The online marketplace best known for handmade and small-batch goods will ban the sale of all animal fur, regardless of age or origin, on Aug. 11 as part of its “ongoing biodiversity efforts,” according to an email sent to vendors Thursday.
“This means that items made from or containing the fur of animals killed primarily for their pelts will need to be removed by that date,” the email read. Products such as raw pelts, finished garments and accessories made with fur from animals such as mink, fox and rabbit fall under the ban, it added on its website under “house rules.”
The new policy doesn’t cover taxidermy or byproduct materials such as leather, sheepskin, wool or mohair. Etsy’s existing ban on products from U.S. Endangered Species Act animals, CITES Appendix I species or certain other at-risk animals such as chinchillas, pangolins and crocodilians also remains unchanged.
The move follows a monthslong campaign by the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade, a decentralized collective of grassroots groups. It led dozens of protests against Etsy and its affiliates across 17 cities—including a “high-profile disruption” of a live presentation by CEO Kruti Patel Goyal and CFO Lanny Baker at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in San Francisco on March 3.
“Etsy’s policy sets a new standard for online retailers,” Suzy Stork, executive director of CAFT, said in a statement. “Fur is losing. Designers are dropping it, publications are not promoting it, and now, Etsy, one of the world’s largest e-commerce marketplaces, is banning it. The industry has nowhere left to hide.”
CAFT also claims credit for securing fur-free policies from companies such as Condé Nast, Marc Jacobs, Max Mara and Rick Owens—plus New York Fashion Week. Next up: Milan Fashion Week.
“CAFT’s attention is now fully directed at Milan Fashion Week and LVMH. All designers and affiliates who work with Milan Fashion Week should be paying close attention,” Stork said.
Louis Vuitton’s resistance to the message appears to be eroding. At Paris Fashion Week last month, the luxury house featured a vest made with BioFluff’s Savian, a biodegradable faux fur made without animals or plastic. Stella McCartney, too, is a fan.
But not everyone welcomed Etsy’s upcoming restriction. In a r/EtsyCommunity Reddit thread, one seller pushed back against holding vintage fur to the same moral standard.
“Not being able to give it a second or third or fourth life is what makes it sad,” the person wrote. “The animal is long dead and it’s a way to buy fur that doesn’t support the new fur trade. Almost all of my vintage coats have fur collars and to not be able to sell them because of a collar is a huge detriment to my shop. I am definitely very unhappy about this change and personally I think it’s doing more harm than good.”
Another user questioned if Etsy had the resources to distinguish vintage fur from new even if it wanted an exception.
“There is no way for Etsy to really police whether fur is vintage or not,” Strict_Cut_1206 said. “So, they ban it all.”
