Looking for sustainable and ethical clothing for men? The topic of sustainable fashion centers around women’s clothing the majority of the time; however, some really great ethical brands are making sustainable men’s clothing, and we’re going to share our favorites with you in this post!
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliated; we may earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. We only feature brands that align with our values and contribute to a better world. Thank you for supporting these brands – and us! Cover Image: Pact
What is sustainable fashion for men?
Sustainable fashion is the umbrella term for all the other conscious terms you hear buzzing around like ethical fashion, slow fashion, eco-friendly fashion, slow fashion, etc. Typically, for a garment to be considered ‘sustainable,’ it should be eco-friendly, ethically made, lasting, and accessible. Of course, we could add more characteristics to this garment, but these are key for when we look at a future purchase. There is a simple checklist to find at the end of this post here, and in this post, you can learn much more about sustainable fashion and how you can participate in the movement.
Why should you support men’s sustainable clothing brands?
Did you know humans are now consuming 400% more clothing compared to 20 years ago? & that the average American generates 82 pounds of textile waste every single year? We are buying more clothes than ever, but we’re wearing them a lot less. We can mainly explain this by the explosive growth fast fashion has known in the past two decades. But this over-consumption of cheaply-made clothes is leading to the huge growth of textile waste, pollution, and the depletion of natural resources. It is raising social issues that we can no longer ignore, such as human rights violations.
The best thing we can do, as consumers, is to stop supporting this industry. We should avoid fast fashion brands and start supporting sustainable clothing brands, loving what we have, or purchasing secondhand.
Why is sustainable fashion more expensive?
Because people are finally being treated their worth and paid a fair wage! Fashion, in general, isn’t cheap, but we’ve been conditioned to believe it can be. Creating clothing takes many hours, especially when using conscious, quality fabrics. Fast fashion is how we continuously support poverty worldwide, and the entire concept is unsustainable and damaging our planet. Read more about its effect on the environment here.
Are there enough sustainable brands for men to choose from?
Ten years ago, when this blog started, we would not have been able to tell you there are. However, things have certainly changed today, and you have many more options. Several sustainable brands offer affordable tees, jeans, and lots of really nice button-downs. Furthermore, you can find many different styles and great basics to fill their closet. To simplify your shopping experience, we’ve included the starting price of a t-shirt and a pair of pants from each brand to make budgeting and shopping even easier.
Our top brands for sustainable men’s clothing:
1. Pact
Great For: Everyday Basics, Comfort
T-Shirt Price: $30+
Pant Price: $48+
Everything made at Pact uses organic cotton and is certified by the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS). Additionally, Pact’s products are made in Fair Trade certified factories that provide safe working conditions and support local communities. Even better, with all of their products priced under $100, you won’t have to break the bank to invest in some new organic cotton pieces.
2. Made Trade
Great For: Everyday Basics, Comfort
T-Shirt Price: $45+
Pant Price: $64+
Made Trade is home to hundreds of sustainable brands, and they have a great collection of clothes and accessories for men. Notably, they ensure each product covers one (or more) of these values—Sustainable, Fair Trade, Heritage, USA Made, and Vegan. Ultimately, they believe we can make the world a more beautiful place by holding ourselves to a higher ethical standard.
3. Organic Basics
Great For: Activewear, Everyday Basics
T-Shirt Price: $39+
If you are looking to buy basics by the packs, this is an excellent brand to go to. Besides their comfortable underwear, Organic Basics is home to basic crew necks, socks, and a really great activewear line made with Polygiene® Stay Fresh technology which helps keeps the laundry loads to a minimum. Committed to transparency, you can check out their yearly impact report.
4. tentree
Great For: Everyday Basics, Outdoor
T-Shirt Price: $20+
Pant Price: $88+
A nice sustainable brand for the laid-back lifestyle, Tentree uses fabrics like organic cotton, recycled polyester, and Tencel. Moreover, they are known for planting lots of trees with their sales. In fact, their vision is to plant 1 billion trees by 2030 to help drastically reduce climate change. So far, they have planted over 30 million trees and restored land in over eight countries!
5. Coyuchi
Great For: Pajamas
T-shirt Price: $38
Pant Price: $78
Coyuchi is one of our favorite brands for all things bed and bath. Specifically, these flannel pajamas are made with 100% organic heathered cotton yarns, where the color is spun into the yarn for the most natural and nuanced shading possible. All their cotton is grown in India, Tanzania, and Uganda and then woven ethically in Portugal.
6. PAKA
Great For: Outdoor, Everyday Basics
T-Shirt Price: $55
Pant Price: $145
Founded in Peru, PAKA has created a natural, sustainable clothing line for those who love the outdoors.
More importantly, they believe that using eco-friendly materials, like their super-soft Royal Alpaca, can connect consumers more to nature while sustainably supporting small communities. Additionally, their products are fully traceable from the fiber source, with each item featuring a QR code that shows the consumer the farm where the fiber was harvested.
Even better, the dyes are environmentally friendly (OEKO-TEX & GOTS certified), and the packaging is biodegradable. We especially love that PAKA is a certified B-Corp that works hard to create a better, more sustainable future for the fashion industry!
7. Toad&Co.
Great For: Everyday, Basics, Activewear
T-Shirt Price: $45
Pant Price: $85
From basic t-shirts to jackets to underwear, Toad & Co designs all kinds of sustainably made clothes for men, featuring classic styles you will not get tired of. The brand produces all its clothing using eco-friendly materials. It has many great pieces made from hemp, TENCEL Lyocell, organic cotton, and different recycled fabrics.
8. Outerknown
Great For: Everyday Basics, Outdoor, Activewear
T-Shirt Price: $38+
Pant Price: $98+
Outerknown was the first brand to be certified by the Fair Labor Association without ever shipping a product and being the very first brand to launch swimwear made out of ECONYL. Even their buttons are made from recycled ocean plastic. This is a great place to shop for flannels with their popular ‘blanket shirt’.
9. Happy Earth
Great For: Basics & Accessories
T-Shirt Price: $25
Pant Price: $68
Happy Earth is a fashion brand built around protecting the planet. With every product you purchase, they give back to create positive change like combating climate change, planting trees, or cleaning up trash – and you get to choose which one!
10. Harvest & Mill
Great For: Basics, Loungewear
T-Shirt Price: $48
Pant Price: $72
If you want to live in comfy casual clothes you can feel good about, look no further than Harvest & Mill. Not only is their casual wear made in the USA from organically grown cotton, but they are also milled, designed, and sewn here. Part of their passion is supporting American organic cotton farmers. Most of their clothing comes in neutral colors, making it easy to mix and match.
11. Honest Basics
Great For: Everyday Basics
T-Shirt Price: $17
Pant Price: $39
Honest Basics is on a mission to make sustainable fashion more accessible – and we love that! This means they will keep their prices low while maintaining quality pieces to add to your everyday wardrobe.
12. Kampos
Great For: Everyday Basics, Swimsuits
Shirt Price: $141
Pants Price: $162
This brand is well known for its swimwear, but they also have a collection of ready-to-wear men’s clothing that includes t-shirts, polos, sweatshirts, pants, and shorts. KAMPOS uses recycled packaging that is also 100% recyclable and FSC-certified. The brand is a certified B Corporation, and in 2022, it was named Best for the World™ in the Environment and Community categories.
13. Unspun
Great For: Denim
Pants Price: $200+
Unspun creates custom-fit jeans and denim shorts for men who want a perfectly-fitting pair of jeans that is also sustainably made. From waist to stitch, you choose your fit and customize the details, and then, the brand crafts it according to your body shape and measurements. Since the jeans are made-to-order, they are very comfy and flattering, and you are more likely to love and wear them for a long time!
14. Passion Lilie
Great For: Button-Down Shirts
Button-Down Shirt Price: $45+
Passion Lilie is a fair trade brand based in New Orleans. Their collection of button-down shirts are made out of handwoven ikat fabric using 100% GOTS certified organic cotton. They’re ethically handmade in small batches in India by producers and artisans dedicated to preserving heritage techniques. I love the patterns on these shirts—they’re unique enough to stand out, but classic enough to be able to wear to work, to a wedding, etc. Although they’re designed with a classic memn’s style, these button-downs can be worn by folks of any gender.
15. Everlane
Everlane presents a diverse selection of men’s clothing that emphasizes transparency and sustainability. The brand is committed to ethical manufacturing practices, utilizing lower-impact materials and crafting timeless designs that promote mindful consumption. With offerings ranging from organic cotton basics to recycled outerwear, Everlane seamlessly blends style with sustainability, making it easier for customers to cultivate a responsible and enduring wardrobe.
Thanks a lot. This is such a wonderful sharing!
Can not wait to shop these from here on out! Booomarked so many! Keep up the articles like this 🙂
Kotn actually has a pretty low BCorp rating and scores a 4.9 on Ethicli’s browser extension. I wouldn’t think this was a sustainable brand based on the other reputable scores I’ve seen. Thank you for the rest of this list!
Hey! I’m actually in the process of removing them from my website. A few weeks ago, I did some more digging on them and wasn’t as impressed as I was a few years back. I loved their mission, but their fabrics are still not great. When I first learned about them, they came off much more eco-friendly, but looking at them again a few years down the road, & I’m not impressed. I’ve taken several brands off my website this last year – for greenwashing, bad fabrics, racism, etc. Just another disappointment of what could have been better!
<3 Thanks for the comment
This is such a nice blog post and will be my go to for shopping. Thank you for putting it together!
Another update to consider is which companies oppose bills banning goods produced by forced labor. Patagonia, unfortunately, is among them, according to a recent report.
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/12/1/headlines/major_us_corporations_oppose_bill_banning_goods_produced_by_forced_labor_in_china
Is there a reason you didn’t mention Nudie Jeans?
I have them mentioned over on my denim post:
https://www.sustainably-chic.com/blog/sustainable-denim-eco-friendly-jeans
Love this list! I recommend adding Eco-Stylist – it’s a marketplace for sustainable men’s clothes with 40+ brands (and you have some brands in common). https://www.eco-stylist.com/
Me and my wife’s personal favorites are Patagonia, The Classic T-shirt Company, and https://coalatree.com/collections/men when it comes to sustainable mens clothing. The latter really gives me my outdoor clothing and adventure needs. I really believe that supporting Sustainable brands will help our environmental future. We could really make a difference when we support them!
Wow! Many of them are new to me and I am very impressed after seeing so many choices, really I am interested in branded shirts for men and I usually surf on the internet to find some more good collections for my wardrobe. After going through this article now I feel that the missing fashion in my life is now fulfilled. Thank You so much, my dear friend.
This is an amazing list of mens clothing designer brands and I would definitely add some of these brands to my wardrobe. Thanks for these recommendations.
I appreciate this excellent article, and I would add phloxe.io, the new search engine for discovering sustainable businesses.