JUST APPROVED™
DENIM
THE BEST BRANDS IN DENIM MOVING THE INDUSTRY FORWARD
THE JUST APPROVED™ DENIM LIST
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HONORABLE MENTION: Levi’s is a rising star for their innovation and leadership. 💫
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OUR BASELINE
We spent the last month researching brands that our community submitted for consideration. We looked at sustainability, ethics, innovation, availability, durability, style and fit.
Here are the JUST APPROVED™ Denim Criteria:
DO NO HARM
The brand has thought holistically about our 8 research categories:
- Size and business model
- Transparency and traceability
- Labor Conditions
- Environment
- Innovation
- Intention
- Management
- Community
More about what we mean by each section here.
DENIM CONTEXT
Each brand we selected has thought specifically about issues that were raised by our research into denim production. If you want to learn more about the denim industry and the specific issues or need a glossary for some of these terms, visit our denim resources page. We’ve also summarized the context research into a framework for denim here.
INNOVATION
The brand is innovative in its approach and is moving the industry in a positive direction. They’re creating new techniques and standards to spread new and better practices.
THE BRANDS
HEADS UP:
There may be terms below that you don’t know – get informed here. There may also be some brands you were hoping to see that aren’t listed here – let us know in the comments or shoot us an email.
THE BASICS KEY:
👫 + 🌎 : Availability & Accessibility | 👖 : Style | 💸 : Affordability | 🌐 : Website
KINGS OF INDIGO
AKA the Kings of Transparency.
THE BASICS:
👫 : Men + Women
🌎 : Deliver all over Europe and to the US (15 euros), Japan (15 euros) and Australia (20 euros) for a fee. They’re also in stores in Canada and Europe.
👖: Standard, bootcut, skinny, colored, wide leg, flare, overalls. Different lengths available.
💸 : From €100-200
🌐 : kingsofindigo.com
WHAT WE 💙
Textile: For 90%+ of its materials, KOI uses GOTS certified organic cotton and recycled yarn where possible. They also have a new denim fabric that is a mix of organic cotton, recycled cotton and hemp!
Labor: The brand can trace its supply chain, shows a full list and map of suppliers and pays some workers a living wage. They also publish their Fair Wear audit report!
Environment: All natural indigo dyes, recylced yarns and in the dyeing process, they use water reduction techniques.
Innovation: They’re doing all sorts of innovation on wash, recycled textiles, lasers for distressing and wash.
Durability: These jeans are also here for you for life – a 25-30 year life expectancy.
Read about all their practices here!
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
Last year, only 53% of their supply chain was under monitoring for Fair Wear Foundation because they were switching suppliers. This year they will be back on track! Also if you’re vegan, an FYI that their patches are made of leather.
MUD JEANS
Not to be confused with Mudd jeans from middle school. Please.
THE BASICS:
👫 : Men + Women
🌎 : Looks like their leasing program and shipping goes to the US, Europe and more! Free shipping!
👖: Standard, cropped, loose, boyfriend, capri, vintage. Different lengths available.
💸 : Leasing: $25 membership and then €7.50 per month. €59 (vintage) – €99.
🌐 : mudjeans.eu
WHAT WE 💙
Textile: All Better Cotton Initiative, organic cotton or recycled cotton. They also have vintage jeans.
Labor: They share their 1st and 2nd tier suppliers’ names and countries, and they have results available from their Fair Wear audit of one facility.
Environment: They have a carbon footprint study. Compared to an average pair of jeans, MUD uses 78% less water and 61% less CO2.
Innovation: They’re a certified B-Corp and they have a leasing program for their jeans – you pay a monthly fee, like for a car. For real. $25 membership fee and €7.50 a month!
Read about all their practices here!
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
We were a little unclear on what they meant by “fair trade” when they referred to it. Some members of our committee weren’t 100% convinced on their style props either. But different strokes for different folks, amiright? They also don’t have a publicly available supplier code of conduct, which is normally pretty standard across the industry. We’d like to see it.
NUDIE JEANS
Unisex style + universally sexy ethics.
THE BASICS:
👫 : Men + Women
🌎 : Stores in Europe and the US in LA and NYC. Also available online and at Nordstroms, ASOS, Barneys, Gilt… the list goes on.
👖: Skinny all the way to loose, standard, colors, distressed. Different lengths available.
💸 : $185 – $450
🌐 : nudiejeans.com
WHAT WE 💙
Textile: All 100% organic cotton. ALL.
Labor: They know 100% of their supply chain. They make 69% of their jeans in Italy and they’re implementing a living wage program at their Indian manufacturer.
Environment: They use lasers and ozone processing, which is better than sandblasting and traditional dyeing techniques.
Innovation: They will do free repairs for you 4EVR and have repair shops in their stores and others around the world. They’ll also take back unwanted denim and recycle it for you and they have a ton of products made from recycled denim.
Read about all their practices here!
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
One supplier in Tunisia was cited for excessive overtime. Nudie doesn’t have living wages set up at every facility, only requiring minimum wage be paid. We’d like to see them develop their living wage program further, which they’re in the process of doing. Ask and you shall receive.
Their jeans are designed unisex. On their website, all their jeans are shown on men, but on yoox.com, you can see them on women, too. They’re meant for everyone – but do note, their fit can be a little tight on some men and women (!).
PATAGONIA
We know. We were surprised, too. 😉
THE BASICS:
👫 : Men + Women
🌎 : Online and in Patagonia stores. Not available at all boutiques that sell Patagonia, though 😕
👖: Standard, skinny, cropped, stretchy.
💸 : $99
🌐 : patagonia.com/us/denim
WHAT WE 💙
Textile: All 100% organic cotton 😀
Labor: They’re Fair Trade certified for their sewing production, and know all their first tier suppliers and many of their second. They’re working on mapping their entire supply chain.
Innovation: They use a new dyeing process without natural indigo, which uses even less water and CO2.
Patagonia is a major leader for the industry – they share a ton and when they slip up, they’re open about it. We appreciate this transparency and accountability. And their fit and style is actually really great – not what we expected at all, TBH! We encourage you to check it out.
Read about all their practices here!
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
We really weren’t stoked about the fact that their cropped jeans and straight jeans have 30% COOLMAX fabric, a mechanical stretch denim which is a petroleum product. It’s also a textile made by a company owned by the Koch brothers. WHA??? We do understand the need for stretch given their typical type of very active customer, but we’re not sure we’re down with that.
Given everything else they’re doing right and the high quality and actually great fit of their jeans, we still elected them nonetheless.
LEVI’S
JUST Approved Honorable Mention for being an industry rising star. 💫
🌐 : levis.com
WHY THE HONORABLE MENTION?
- They’re making huge strides for the industry. For decades have been setting new standards for larger fashion brands in their innovation and supply chain policies, including their work with the NRDC Responsible Sourcing Initiative.
- We love their innovations like their Water<Less technique, their recent development of 100% recycled jeans and their textile innovation.
- Out of the brands we looked at, they’re super accessible around the world with many different styles available and, as many of you who might have vintage pairs already know, their jeans are super durable and last a long time. They’re classic!
WHY THEY DIDN’T MAKE THE FINAL CUT:
- We’d like to see improvements in their holistic impact: They’ve still got strides to make in their policies on labor conditions and environment compared to others in the category. They’re a larger company than our other brands so it can take time to turn a big ship.
- We’d like to see more transparency from them about their production and their supply chain.
Read more about their practices here!
THE COMMITTEE
We researched, we analyzed, we discussed and then these fine ladies chose four brands to answer the question: WHERE DO I SHOP DENIM?!👖👖
EMMA MCCLENDON
Assistant Curator of Costume
The Museum at FIT
Industry Expert
BOB BLAND
CEO & Founder
Manufacture New York
Industry Expert
ALDEN WICKER
Founder & Editor-in-Chief
Ecocult
Context + Style Expert
WHAT'S NEXT?
ANY QUESTIONS?
Tune in on June 1 for a Q&A with our founders on the JUST Approved denim brands and process. Also visit the FAQ Section on our Denim Resources page.
What do you think?
How do you feel about this brand now that you're more familiar with their practices? Send a signal, take action and let us, the brand and the world know how you feel.
comments
Have additional thoughts or information to add? Please contribute to the conversation by commenting below or emailing us.
i love nudie jeans! another phenomenal + fave label for ethical + organic denim is monkee genes: https://www.monkeegenes.com/
they’ve been doing great work for an number of years. their jeans are made to last + an affordable closet staple!
I looked up each of these companies and was disappointed that a majority the brands you list as finalists limit their size range to size 32 (approximately equivalent to US size 12). Nudie had the option to go up to a 38′ waist, but while you present them as unisex, the products they offer appear to be men’s jeans and not tailored to women’s bodies. Levi’s offered a size 33 option and also had a separate plus size line.
As a woman with a size 14 or 16 frame I have been let down by retailers that no longer carry clothing in my size in their brick and mortar stores. Online retailers seem to be following suit. It’s absurd to think that there is not enough of a market for ethically produced denim in this size range to regularly carry the product. I wear out jeans between the legs- I’m always in the market for jeans!
I noticed, too, that your panel appears to be made up white women who appear to have more slender frames (hard to discern for certain due to head shots). I hope, as your project grows and expands, you able to be more inclusive of different body types and cultural backgrounds in your evaluation panel.
Kim - thank you so much for your comment. I noticed the same thing; apparently anyone over a 32″ waist (and 34″ inseam) is invisible to these trendy, ethical brands.
Reforming the clothes industry is a worthy goal, but ensuring that *all* consumers get ethical choices is vital.
Thanks Jo! We hear you loud and clear. And completely agreed. One of the big problems with ethical fashion is sizing and another is affordability. Two things we are definitely trying to tackle for all of you - we’ll seek to continue to improve!
Hi Kim!
Natalie, here, co-CEO of Project JUST. Thanks so much for your comment. We totally hear you and will definitely do a better job of being more inclusive about size when assessing our choices of brands in the future. Sizing is super tough with denim and so your point resonates - perhaps even more than it might in another category. We missed here and will do better to improve on our next round. This is a project and perfectly imperfect and this being our first JUST APPROVED category your feedback helps refine our process!
You’re definitely not the first person to have this concern either, so we hear you loud and clear. If you don’t mind we’ll follow up with you on how intend to address this as we start our next category.
P.S. We are a diverse team from multiple parts of the world and backgrounds, but we could definitely use some more men 😉
“It’s absurd to think that there is not enough of a market for ethically produced denim in this size range to regularly carry the product.”
Oh, I’m sure there’s PLENTY of market for this. My guess is it becomes a profit margin thing. Larger sizes require more denim, and (quality) denim is expensive to produce. Therefore they make less profit per item on larger sizes. If their profit margins are tight enough, they may actually lose money on larger sizes. So then it gets tricky. Do they raise the price of ALL their jeans to compensate for this, potentially driving customers away to the “cheap” brands? Or do they only raise the price on the larger sizes, which then becomes discriminatory? The real problem, I think, lies with consumers who always expect to get clothes as cheap as they can get them.
What about Railcar jeans? Their fabric is made in North Carolina and the jeans are crafted in California. I’ve been proud to support this company because I love their product (and they offer a fabric label option for those of us who don’t wear leather, which is awesome). Is there something I don’t know about them, or were they just overlooked?
Also, what about Imogene + Willie?
Hi Ace,
Thanks for your comments. I’m Megan the lead researcher for Project JUST. For our first JUST Approved category we reviewed approximately 70 denim brands that were nominated by over 100 users. We also did some research of our own and compiled a list of brands we thought deserved further investigation. Railcar did not come up in our research, nor was it nominated unfortunately. Imogene + Willie was nominated quite a number of times but didn’t make it through the initial shortlisting process.
Both brands seem to be doing fantastic work but in both cases (I had a look at Railcar’s website) there isn’t enough transparency and information on their supply chain practices for us to shortlist them. If you have any information to contribute that isn’t on the brands’ websites we would love to have it. This is what Project JUST is all about, crowd sourcing as much information as possible so we can get a more nuanced idea of how the brand operates.
Please let me know if you have anymore questions. We love questions!
Really sad not to see Landsend jeans on this page, am going to write and ask them about how they source their jeans. The last pair I bought cost about £60 and I love them.
Hi how does it come only bigger labels are there, for example atelier noterman from belgium, has an amazing detox denim for a good price and keeps on going to vring more innovation and concious produced garments, challenging their supplier(s) … Check them out they are so great cheers k