Our local partners are LGBTI advocacy group, Pride in Sport, who last year devised a Pride in Sport Index that benchmarks and measures how major sports are doing in terms of inclusivity. To their credit, the major professional leagues of Australian Rules, round-ball football, rugby league, rugby union and netball have all done so.

Last year, we experienced a reticence to adopt #RainbowLaces from the professional sports. I thought it was due to commercial considerations and SKINS involvement, even though there is absolutely no branding on the laces.

However, this year, I've been in Australia for almost seven weeks and I have a good feel for the context in which the reticence is occurring.

Throughout the period I've been here, SKINS has been involved in many events related to LGBTI prejudice. There was the Mardi Gras Fair Day, the marvellous Mardi Gras Parade, and the launch of #RainbowLaces at a spectacular gala dinner generously hosted by Dentons Lawyers in conjunction with the launch of their own workplace inclusivity programme.

On the one hand, chief executives of iconic Aussie brands, such as Qantas, have called on the Government to settle the issue of marriage equality as it's a distraction. AirBnB has just launched, with other big corporates including Qantas, a marriage equality campaign entitled Until We All Belong.

On the other hand, ultra conservative politicians have told the Government - which holds a majority of one, and of which they are members - that any change would bring the Government to a premature end. The same conservative politicians, one of whom is a Cabinet Minister, have also told the corporate chief executives to get on with running their businesses and butt-out of having a view on social policy.

Seriously.

It goes without saying that I reject the notion that business people should not have or express a view on important issues of social (or other) policy. It is tantamount to saying they or their business should not have values, and that goes against everything we stand for as a brand.

For SKINS, two things differentiate us from our competitors. First, we do have a superior product! Second, and just as importantly, if we were not a values-based performance sportswear brand, we would be just another performance sportswear brand.

And that returns me to the professional sports and #RainbowLaces.

Signing on to the Pride in Sport Index is the easy part. Having values, and really living them, is the next step.

The reluctance - almost inertia - of the professional sporting codes is the very reason we have #RainbowLaces in the first place: very few professional sports, and very few professional sportsmen and women, are comfortable talking about issues of LGBTI prejudice.

Yet we know it exists. Research conducted two years ago leaves us in no doubt.

The fact that some professional sports or clubs opt not to take part in a public show of support for LGBTI athletes, fans and volunteers by wearing #RainbowLaces may have a commercial consideration, but frankly, it is more likely to be cultural.

It makes me more determined to keep banging-on about these issues and supporting the work of Pride in Sport. I believe, SKINS believes, that who you are, what you are, how you identify, should not be an inhibitor to participation in, or enjoyment of, sport

Rainbow ? laces are on. Proud to support LGBTI athletes in this weekends Rainbow Round Of Sport. #RROS #RainbowLaces pic.twitter.com/HobcfPQrqs

— Alex Wilkinson (@alexwilkinson84) April 8, 2017

What is simply awesome about the Rainbow Round is that at least 200,000 people from grassroots and community teams around the country think the same way as we do.

That is how many free pairs of laces were distributed via our partners Medibank, rebel, rebelfit and Amart Sports.

Community sport, the "weekend warriors" around the country, are literally voting with their #RainbowLaces.

Demographics alone tell us that politicians and professional sports alike should take note. Values might not drive what they do, but the bottom-line will eventually.