Post by @conscious.app

"Ethical" clothing brands that quietly had their values stripped away, and what to buy instead. Everlane was founded in 2010 on radical transparency, publishing its factory names and production costs. In May 2026 it sold to Shein, which Italy fined one million euros over misleading environmental claims. Switch to Kotn, which buys cotton directly from smallholder farmers in Egypt's Nile Delta and funds schools in those villages. Toms was founded in 2006 on giving a pair away for every pair sold. It scrapped that model in late 2019, then handed ownership to creditors when Bain Capital's buyout debt came due. Switch to Etiko, founder run since 2005 and the first fashion brand in the southern hemisphere to earn Fairtrade certification. Sweaty Betty started in 1998 in one Notting Hill shop. It sold in 2021 to Wolverine, the boot maker that paid Michigan $69.5 million after its PFAS chemicals reached nearly 1,000 drinking wells. Switch to Girlfriend Collective, still owned by the couple who founded it, making leggings from recycled bottles in independently audited factories. Organic Basics was a Copenhagen B Corp selling organic underwear. It sold in 2022 to Delta Galil, which the UN lists in its database of firms operating in Israeli settlements. Switch to Armedangels, independent in Cologne since 2007, GOTS and Fairtrade certified, and open about the factories behind each garment. Fast fashion did not beat the ethical brands. It bought them. The wave of sustainable labels people built in the 2010s is being sold off or shut down, and the buyers are the companies those brands were created to replace. This is not only fashion. In beauty, L'Oréal alone owns 40 international brands. In food, four retailers take more than two thirds of every grocery dollar Americans spend. Different aisles, the same short list of owners. Support ethical companies. Use the Conscious Spend app to find out who owns the brands you buy from, and how ethical they really are. Search any company, see its grade, and find the independent alternative before you spend.