While buying clothing second-hand is a great way to minimize impact on the environment, most of us are not willing to do that with our underwear. We want our drawers to be new, but we also want to ensure they are sustainable. So before we can look at the best brands, first we have to ask what is sustainable underwear?
The most sustainable underwear brands are implementing progressive business practices to minimize their impact on the planet and people. They use eco-friendly materials like GOTS certified cotton, merino wool, bamboo and even upcycled material. They are also taking measures to ensure that their employees are treated fairly and provide transparency in their manufacturing processes.
Let’s take a look at some of the best sustainable men’s underwear brands available today and explore what makes them great.
A-Dam
A-Dam makes “playful products from friendly Fabrics.” They offer boxer briefs, boxer shorts and a range of other apparel in entertaining patterns made from certified GOTS organic cotton. Their underwear is certified by Ecocert Greenlife and is PETA Vegan approved.
Allbirds
Allbirds is known for their eco-friendly shoes but did you know they make underwear too? The Men’s Trino™ Boxer Brief is made of 65% TENCEL™ Lyocell, 28% Merino Wool, and 7% Spandex.
ASKET
ASKET believes in transparency. For every item, ASKET shows the cost of making the garment and traces the origins of its manufacturing. They are also working on being able to show the CO2 impact of creating their apparel. Their boxer briefs are made from 93% Egyptian cotton, 7% elastane.
Bhumi
Bhumi offers trunks (boxer briefs) and boxers made from 95% Certified Organic Cotton and 5% Recycled Elastane. Their apparel is free from chlorine bleach, toxic heavy metals, formaldehyde, aromatic solvents and is ethically made in India in Fairtrade factories.
Boody
Boody offers a range of boxers and briefs of varying lengths. Committed to sustainability, the company shows the positive impact of every item including driving emissions avoided, LED bulb energy saved, drinking water saved and land farmed without pesticides.
Culo Camicia
Culo Camicia is a small brand from Veneto, Italy that makes boxers out of used shirts. Their boxer shorts are 100% upcycled and each pair of underwear is unique since every shirt is different. Culo Camicia is fully sustainable not only with its product and packaging (which is also made out of the rest of the shirt) but also in the way they operate, avoiding unnecessary stock by making the boxers when ordered.
Etiko
Etiko’s motto is “wear no evil” and was the first fashion brand in the southern hemisphere to become fair trade certified. The australian brand offers organic, Fair Trade men’s trunks.
Finisterre
Finisterre is a rugged, surf-inspired apparel brand. As a certified B Corporation they are committed to the highest level of sustainable business practices. Their merino wool and bamboo boxers are breathable, naturally antibacterial and fully supply chain traceable.
Greenfibers
Greenfibers started with organic t-shirts back in 1996. the company now offers a broad range of eco-friendly products including clothing, home goods, cleaning products and skin care. Their boxers and briefs are made of GOTS certified 100% organic cotton single jersey.
Honest Basics
Honest Basics offers men’s boxershorts that are 95% GOTS certified organic cotton and 5% elastane. All of their products are vegan, approved by Peta and are made using ethical and transparent production in Bangladesh and India. Their packaging is plastic-free or made from recycled plastic and they offer climate neutral shipping.
Laura’s Underthere
Laura’s Underthere is an amazingly creative brand that makes upcycled undergarments for everyone. For every pair sold, Laura’s Underthere also donates one to a local charity in Winnipeg. As the brand states, their underwear “not only covers your butt but someone else’s too!”
Living Crafts
Living Crafts is a German brand that has produced high-quality natural textiles under environmentally friendly and socio-economically fair conditions for over 30 years.They offer organic cotton boxers and briefs, as well as some “functional shorts” that are 70% organic wool and 30% silk.
Merino Country
Merino Country offers 100% Australian merino underwear and clothing grown and sewn in Australia. Merino is a great material for regulating temperature, wicking moisture, reducing odor, drying quickly and is biodegradable. Merino Country has a broad selection of boxers and briefs.
Meundies
Meundies offers 6 different styles of sustainable men’s boxers, trunks and briefs made of soft micro-modal. The sustainably sourced material comes from beechwood tree fibers, which are turned into a material that is sustainable, breathable and biodegradable.
Mighty Good Basics
All of Mighty Good Basics’ suppliers are certified under the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation (FLO), the Global Organic Textiles Standard (GOTS) and the sa 8000 social accountability standard. Their organic cotton, solid-color underwear comes in briefs, boxer briefs and boxer trunks.
Nikin
Nikin has helped plant over one million trees. Every purchase contributes to reforestation projects around the world. In addition to a range of other apparel, Nikin offers ethical men’s boxers that are 100% GOTS certified organic cotton.
Nisa
Nisa is a social enterprise that employs women from refugee backgrounds in Wellington, NZ. Their goal is for their alumni employees to go on and Inspire their own communities. The company offers sustainable men’s boxer briefs that are made from GOTS certified organic cotton or Merino wool.
Nudie Jeans
Nudie Jeans makes sustainable jeans as well as an expanding range of apparel from shorts, to sweatshirts and, you guessed it, underwear. The company believes in manufacturing transparency and will show you thorough details on the production of every product they offer. They make certified organic boxer trunks, briefs, and shorts.
Opok
Opok’s manufacturing facilities use organic farming, clean energy, and don’t create any toxic runoff. And they give back a portion of their proceeds to saving the bees and coral reefs, two vital ecosystems that the fashion industry has virtually destroyed. Their sustainable men’s boxer briefs are made with 95% GOTS Certified Organic Cotton and 100% GOTS certified organic dyes.
Organic Basics
Organic Basics shares information on all of its certified Factory partners. In addition to their GOTS certified organic cotton men’s boxers, they also offer some cutting edge materials. SilverTech™ Involves sustainably-sourced silver woven into organic cotton to keep you cool and odorless. TENCEL™is a eco-friendly fiber made from wood that is biodegradable and feels softer and lighter than cotton.
PACT
PACT provides a broad range of organic cotton men’s boxers and briefs made in a fair trade factory. Fair Trade factories provide safe working conditions, empower and uplift local communities, and protect the environment. PACT also offers the option to offset the carbon footprint of your shipment.
Patagonia
Patagonia’s boxers and briefs are favorites of outdoorsmen and adventurers around the globe. All of their boxers and briefs are made from comfortable and breathable TENCEL® lyocell that is sustainably sourced from wood pulp. The A/C® Boxer Briefs also include recycled nylon and HeiQ® Fresh durable odor control additive so you can wear them more and wash them less.
Pico
Pico is rated #1 in Ethical Consumer’s underwear guide. Their trunks are made in a fairtrade factory in southern India using organic GOTS-certified cotton sourced from farmers’ cooperatives.
Rapanui
Rapanui makes products that are made from natural materials, using renewable energy. Everything they make is designed to be sent back when it is worn out and they make new products from the materials they recover. Rapanui offers sustainable men’s boxers made from 95% Organic Cotton and 5% Sorona that ship in plant-based packaging.
Saint Basics
Saint Basics offers boxers, trunks and briefs in certified organic cotton or eucalyptus. Eucalyptus fabric is breathable, anti-bacterial, moisture wicking, softer than silk and creates 95% less environmental load than cotton. Saint Basics makes apparel that is environmentally friendly, fair trade, free from pesticides, sweatshops ,and child labor.
Thought
Thought makes a wide range of sustainable and ethical women’s and men’s apparel, including underwear. They offer plain jersey underwear in GOTS certified, organic cotton or sustainable boxers made from bamboo. The bamboo boxers are 67% viscose derived from bamboo, 28% organic cotton, and 5% elastane jersey. The boxers are soft, breathable and odor-resistant.
Thunderpants
Thunderpants is a small, ethical, family-owned and operated company, based in New Zealand. They make underwear and apparel from certified fair trade organic cotton and have partnered to create two offshoots in the US and UK that manufacture and sell Thunderpants locally.
Vatter
Vatter makes GOTS-Certified organic cotton underwear that is manufactured by family-run companies in Greece and Turkey, Their packaging is made of 100% recycled materials and is printed with vegetable-based inks.
Wama
Wama Underwear makes eco-friendly undies from Hemp. Hemp fabric is naturally anti-bacterial, anti-ordor, breathable, gets softer over time, is organic, and is eco-friendly. Wama Underwear offers a broad range of men’s sustainable boxers, boxer briefs, and trunks.
Warp & Weft
Warp and Weft is an eco-friendly jeans company that also makes… underwear! Their boxer briefs are 95% Modal, 5% Spandex. Modal is an eco-friendly material that is carbon neutral, requires less land to grow than cotton, and consumes less water than cotton.
Wonderpants
Wonderpants was founded to create locally-made, ethical underwear that fit well, look good, and are truly comfortable. They use organic fabric knitted in Australia from organically grown GOTS certified cotton, from certified and fair-trade farms in India. Their sustainable men’s underwear are 92% Organic Cotton and 8% Elastane.
Images via brands.
