The 10 Best Sustainable Sock Brands

Want to be eco-friendly from your head to your toes? Here are some of the best sustainable sock brands on the market. These brands have various environmental certifications, use earth-friendly and vegan materials, and/or adhere to fair trade practices.

The 10 winners of this Green Matters Approved contest are listed below. Read more about our Green Matters Approved contests here.

Founded in 1992, Maggie’s Organics specializes in eco-conscious apparel made with organic materials. The brand's cozy socks come in a variety of colors, patterns, and sizes, and though some are made with wool, many are vegan and made with mostly cotton. Maggie’s Organics has signed a Real Fair Trade pledge to support its sustainability and ethical practices, and the company is employee-owned.

Conscious Step's in-house team of artists creates unique sock designs, and each sock design benefits a different charity that has to do with the design. For instance, Conscious Step's line of socks featuring various wild animals gives back to charities including Conservation International and Oceana, while the line featuring dogs and cats contributes to Best Friends Animal Society. The company uses fair trade and non-GMO cotton, and promotes fair working conditions.

Clothing company Harvest & Mill makes a variety of socks using organic and nontoxic ingredients, that are made with U.S.-based traceable supply chains. Most of the brand's socks are made primarily with organic cotton and left undyed. Harvest & Mill explains that growing different varieties of cotton can be a boon for biodiversity, so the company uses varieties of cotton that are naturally brown, tan, and green to create colored socks.

Boody makes clothing essentials from a super soft organic bamboo-based viscose. The company makes socks for babies, women, and men, and in around a dozen styles. Boody, which is based in Australia and New Zealand, is also a Certified B Corp and has a membership with the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council).

Swedish Stockings, which claims to be the first brand to make tights from recycled materials, also offers a selection of recycled socks, knee highs, leg warmers, and more. Most socks are vegan, and use materials such as ECONYL recycled nylon, creora recycled spandex, and organic cotton, though a few socks do use wool. Swedish Stockings’ mission is to prove that the fashion industry is capable of sustainably producing clothing, and the company also has its own Recycling Club for tights.

Copenhagen-based Organic Basics makes essential clothing items from materials including recycled nylon, organic cotton, Tencel, and Lyocell. Organic Basics' socks include knee highs, athletic socks, no show socks, and more, and most are made with a blend of organic cotton and recycled polyamide. Almost all of the brand's products are PETA-approved vegan, Organic Basics offers transparent information on its factory partners on the website, and it is a 1% for the Planet company.

Pact's socks and other apparel are primarily made with GOTS certified organic cotton, and they are made in Fair Trade Certified factories in India. The company's socks come in a variety of styles and colors (ranging from basics to funky patterns), and Pact is partnered with Fair Trade USA, SimpliZero, and Global Organic Textile Standard.

doublesoul's socks are made from a blend of Global Recycle Standard-certified recycled materials, and they are designed to feel super soft, cushioned, and breathable. The company also uses Oeko Tex-certified earth safe dyes, and promises that its socks are built to last. And instead of traditional gendered sizing, doublesoul offers its own gender-neutral sizing, with no specific men's or women's sections on the brand's website.

Essentials company Subset, formerly known as Knickey, specializes in GOTS-certified organic cotton intimates, including two styles of socks. The socks, which come in ankle and crew styles, are mostly made with lightweight organic cotton (as well as polyamide and elastane), and feature an ergonomically-engineered fit to stay in place. Subset is also Oeko-Tex certified and Fairtrade International Certified, and the company offers a comprehensive recycling program that accepts socks, underwear, and more.

Women's activewear company Girlfriend Collective has a line of athletic tube socks in various styles and colors, all of which are made from 90 percent recycled water bottles. And once your socks are worn out, you can recycle them with the company's clothing recycling platform, ReGirlfriend. Plus, Girlfriend Collective donates 1 percent of each order to a nonprofit of the customer's choice.