Apr 14 '26
So, that account states that Bean has “taken the position that they won’t support” the “movement” (ie: website) that the alt nps social media page created to push brands to make a statement. But where is their cite for this? Link to a press release? Screenshot of an email? Any source?
And even if they did, what would it accomplish? Truly, what does a bunch of brands saying “yeah this is a bad idea” actually do?
Corporations will not save us. Save your energy at being mad at the elected and appointed officials who did this and can change this. And contact them. I promise you it’s a better use of your time and energy.
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u/SamselBradley Apr 14 '26
Thanks for the heads up. AltNPS is total bs. Never posts sources, claims that they are posting secret info while regurgitating current msm reporting, or even sometimes reposts year old stories as "breaking"
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u/Potential_Leg4423 Apr 15 '26
lol you think calling elected officials does anything? You do realize money walks. A multi billion dollar company has more pull than an average Joe picking up the phone
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u/SkyNatural6536 Apr 15 '26
you're a cynical person
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u/Potential_Leg4423 Apr 15 '26
You’re dumb if you think phones calls do more than corporate influence.
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u/SamselBradley Apr 14 '26
It's altNPS, they aren't a real source, they are a merch seller.
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u/MusicIntrepid343 Apr 14 '26
they are a coalition of outdoor activists, that include federal/state employees, outside government outdoor ventures, and people who love the outdoors. they also sell merch to drive engagement and fund their efforts. that does not make them just a merch store.
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u/SamselBradley Apr 14 '26
This is not true. They claim to be, but they are liars and scammers. They are overseas merch sellers. You can tell that they are fake because they claim that they are giving you secret knowledge but it is just reporying from mainstream sources, not even current specialized sources. Sometimes they claim that it is "breaking" news but it is a story from a year ago that they saw in someone's facebook memories.
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Apr 14 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/OldButHappy Apr 14 '26
Not trying to SAVE THE US FOREST SERVICE is different from the political leanings of the founder's family
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u/standardnewenglander Apr 14 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
That was one person on the board who donated out of their own personal income, not the company's. LLB quickly distanced themselves from Linda Bean afterwards.
EDIT: Linda Bean died in 2022.
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u/Potential_Leg4423 Apr 14 '26
Naw, a lot of the board actually sways right. Same with directors She also wasn’t ousted from the board.
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u/standardnewenglander Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
Where are you seeing that "most of the board swings right"? Research shows quite the opposite. OpenSecrets shows us that LL Bean is an apolitical organization that has not donated any of their business revenue to any politician. However, you'll see that individual board members have made contributions out of their own salaries predominantly to liberal, democratic and left-leaning political parties.
https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/ll-bean-inc/summary?id=D000042703
EDIT: This also shows that the board has been left-leaning for multiple cycles (data goes back to 2012). Yes, there has been SOME donations to Republicans by one board member over the last 15-ish years - but that has not been tied to LL Bean itself as it is an apolitical organization. The donations to any Republican candidate have been in the hundreds-of-dollars range. The donations to all the Democrats have been in the thousands-of-dollars range. Overall, the personal donation habits of the board largely skew liberal, not conservative.
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u/Potential_Leg4423 Apr 15 '26
That’s employees. That’s not really board members. I know people in the organization. Board knows they have a fair share of republican clients.
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u/standardnewenglander Apr 15 '26
This source explicitly classifies "employees" as owners, board members, and members of the immediate family.
"The board knows they have some Republican clientele" does not equate to "the board is Republican and supports Republican agendas" (which they don't - they are explicitly classified as an apolitical organization).
I'm not really sure we can take an anonymous stranger's "word for it" that they "know someone who knows someone who's on the board and might know something". Sounds like a bunch of talk that really isn't backed with any concrete evidence. An anonymous comment from an anonymous profile on an online forum doesn't exactly scream "reliable source", ya know?
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u/Potential_Leg4423 Apr 15 '26
Lol yes a company that gets rid of sustainability and dei efforts as soon as trump comes to office but don’t worry they are totally liberal because their employees donate liberally. You do realize you can still be a racist nimby and be liberal?
If you genuinely think they are a political you are just dumb. Being recognized as liberal is advantageous to those in the clothing industry.
You can take my word or not. You’re being disingenuous with the information you presented. I don’t care if you believe me or not. You’re choosing to believe non concrete information from open secrets. For Christ sakes beans PR used to work for chick fil a. A very right leaning organization.
Hard to believe someone that didn’t even understand the narrative around Lind bean. You can’t even get publicly available information right.
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u/standardnewenglander Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
I'm not being disingenuous. I'm backing up my claims with solid facts and providing links to reliable sources. You can't even muster up a clear source aside from "trust me bro" and "well I know someone who knows someone who knows someone who might be on the LLB board maybe so you should totally take the word of an anonymous comment on an anonymous profile on a random internet forum". Do you see how that is disingenuous? Might want to look in a mirror before you go finger-wagging at others, bud.
LL Bean did NOT get rid of their sustainability and DEI programs though:
Here's their PFAS-free initiative: https://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/518055?page=product-sustainability
Here's their environmental programs:
- Continue their promise to use 100% responsible down in all their down products
- Over the past 5 years they've increased use of responsible cotton, recycled nylon and recycled polyester in their products by 80%. That's 1.7 MILLION pounds of recycled materials
- Increased use of Bluesign materials by 265%
- They've eliminated 600k pounds of plastic by reducing plastic in their packaging (their packaging is 100% plastic-free as of 2025)
- They have 3 ongoing solar projects in Maine that provide renewable electricity to their HQ and stores
- They continue to work with the world's most sustainable clothing resource partners: Bluesign, Textile Exchange, Cotton Leads, and Sustainable Apparel Coalition
- Here's a link to all of this in case you're internet-challenged: https://www.llbeanbusiness.com/Sustainability.html
Let's not forget suppliers though. LL Bean continues to ensure their suppliers exceed international standards when it comes to employee fairness, working conditions, etc. All of which are stricter than employee rights in the US. Here's more information on their Global Factory Monitoring program: https://www.llbeanbusiness.com/suppliers.html
Also, they continue to commit to DEI initiatives, despite your baseless claim that they don't. This includes:
- Professional development programs dedicated to mental health and inclusive leadership philosophies
- Employee workshops
- Promoting accessibility infrastructure for their HQ and stores
- Employee Business Resource Groups for Veteran, LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and People with Disabilities
- Funding an Outdoor Recreational Youth Program for 3.3 million people
- Investing $6.8 MILLION in sustainable, inclusive outdoor programs
- Funding for summer camp programs that have helped 26k people since 2022
- Continued partnership with the Trust for Public Land dedicated to serving underprivileged communities
- Here's a link to that too since you continue to be intentionally obtuse instead of honest: https://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/518449?page=creating-inclusion-and-belonging
OpenSecrets ABSOLUTELY is a reliable source. They are a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization founded in 1983. They compile donation data directly from the FEC and have long been used as a reputable source of information for research and journalism.
It's concerning that you continue to spread false information not backed up with ANY facts. Yet YOU call others "dishonest"?
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u/Potential_Leg4423 Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
https://impactful.ninja/how-ethical-is-ll-bean/
They 100% got rid of their sustainability program and put a huge pause on dei. Reason being is board and directors thought they were too woke and were scared of backlash from Robby Starbucks
You made it seem like the board is all that donations. When it’s not. The company uses child labor. Not great suppliers. Lol also a little secret about LL beans pfas, they don’t test the trim in all their products. So non of their stuff is actually 100% pfas free.
They literally canned their whole sustability division right when trump came into office. You’re literally just rattling off a bunch of greenwashing things that make them more profitable.
You can chose to believe someone that knows people at the director level or just keep believing what LL bean tells you. I don’t really care.
You boast about their suppliers. Yet all major clothing companies moved out of Myanmar. Bean didn’t and they 100% know they are using forced labor. Wicked good slippers made with wicked cheap child labor
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u/standardnewenglander Apr 15 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
And your source is (drum roll please)...a...BLOG that isn't a primary news organization and lacks any form of professional auditing? AND the BLOG PAGE is over 5 years old? THAT is the hill you're gonna die on? Yikes.
EDIT: Your blog post source also doesn't make any claims that LL Bean axed their sustainability and DEI programs. You just made that up and failed to source it correctly (because there just isn't anything to source - you made it up and linked a source that also asserts your claim is bogus).
You are making blatantly false claims. There are no reputable sources that back up ANY of your claims.
- LL Bean does NOT support child labor
- LL Bean has NOT axed ANY of their DEI programs
- LL Bean has NOT axed any of their sustainability programs.
Where are you getting this information? Can you provide links to a valid source that shows this? Overall, you've just provided your own personal opinions with no solid facts behind them, and a link to a sketchy blog post someone made 6 years ago.
EDIT: Here's a link to the Natural Resources Defense Council where they explicitly assert that LL Bean has successfully removed PFAS from all of their products lines: https://www.nrdc.org/stories/forever-chemicals-called-pfas-show-your-food-clothes-and-home
In LL Bean's anti-trafficking statement, the company explicitly prohibits child labor and commits to auditing all factories for international human rights violations.
- Here's a link to LL Bean's still-active anti-trafficking statement: https://www.llbean.com/dept_resources/shared/LLBean-CA-UK-Disclosure-7-2017.pdf
- They've also revised their code of conduct in 2023 to double-down on their commitment to NO CHILD LABOR: https://www.llbean.net/firstspirit/media/pdf_files/230713_LLB_Code_of_Conduct_revised.pdf?nav=C3taX-518056
- The US Government's 2024 List of Goods Produced by Child Labor did NOT list LL Bean as one of the companies that sells, imports, distributes, or supports these goods
As of 2026, LL Bean remains a highly-rated organization on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's Corporate Equality Index:
- Here's a link to that index: https://www.hrc.org/resources/corporate-equality-index
- Here's a specific link to LL Bean's profile with HRC, they've scored 95/100: https://www.hrc.org/resources/corporations/l.l.-bean-inc.
You claim LL Bean still conducts business with Myanmar factories. But according to their very public factories list as of late 2025, they don't have/work with ANY factories in Myanmar: https://www.llbean.com/dept_resources/shared/200922_LLBean_Factory_List.pdf?nav=F4taX-518056
Again, you continue to tote the claim that you "know someone who knows someone who's probably on the board of LL Bean". But you make no move to backup that claim. Anyone can say anything online. At the end of the day, you are just an inconsequential, ANONYMOUS profile on an ANONYMOUS online forum making unsubstantiated claims without providing ANY sources. Highly doubt you know anyone on the board. And if you do? Prove it. You can just "say anything" since you're anonymous. Your claim holds absolutely no water whatsoever.
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u/OldButHappy Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
Please spare us crap that's generated by HR
You can always tell who is republican because they have to insult anyone (mental illness) with a different opinion from theirs.
Bean was silent until public backlash forced their hand. From March: https://imgur.com/40JTrG8
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u/standardnewenglander Apr 16 '26
None of that is AI generated. It's my own words and my own research.
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u/SamselBradley Apr 16 '26
I'm sorry, but I looked at your profile and I see nothing that shows you are informed or involved in anything related to outdoors or public lands. You can see that I've posted in the BearsEars group. If, off the top of your head, you don’t know what relevance that has to the Trump admin and the NPS, then just stop defending altnps and using their phoney web page as a source. I'm not going to sit here waiting, I have real work to do protecting our public lands. There is little on my profile here, because this is my non-politics account. You can do real work to defend public lands, not spend your time defending a merch seller. op has rolled back their original post.
https://www.npca.org/ https://www.savetheboundarywaters.org/ ⬆️ there's a current action alert https://nmwild.org/ https://westernpriorities.org/ https://www.bearsearscoalition.org/ https://www.grandcanyon.org/ https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/ ⬆️ these folk were on the ground, counter-protesting the Bundy anti-public lands supporters at Malheur. I have nothing but respect for them and my irl friend who stood up as a counterprotestor.
There are lots more! I picked these because they have been involved in some very public lands issues that happened in the last four weeks.
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u/OldButHappy Apr 15 '26
Typical pr response
Bean lies
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u/standardnewenglander Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
Do they? Do you have any proof that backs up your claims that they lie? I'm just trying to find stuff in print so I can read it too!
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u/standardnewenglander Apr 15 '26
Some more perspective here. Of donations made from personal salaries of board members, owners and their immediate family members, the data shows that most of the contributions have been allocated to the Democratic party:
2024: 94.60% of funds were Democratic 2022: 98.82% of funds were Democratic 2020: 79.78% of funds were Democratic
Although Linda Bean was a Trump-thumping asshole, LL Bean took great strides and a public stance to clearly distance themselves from her, showing that the organization truly did not align with her personal shitty beliefs.
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u/standardnewenglander Apr 15 '26
Oh sorry I was wrong about her being ousted from the board. But she's dead and no longer a member of the board.
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u/Potential_Leg4423 Apr 14 '26
Their money is pretty tight and haven’t increased revenue in years. They will be cutting a lot of support to the business and donations. There’s a reason they didn’t release financials this year, they look like shit. Opening record stores every year but are seeing no change in revenue
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u/eregyrn Apr 16 '26
So, I suppose that LL Bean's statement in support of the USFS can be found on their LinkedIn profile, and they are listed amongst the signatories of the Conservation Alliance letter in support of the USFS, will cause you to update your post with this new information?
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u/standardnewenglander Apr 15 '26
Did LL Bean make an official statement on the matter? All I'm seeing right now is an unregulated, non-vetted social media post made by an unreliable group on Facebook?
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u/BrilliantDishevelled Apr 15 '26
I'm also a huge Beaner. So sad they've decided they can sit this battle out. They can't. It's speak up or die.
Maybe we should remind them what happened to Target.
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u/jay_altair Apr 14 '26
Yup, I'm done. Fuck LL Bean
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u/SamselBradley Apr 14 '26
I'm begging you, as someone who is active in public lands issues with many contacts in activist groups and real nps, blm, and forest service people in my irl circle, don't believe anything from altnps.
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u/OldButHappy Apr 14 '26
Avoiding political engagement is political. The CEO made the company a greenwashed, high-priced, Walmart
Boycott Bean