9 Affordable Ethical Clothing Brands That Won’t Break the Bank (or Planet)
Doesn’t it seem like there’s always a trade-off in the trend department?
Often style comes with sacrificed sustainability, and sustainability generally comes at a higher price.
Fortunately, you can get everything you want in a way that’s both budget and eco conscious. Not only is affordable ethical clothing possible, but it’s easier to come by than you think.
As more brands realize eco-conscious clothing isn’t just a fad, but a necessity, they’re finding ways to subtract a few pennies from the price tag without compromising our planet.
Everything we recommend to you on Sustainable Jungle is independently researched and we ask all brands to confirm their claims. To avoid waste, we test products on an as needed basis. This post contains affiliate links. If you buy something through our links, we may earn a small commission. Learn more about why we do this here.
Toad&Co products will last a lifetime, and if not, their “Joy Backed” Guarantee means they’ll replace or repair it for free.
For comfort clothing, MATE the Label has some of the best affordable ethical clothing at prices that won’t break the (ethical) bank.
Affordability aside, be sure to pop down to the end of the article to see how we chose these affordable brands.
Got your piggy bank handy?
You’ll need it after reading on!
QUICK LINKS FOR AFFORDABLE ETHICAL CLOTHING
- Toad&Co | Visit Store
- Boody | Visit Store
- Pact | Visit Store
- tentree | Visit Store
- ABLE | Visit Store
- Kotn | Visit Store
- Kool and Konscious | Visit Store
- MATE the Label | Visit Store
- Organic Basics | Visit Store
1. TOAD&CO
About Toad&Co
Price Range: $-$$
Aside from being in the business of clothes, Toad & Co is also in the business of change.
They’re trying to clean up the dirty apparel industry.
Toad and Co encourages us to make one of two choices: “go sustainable, or go nude.”
Not to knock nudity, we’ll pick the former, thank you. Fortunately, staying sustainably clothed on a budget is easier with their large range of ethical and affordable clothing that doesn’t just look cute, but lends itself to outdoor performance and durability
This sustainable outdoor brand has affordable men’s and women’s shirts, pants, t-shirts, sweaters, sustainable rain jackets, underwear, accessories, skirts, dresses, and more.
Toad&Co’s Ethical and Sustainability Practices
Materials:
For the most sustainable fabrics, look for the green eco icon that indicates garments made from at least 80% sustainable fibers and/or fabrics that are third-party certified for responsible manufacturing!
What exactly are these eco fibers, you might ask?
Commonly, Toad&Co uses organic cotton, hemp, recycled polyester, RWS certified non-mulesed wool, TENCEL lyocell, and Lenzing Modal.
They steer clear of conventional cotton, acrylic, rayon/viscose, bamboo, and silk. You will, however, likely see polyester pop up occasionally or just a tiny bit of elastane in some garments for a little stretch (but both are easy to avoid should you want something with 100% eco materials).
Supply chain & labor practices:
Toad&Co uses fair labor practices and ensures safe working conditions in all of their factories. They uphold a strict Code of Conduct and plan annual visits to their factories to ensure their products are made with integrity.
Some manufacturing occurs in their own California-based factory that trains and employs adults with disabilities through partnership with Planet Access Company.
They’ve also got one of the cheesiest labor practices around. No really, they have an annual Grilled Cheese Smackdown for their employees.
For very obvious reasons, they’ve been voted one of Outside Magazine’s Best Places to Work for the past 11 years.
Green business practices:
This brand has a looooong list of restricted substances, so no bad stuff ends up polluting the planet or your closet. Hence why some products are approved by bluesign® and OEKO-TEX.
They choose factories based largely on green initiatives. Their Turkish factory, for instance, sources their organic cotton locally (to reduce transport footprint) and recently converted to mostly wind and solar energy.
They also use LED bulbs, FSC certified paper, recyclable and recycled packaging, and offset the energy use of their headquarters by purchasing Renewable Energy Certificates.
Toad&Co sends their unsold garments or textile scraps to The Renewal Workshop, where they’re diverted from landfill and transformed into new clothes.
Inclusivity:
Men’s sizes run S-XXL and women from XS-XL. They also use a diverse range of models for their marketing and product listings.
From a price standpoint, they have a pretty extensive sale section for both men and women. Certain garments run on the spendier side, but still within reason.
Besides, they’ll last a lifetime!
They even have a Joy Backed Guarantee: “If you don’t get a compliment within three wearings, and your Toad & Co garment doesn’t bring you joy, we will happily repair or replace it.”
Community & charitable giving:
Not only do more than 70 adults with disabilities get access to good jobs at their California factory but they also occasionally travel together through the Search for Adventure program.
Beyond that, Toad & Co regularly supports other local non-profits. They’re a member of 1% for the Planet, too!
2. BOODY
About Boody
Price Range: $
Thanks to Boody, soft and comfy clothing is easy peasy.
This Australian-American brand wants to put bamboo (and all its natural benefits) all over our boodies.
Since 2016, they’ve saved an equivalent of more than four million km of driving emissions, along with an equally impressive amount of energy and water thanks to their closed-loop bamboo production.
Get in on some of these savings with their women’s and men’s affordable ethical clothing (they’ve got clothes for babies, too!).
Boody bears an impressive range of organic underwear, activewear, tops, loungewear, ethical pajamas, bodysuits, sustainable leggings, and more.
Boody’s Ethical and Sustainability Practices
Materials:
Natural and organically-grown bamboo is the main material of choice for Boody. If you’ve made like a panda and eaten your way through our bamboo article, you may realize that bamboo isn’t usually our first choice.
However, Boody does bamboo differently.
Their closed-loop process (meaning the water and solvents are reused over and over again) is much better for the planet and our bodies—their products are also certified by OEKO-TEX, Ecocert and FSC.
Note however that the bamboo is oftentimes blended with a little bit of spandex (elastane).
Supply chain & labor practices: B
oody is Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP) certified. They only partner with ISO 14001-compliant factories that don’t use forced or child labor or tolerate abuse and harassment.
Green business practices:
Boody also partners with SGS to ensure their products are free of harmful chemicals.
In addition, they use recycled packaging materials and vegetable inks.
Inclusivity:
Boody uses sizes based on real bodies (not garment measurements), and has a size range of XS-XL for women and S-XL and men.
To make their products available to more people, Boody offers regular discounts (including 15% off just by signing up for their newsletter!).
Community & charitable giving:
A member of 1% for the Planet, Boody regularly partners with a variety of organizations committed to social and environmental justice.
Also available on Boody (AU)
3. PACT
About Pact
Price Range: $–$$
Colorado’s Pact has been helping us out with their loungewear line of “Earth’s Favorite Clothing”: organic hoodies, eco friendly robes, sustainable socks, and PJs.
Fortunately, they’re also one of the most affordable ethical clothing options for clothes we’ll wear outside of the home, too.
From undergarments to jackets to face masks (and everything in between), they’ll keep your whole family (women, men, babies, and kids) consciously covered.
Pact’s Ethical and Sustainability Practices
Materials:
Organic cotton is Pact’s OG material—so much so that they have a collection for women and men in which everything is 100% GOTS-certified organic cotton.
Although note, you might see the occasional bit of elastane mixed into some products.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Pact partners with farmers and factories in India, which is where all of their organic cotton is sourced and processed in a fair trade factory.
Green business practices:
Pact uses practices to conserve water and energy, minimize fabric waste, use recyclable/compostable packaging, and gives customers the option to offset their shipping emissions.
Inclusivity:
For an inclusive fit, Pact offers men’s sizes from S-XXL and women from XS-XXL.
Pact’s prices are low all-around, but their plentiful clearance page will make an even smaller imPACT on your bank account.
Community & charitable giving:
In the spirit of giving and sustainability, Pact reuses their shipping materials to give back. When you order new Pact clothes, the box they come is (aka the “Give Back Box”) can be refilled with old clothes (of any brand) you no longer want.
Send the refilled box back to Pact so your clothing may be donated via those in need via their Give Back. Wear Forward program.
4. TENTREE
About tentree
Price Range: $–$$
tentree’s “earth-first apparel” comes to us from Canada.
Their clothes are suitable for both braving the great outdoors and staying cozy indoors.
Regardless of where you’re wearing them, their standing as one of the highest-rated Certified B-Corps will guaran-tree a happy Mother Earth. No surprise they’re one of the best slow fashion brands we’ve canvassed.
Sustainable materials and transparent supply chains make tentree truly one of the most affordable and ethical clothing companies.
Their selection is just as impressive, with men’s and women’s hoodies, fair trade sweaters, t-shirts, jackets, outerwear, dresses, rompers, pants, shorts, and more.
They also have accessories, like sustainable hats, sustainable scarves and eco-friendly backpacks!
tentree’s Ethical and Sustainability Practices
Materials:
tentree’s range is made with eco-friendly materials like organic cotton, TENCEL lyocell, recycled polyester, and hemp, sometimes blended with small amounts of elastane.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Ethical manufacturing is just as important as eco materials and tentree has a strict code of conduct for their partner factories around the world.
Their factory ledger reveals specific conditions of each, as well as which ones are certified by WRAP, BSCI, SA8000, Fair Trade, and Fair Wear Foundation.
They want to ensure that their factory workers are respected, safe, paid well, and feel valued, don’t tolerate harassment, discrimimation, or child labor.
Green business practices:
Every tentree product description shows the resource savings of each garment (water, waste, and CO2).
They also sell Climate+ carbon offset packages on their website. For example, the “Long Showers offset” plants trees to offset the emissions associated with longer showers.
Inclusivity:
Current sizes run from XS-XXL for most garments, and they’re in the process of expanding that range.
For financial inclusivity, they have sale sections for both men and women and overall low prices by outdoor brand standards.
Community & charitable giving:
As you’ve surely picked up on by now, tentree is in the business of planting trees.
For every item purchased, 10 trees are planted.
So far, they’ve planted more than 51,143,555 in biodiversity-damaged regions of Peru, Mexico, Canada, Haiti, Madagascar, Senegal, Indonesia, Nepal, and Brazil. They’re aiming to plant one billion trees by 2030.
5. ABLE
About ABLE
Price Range: $–$$$
Living wages = ethical clothing, and that’s what ABLE is all about.
In the industry more broadly, only 2% of fashion workers earn a living wage. Yikes.
ABLE is using a super transparent supply chain to ensure their women workers don’t fall into the other 98%.
We already bragged about ABLE’S ethical shoe range, but now we have to talk about their clothes. As an affordable ethical clothing USA based brand, they have a range of women’s tops, tees, jackets, sweaters, dresses, jumpsuits, denim, skirts, other bottoms, and accessories.
ABLE’s Ethical and Sustainability Practices
Materials:
With a focus on ethical manufacturing, materials sometimes take a backseat.
While finding garments made out of natural and sustainable fabrics (like organic cotton, cotton, modal) is possible, you’ll also see some materials that aren’t our favorites (like lamb leather, polyester, spandex, and viscose).
Supply chain & labor practices:
This is where ABLE truly shines. In 2018, they changed the fashion industry forever by sharing their lowest paid wages with customers and the world at large.
Essentially, it set the stage for other brands to follow suit by founding the Lowest Wage Challenge (in partnership with Nisolo, whose ethical boots are next level).
They started by sharing wages from their Nashville operations. In 2019, they shared the wages for their workers in Ethiopia, and next, they plan on releasing the wages of all manufacturing partners.
Along with wages, they also share other labor practice details, like workers’ rights, equality assurances, and benefits.
ABLE specifically chooses to staff their business with 95% women because research shows that economically empowered women are more likely to break cycles of poverty.
Green business practices:
Repurposed inbound shipping boxes are used for outbound shipping. While they currently use plastic poly bags, there are plans to replace these with reusable cloth dust bags.
Inclusivity:
Sizes run from XS-XL and a range of diverse models represent all sizes.
6. KOTN
About Kotn
Price Range: $–$$
Kotn started with… you guessed it, cotton.
When three friends came together over ethically-sourced Egyptian cotton, the rest became sustainable fashion history.
The Certified B-Corp likes long-staple cotton because it’s finer, softer, and stronger than its shorter counterpart. That makes for some luxurious and durable sustainable men’s clothing (and women’s) that includes pajamas, t-shirts, tops, bottoms, jackets, accessories, knitwear, and more.
Kotn’s Ethical and Sustainability Practices
Materials:
Kotn has a lot to say about cotton (obvi.).
They source what’s considered the “white gold” of cotton, or that from the Nile Delta region of Egypt (AKA the world’s most perfect place to grow cotton). While all Egyptian cotton is fine, theirs is finer still.
All Kotn garments are made with 100% cotton, most of which is white gold cotton. In the future, it will be 100% certified organic, too! Until then, their cotton is certified by the Better Cotton Initiative. While not organic, that certification means cotton is farmed with sustainable improvement in mind.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Kotn partners with family-run farms in Egypt and Portugal (which provide the small percentage of cotton that isn’t white gold)
Their direct-trade partnership provides safe working conditions and above fair pay. In a constantly fluctuating market, they provide predictable prices for their farmers and 35% higher pay (along with other benefits like input subsidies).
They call it “farm-to-table, but for your clothes.”
For their regularly audited factories, Kotn only partners with those who provide fair and equal pay and provide careers, not just jobs.
Green business practices:
Due to the fine nature of Giza cotton, Kotn’s cotton is handpicked (reducing the need for fossil-fuel guzzling machinery). They also work with a localized supply chain (within 100km for all their Egyptian cotton), which also reduces emissions.
Orders are sent plastic-free with minimal and recyclable materials.
Inclusivity:
Inclusive models and sizes are easy to find with Kotn. Women’s affordable ethical clothing generally runs from XS-XXL and men’s from XS-XXL.
Community & charitable giving:
In Egypt, where Kotn sources most of their cotton, half a million children don’t have access to education. Kotn is changing that.
By partnering with a local NGO, they provide their farming communities with education opportunities. Every purchase goes towards building a new school, providing teachers’ salaries, and buying education supplies and infrastructure.
7. KOOL AND KONSCIOUS
About Kool and Konscious
Who doesn’t love conscious and exciting fashion?
Kool and Konscious brings together the best of both worlds by offering some of the world’s most affordable fashionable ethical clothing.
Wanting to make it easy for customers to find an alternative to fast fashion, they’re a one-stop-shop for sustainable and quality products!
Driven by four values (circularity, transparency, ethics, and design), their goal is to become the first circular fashion platform.
How?
By providing customers with tools to circulate clothes that no longer serve them.
When it comes to buying new, they’ve got men’s and women’s clothing and accessories in just about every category imaginable. Shop by fabric, value (recycled, deadstock, eco-dyed, and the coming-soon pre-owned), or activity (work, cozy, athleisure, elegant, party).
Kool and Konscious’ Ethical and Sustainability Practices
Materials:
Fabrics like bamboo, cotton, ECONYL®, hemp, leather, leather alternatives, linen, lyocell, and silk make up the major players for KK. You’ll also find recycled cotton, recycled polyester, and other recycled/deadstock synthetics and semi-synthetics.
Supply chain & labor practices:
KK partners with at least 60 different ethical clothing brands, all with different supply chains. They conduct due diligence to ensure that all brands meet their strict standards regarding sourcing and production practices.
These include: transparent practices, water savings practices, appropriate use of technology, initiatives to give back, vegan and recycled materials, and use of eco-dyes.
Green business practices:
Every product has an “Impakt Score”, which determines the water and CO2 savings.
Let’s not forget the circularity focus, as noted by their qualitative circularity score for each garment. They also accept used clothes, which they currently donate. Stay tuned for a Pre-Owned thrift section coming to their website soon.
Partnering with Puro.earth, all of KK’s order emissions are offset. They’re looking forward to taking that to the next level by eventually becoming totally carbon neutral.
Inclusivity:
Working with several different brands, there’s a lot of different sizing on the KK platform. Generally, women can expect to find sizes ranging from 8 (XS) up to 28 (4X) in some styles, along with models to match. In other words, it’s a great place to find affordable ethical plus size clothing.
Men, you’ll find sizes from S-XL for most brands.
For men and women, there’s an under €50 section for some budget inclusivity and several unisex options for gender inclusivity. YES to more gender neutral fashion!
Community & charitable giving:
Kool and Konscious’ partnership with Thrift+ allows customers to order a Thrift+bag to send in their unused clothes for donation (and a discount!).
8. MATE THE LABEL
About MATE the Label
Price Range: $–$$
In need of a closet detox?
MATE the Label is here to help make it happen.
According to them, “the future of clothing is clean.” And with them, you can DressClean™ with fabrics like organic cotton, low-impact dyes, ethical manufacturing, and eco packaging.
Consider this brand your best MATE that helps ethically elevate your style in an eco friendly wallet savvy kinda way.
One of the most affordable ethical clothing brands, they carry women’s bottoms, sweatpants, tees, thermals, sweatshirts, sustainable jumpsuits, tanks, and more.
MATE the Label’s Ethical and Sustainability Practices
Materials:
You’ll find organic cotton (in a few different fabric varieties), TENCEL lyocell, linen, hemp (coming soon), and some conventional cotton (until they can find an organic alternative). Only low impact dyes are used.
Supply chain & labor practices:
MATE partners with both organic and conventional cotton farmers in Maharashtra, India. The linen comes from China, and the TENCEL is from Austria’s Lenzing brand.
Everything is dyed, cut, sewn, processed, packaged, and shipped from their Los Angeles-based factory. They like “v localized” supply chains and their factories meet fair trade criteria and Californian labor laws.
Green business practices:
In addition to cutting down emissions from having a hyper-local supply chain, 100% of their packaging materials are recycled and single-use-plastic-free.
They have an eco-friendly office with bamboo desks, organic tampons, eco-friendly toilet paper, and in-house composting.
They’re also creating a program to accept old MATE products to be transformed into new ones!
Inclusivity:
MATE is similar to other brands in their size offerings: XS-XL, but they offer an Extended Collection (size 1X-3X) for affordable ethical plus size clothing.
Psst, their Last Chance collection is a great place to score awesome prices.
Community & charitable giving:
Essential workers get a discount with MATE.
9. ORGANIC BASICS
About Organic Basics
Price Range: $–$$
When it comes to affordable quality ethical clothing, is there a better name for a brand than Organic Basics?
This Danish company combines some of the best materials with ethical manufacturing practices in a way that keeps things basic for our wallets.
They made their entry into the world of sustainable fashion with men’s underwear, but now they cover the essential clothing needs of both men and women: from socks to sustainable gloves, ethical activewear to ethical underwear, and anything in between.
Organic Basics’ Ethical and Sustainability Practices
Materials:
Organic Basics use handpicked GOTS-certified organic cotton from the Aegean Sea region.
While organic cotton isn’t found in every single Organic Basics item, it’s in most—along with other natural, renewable, recycled, and biodegradable materials.
You’ll also see the following materials in the Organic Basics product descriptions: organic cotton, recycled nylon, TENCEL lyocell, recycled wool, and recycled cashmere.
You might see some virgin synthetics like a small amount of elastane, but these are easy to avoid.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Organic Basics partners with factories around Europe, and they only work with the “good guys”. This means their products aren’t made with forced or child labor, and that their workers are supported with a safe working environment and fair, living wages.
The workers for this Certified B Corp also get extra perks like free childcare and lunch.
Green business practices:
Each product description lets you know how your Organic Basics garment will fit, and it also shows how it’s a good fit for our planet. Every garment features an impact index that shows how many emissions and chemicals were prevented, and how much water was conserved.
Their annually-produced impact report also gives a look at how the company does overall.
They’ve recently achieved a goal of converting conventional cotton fields into regenerative cotton fields—in fact, they’ve doubled it!
Thanks to their efforts, more than 65,000 m2 of land farmed are now using regenerative practices.
They also have a low impact website and provide carbon-neutral shipping.
Inclusivity:
Organic Basics gets an A+ for inclusivity. They have a range of sizes, and models who are just as diverse. Mostly XS-XL for women and S-XXL for men.
For extra inclusive pricing, they offer packs of essentials with a 20% discount.
Community & charitable giving:
The Organic Basics Fund is available for European organizations tackling some of the toughest environmental and social problems. A few applicants are chosen every year to receive funding.
HOW WE FOUND THE BEST AFFORDABLE ETHICAL CLOTHING
Many of us have gotten used to $20 pairs of jeans and $5 tees. But we also know most of those deals only come from fast fashion monstrosities. We’ve all heard the famous Lucy Siegle adage that “cheap” fashion means “someone, somewhere is paying”.
With that in mind, it may seem as if slow fashion and affordable fashion aren’t compatible.
Au contraire, dear reader. You may just have to do a little extra digging (and perhaps re-evaluate what “affordable” means to you). We considered this, along with our sustainable fashion criteria, to find these brands.
Materials:
Materials are the dealbreaker when it comes to both financial and planetary budgets. Cheap materials (i.e. most of the plastic-based synthetics) mean cheap clothes that need replacing often and remain in landfills for hundreds of years.
Paying slightly more for better natural, recycled, and renewable materials may come with a higher initial price tag, but their durability generally makes them more affordable over time.
That said, long-lasting, budget-friendly, earth-friendly materials include: organic cotton, Egyptian cotton, hemp, linen, bamboo, recycled wool, recycled cashmere, deadstock, ECONYL, TENCEL lyocell, modal, vegan leather, legitimate ethical leather, recycled nylon, and recycled polyester.
Supply chain and labor practices:
Getting a deal on new duds is great—but not when someone else is paying the price.
Transparency is the best way to ensure we’re getting what we’re paying for (rather something greenwashed), which is why we love when brands share their factory and wage details.
It’s crucial they provide safe working environments (prohibiting child/forced labor and harassment) and work to support the communities they partner with in ways that go beyond living wages.
- Certifications: Fair Trade, Certified B Corp, ISO-9001, SA8000, BSCI, WRAP, ISO-14001
Green business practices:
Carbon offset shipping, recycled/recyclable packaging materials, small supply chains, regenerative farming practices, and earth-friendly manufacturing practices make us feel even better about making a purchase from an affordable ethical clothing brand.
Inclusivity:
Typically, we look at inclusivity from a size, diversity and sometimes gender standpoint. For this article, we also considered financial inclusivity by keeping prices reasonable, offering discounts, and having amazing clearance/sale sections.
While we believe paying a little more for something well made and eco friendly is reasonable, there’s no reason sustainable living should be exclusive to those with financial privilege. Access to sustainable products for all!
Community & charitable giving:
Charitable giving is the cherry on top—not 100% required, but definitely makes a purchase a little sweeter. We love seeing partnerships with charity organizations, donations of unsold/used garments, or initiatives that support farming communities.
FINAL THOUGHTS ON ETHICAL & AFFORDABLE CLOTHING
A higher price tag shouldn’t be a barrier for living a more sustainable life.
Unfortunately, in many cases it is.
Most of what we consume (clothes, home decor, food, body care products, beauty products) comes at a premium if produced in an ethical way and with earth-friendly materials.
Even with the most affordable ethical clothing brands, you’re not going to see fast fashion prices. However, you will get to appreciate the “true cost” of an ethically made garment.
When brands don’t use forced or child labor, their products will cost more.
Likewise, when they pay the makers fair wages and when they carefully source natural materials or take the time to find recycled fabrics, you’ll likely see a higher price there, too.
As they say, “you get what you pay for.”
Cheap clothes come with social and environmental costs that aren’t listed on the price tag.
If you’re trying to save some dough (aren’t we all?!), view a purchase from one of these affordable ethical clothing companies as a long-term investment.
Save up for it and value your purchase for years to come.
And if you really want to save money?
Buy pre-loved from online thrift store or clothing rental company for more earth-friendly savings.
