Who owns Carhartt WIP?
Carhartt WIP is made and sold by WIP Trading (Switzerland) under licence; WIP Trading does not own the name.[1] The Carhartt WIP name is owned by Carhartt.
Evidence: Imprint, Work in Progress Textilhandels GmbH. Last checked .
Key facts
- Licensed to
- WIP Trading AG reported
- Headquarters
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland, Weil am Rhein
- Origin
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- Founded
- 1989
- Category
- Apparel, footwear & accessories › Fashion apparel › Casual & denim
- Last verified
- · 1 sources
About Carhartt WIP
Carhartt Work In Progress designs and sells its own streetwear collections in Europe under licence from the American Carhartt, which owns the name. The two share a logo and nothing else operationally, which surprises most of their customers and is why the same brand feels different on each continent.
Ownership timeline of Carhartt WIP
Where Carhartt WIP sits in WIP Trading
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Other brands in casual & denim, and who owns them
The 134 brands in casual & denim on Brandtree belong to 60 owners. The largest is Azzas 2154, with 8.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| Fábula | Azzas 2154 | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
| Carter's | Carter's | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Duck Head | Oxford Industries | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Cortefiel | Tendam | 🇪🇸 Spain |
| & Other Stories | H&M Group | 🇸🇪 Sweden |
| Bershka | Inditex | 🇪🇸 Spain |
| GU | Fast Retailing | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| BSX | Giordano | 🇭🇰 Hong Kong |
About the owner: WIP Trading
WIP Trading is a privately held company headquartered in Weil am Rhein, Switzerland, founded in 1989.
WIP Trading is the European company that has licensed the Carhartt name since 1989 and designs its own collections under it. It is separate from the American Carhartt, which owns the trademark, so the workwear sold in Detroit and the streetwear sold in Berlin come from two different businesses.
🇩🇪 Carhartt WIP and other German brands
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 265 brands that began in Germany. 96 of them (36%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country, Carhartt WIP among them.
- A. Lange & Söhne — Richemont 🇨🇭
- Adidas — Adidas 🇩🇪
- BOSS — Hugo Boss 🇩🇪
- Birkenstock — Birkenstock 🇩🇪
- Braun Büffel — Bonia Corporation 🇲🇾
- Fielmann — Fielmann Group 🇩🇪
Frequently asked questions
Who makes Carhartt WIP?
WIP Trading makes and sells Carhartt WIP under a licensing agreement.
Does WIP Trading own Carhartt WIP?
No. WIP Trading holds a licence to make and sell Carhartt WIP, which is not the same as owning it. The name belongs to Carhartt.
Who owns the Carhartt WIP name?
Carhartt owns the Carhartt WIP trademark. WIP Trading pays to use it.
Where did Carhartt WIP come from?
Carhartt WIP originated in Germany in 1989.
Sources (1) & corrections
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
- [1] Imprint — Work in Progress Textilhandels GmbH, Official document; retrieved 28 September 2026.
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