Ultimate list of ethical and inclusive outdoor brands

Madeleine
4 days ago
4 min read

Welcome, welcome! You've landed on my ultimate list of outdoorsy apparel brands that are not only inclusive but also ethical. According to me :) That's right, I’ve developed a scoring system to rank which ones are the most inclusive and ethical according to criteria that I deep important to me personally.

Why? Well, I want everyone to be able to make educated purchasing decisions. I don’t know about you, but I think it's essential to feel good about where we invest our hard-earned dollars. So, without further ado, let's dive into it.

To gain access to this list, you must be a Patreon subscriber.

Disclaimer and context

I'm not a professional journalist nor am I a sustainability or diversity expert. I'm just like you – a regular ol' consumer trying to make sense of it all. If you disagree with something on this list, I completely understand. This ranking is entirely subjective and based on my personal beliefs and values.

However, if there’s something that is factually incorrect, please reach out to me directly so I can get it fixed.

In an ideal world, I’d like to update this list on a regular basis. Once you have access to the spreadsheet, you’ll be able to get LIVE updates whenever something changes. It’ll be a living, breathing document you can reference any time you want to purchase outdoor apparel.

This is also not supposed to be a super-involved deep-dive into each of these brands. I do not have the time or capacity to do that. This is very high-level and should be used as a jumping-off point for you to make more informed purchasing decisions. Please still do your own research.

How is “inclusive” and “ethical” defined?

Before we delve into the brands themselves, let's clarify our criteria for inclusivity and ethics.

I've assessed brands based on various factors:

Leadership diversity
Sizing inclusivity
Representation in marketing (representation means diversity of race, body size/shape, gender, and age)
Commitment to sustainability
Existing controversies or ethical conflicts
Good on You Ⓡ score

There are obviously so many other factors that play into whether a brand is ethical or not (such as how they pay their employees, etc.) but for the sake of simplicity and sanity, I’ve narrowed it down to these high-level categories.

While I strive for comprehensiveness with this list, we must acknowledge that no brand is flawless, and evaluations are subjective.

Ultimately, my goal is to share and organize this information in a way that enables you to align your values and make more informed shopping decisions. If you disagree or you want to shop somewhere that is ranked low, that’s your prerogative. I’m just presenting the information, you can do what you please with it!

Scoring

Leadership diversity + 1
Sizing inclusivity + 1
Representation in marketing + 1
Commitment to sustainability + 1
Existing controversies or ethical conflicts (varies)
Good on You Ⓡ score (+1 for “Good” rating, -1 for “We Avoid” rating)

How is this list structured?

This list is in the format of a Google Spreadsheet. Each brand will be on a row with a variety of content for that brand in the columns.

Score: Brands will receive a score for meeting various criteria. The formula for the scoring is outlined below.
Stamp of approval: Because a numerical score doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story, I’ve issued a “stamp of approval” for brands that I deem ethical and inclusive. For example, Outdoor Research has a relatively low score, but they still get a stamp of approval. There are some brands that I’ve listed as “on the fence” because I couldn’t quite decide or there wasn’t enough information about them available publicly.
Concerns: Any concerns or things that may conflict with the goal of equity and inclusion will be highlighted here. Do they struggle with sustainability? Do they not offer inclusive sizing? Have they had a recent controversy?
Criteria checkboxes: Boxes will be checked when they meet various high-level criteria such as BIPOC-led or inclusive sizing.

What brands are included?

This is not an exhaustive list of every outdoorsy apparel company. If you feel something is missing from this list, you can submit this form.

This list is also in order of ranking with #1 being the most ethical and inclusive.

Girlfriend Collective
Wondery Outdoors
Alder Apparel
Outdoor Afro
Lucy & Yak
Big Bud Press
Weber's Resupply
Title Nine
Wild Rye
Gnara
Alpine Parrot
Coalition Snow
Youer
Skida
prAna
Toad & Co.
Halfdays
Patagonia
Outdoor Research
Parks Project
Kari Traa
Houdini Sportswear
SENIQ
REI
Outdoor Voices
LL Bean
Columbia
Lands End
Eddie Bauer
Burgeon Outdoor
Mammut
KAVU
Topo Design
Stio
Notice The Reckless
Cotopaxi

What do I get when I purchase?

When you subscribe to my Patreon, you will receive exclusive access to the video where I share the full spreadsheet, my rankings, and additional information behind the WHY of the rankings. My Patreon has so many other amazing perks like access to the Outdoorsy Discord community, bonus podcast episodes, voting power, and more.

Why does it cost money?

I am charging money for this because the creation, research, and upkeep of this list took a significant amount of my time. And I firmly believe in charging for your time.

I also have elected to NOT sell this to a publication or magazine because I want ownership over my own content. And I want this to be a resource that’s regularly updated, which wouldn’t be possible without owning it myself.

Isn't this gatekeeping?

This is not gatekeeping because all of this information is publicly available online. If you want to make your own list of all of these brands, you're more than welcome to! This is not proprietary information. It would be gatekeeping if I refused to share this list at all or if I refused to answer questions about the information I've gathered. But I'm an open book! In fact, I've listed out all the brands included in this list here - and in order of how I’ve ranked them. I'm just charging to have access to the video where I go into the FULL ranked list itself in spreadsheet format with all of the additional context and information since it took a while to compile this information.