What ethical shopping guides does Ethical Consumer publish?

Ethical Consumer publishes independent shopping guides that rate companies and brands on ethical and environmental criteria, and its clothing and footwear coverage is the clearest example of how those guides work. The site's latest magazine issue (Issue 223, Nov/Dec 2026) is built around clothes and trainers: it includes guides to fast fashion brands, sustainable clothing brands and trainers, plus score tables comparing brands, Best Buy recommendations, ratings on waste-clothing dumping, guidance on the most sustainable fabrics, and coverage of secondhand, repair, resale and making your own. If you want to know what a guide contains before subscribing or reading, expect a brand comparison table, recommended buys, and a "what to avoid" section rather than a single editorial pick.

Clothing and footwear guides

The clothing coverage is split into distinct guides rather than one general fashion section:

• Fast fashion brands — mainstream brands rated and compared, with the issue asking which ethical brands are "fighting fast fashion."
• Sustainable clothing brands — a guide to 31 ethical clothing companies, framed as examples of how sustainable clothing should be done.
• Trainers — ratings for 38 brands, covering big names such as Adidas and Nike alongside smaller ethical brands. The guide includes recommended buys and what to avoid, and rates brands on use of sustainable materials, vegan trainers and PFA-free trainers.
• Workers and materials — the issue covers the workers who make clothes and trainers, and which fabrics are the most sustainable to choose.

A notable feature across these guides is an Israel-Palestine rating applied to all companies covered, so political and human rights criteria sit alongside environmental ones in the same score table.

What each guide includes

Based on the clothing and trainer guides, a typical Ethical Consumer guide gives you:

This structure means you can use a guide either to shortlist a purchase or to check a brand you already buy.

Guides beyond clothing

Clothing is the current magazine focus, not the limit of the site. The homepage also points to an ethical AI companies guide, with ethical and environmental rankings of AI companies, and describes the organisation as publishing "independent product guides, research, information and analysis" since 1989. The site positions itself as a general ethical consumer guide covering how you "spend, save and live," so expect product categories beyond fashion, though the specific non-clothing guides listed on the page are limited to the AI example.

Who publishes this and how it is funded

Ethical Consumer describes itself as an independent, not-for-profit, multi-stakeholder co-operative with open membership, based in Manchester, and accredited by the Fair Tax Mark and the Living Wage Foundation. Its co-founder Jane Turner states that independent, subscriber-funded research is the only way to rate companies without conflicts of interest — which explains why the site asks readers to subscribe and join. The page mentions subscribing but does not list prices, so check the subscription page for current terms before assuming access is free.

How to use the guides

1. Pick the category closest to your purchase (e.g. trainers or sustainable clothing brands).
2. Open the guide and read the score table to compare brands on the criteria that matter to you.
3. Check the Best Buy recommendations for a shortlist and the "what to avoid" notes for exclusions.
4. Use the supporting articles — fabrics, secondhand, repair, resale — if you are deciding whether to buy new at all.
5. Sign up to the weekly newsletter if you want new guides as they are published.

The main practical limitation to plan for: the detailed ratings sit behind the magazine and subscription model, so the depth of the score tables is tied to membership rather than being fully open on the homepage.