As employees at the factory that makes Kate Hudson’s activewear line allege rampant sexual abuse, a workers’-rights movement takes hold
EMPLOYEES AT A GARMENT FACTORY IN LESOTHO, A TINY country in southern Africa, say they have lived in fear for years. Each day at 7 a.m., as their sewing machines whirred, a familiar panic rose in many of them: it’s not safe here.
At least 38 current workers say abuse and harassment took place within the walls of Hippo Knitting, a Taiwanese company located in Lesotho’s capital, Maseru, an investigation by TIME and the Fuller Project found. All employees interviewed asked to remain anonymous out of safety concerns and fear of losing their jobs.
The factory, which employs 1,000 garment workers, about 90% of whom are women, predominantly supplies one brand: Fabletics, a popular U.S. athletic-apparel line co-founded by actor Kate Hudson.
Thirteen women interviewed say their underwear and vulvas were often exposed during routine daily searches by supervisors. Another woman says a male supervisor tried to pressure her into a sexual relationship, while three women allege male supervisors sexually assaulted them. Several of those workers added that they were often humiliated and verbally abused by management. Workers say they were forced to crawl on the floor by one supervisor as a punishment. In one instance, a woman says she urinated on herself because the same supervisor prevented her from accessing the bathroom.
After TIME and the Fuller Project reached out to Fabletics on April 29 for comment on the alleged abuse at Hippo Knitting, the brand vowed to do “everything in [their] power to further remedy the situation,” according to a spokesperson. The brand immediately suspended operations with Hippo Knitting and sent a “senior leader” to Lesotho to investigate.
“The top priority for Fabletics is the workers who are impacted, and we are committed to providing their full pay during the course of the investigation,” the spokesperson wrote in an email sent May 2. Workers and unions in Lesotho confirmed that production at Hippo Knitting stopped on May
