living lightly in ireland

Sustainable Ethical Socks 2025

The list below is edited selection of all the companies I’ve come across over the years and found while researching this article. I left out companies that don’t have Europe based retailers or etailers.

I’ve also omitted providers of bamboo fibre socks, except for one; Boody. You can read exactly why I don’t rate bamboo in my article on Sustainable Ethical Fabrics and Fibres

I’ve organise the listing under headings that most likely match most readers objectives; organic, recycled, and / or with a lifetime guarantee. If I’ve missed any out please let me know. This article is dedicated to Íde and her search for sustainable socks!

Nothing mentioned in this article has been sponsored. It’s all just my own personal opinion. If you like your sources to remain independent then please;

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Local Yarn Socks

Kerry Woollen Mills (Ireland: 100% wool, using some Irish wool, undyed, made in Ireland, processed using eco-sensitive methods €€)

Organic Yarn Socks

AppleOak Fibreworks (Ireland: Natural fibre and organic fibre socks that are either undyed or dyed by them using natural and organic dyes, and with no heavy metals. €€€)

Nah store (Ireland: Tie dyed, 87% of organic cotton blended with 12% elastane & 1% elastane, made in Europe)

Spicey Jam (Ireland: Says it’s 100% GOTS certified organic cotton. I would expect them not to stay up very well with 0% elastane but description seems to suggest they do. No other info available. €)

Dyeboo (Ireland: Designed by artists with autism and made in Ireland. Says the cotton in it’s socks are organic but no certification is mentioned. 80% cotton, 17% polymide and 3% elastane)

Boody (Australia: 62-76% organic bamboo, OEKO-TEX certified, closed-loop manufacturing, made in China, Vietnam and India, available through health stores in Ireland and Boody website, €)

Peau Ethique (France: 98% organic cotton, made in a factory in Turkey, available through website, € – €€).

Wituka (Spain: 85% of organic cotton blended with 12% elastane & 3% elastane, made in Portugal, €)

Organic Basics (Denmark – 80% GOTS organic cotton or 44% recycled wool, or 70% recycled denim, vegan, company uses recycled plastic mailers, made in Europe, Available from website, €€)

A-dam (Holland – 84% GOTS organic cotton and 15% recycled marine waste, 1% elastane, PETA vegan certified, Made ethically in Turkey, Available from website, €€)

Nudie Jeans (Sweden – 75-90% organic cotton, made in Portugal, available from website, €€)

Living Crafts (Germany – 50-100% organic cotton, vegan, made using wind-powered factories with as few chemicals as possible, available to buy from website and An Siopa Beag in Co Clare,, €-€€.)

Blutsgeschwister (Germany – 98% GOTS certified organic cotton, 2% elastane, made in Fairwear accredited factories in Portugal, available to buy from website €€)

Honest Basics (Germany – 95% GOTS certified organic cotton, 5% elastane, available to buy from website €)

Jollie Socks (UK: 80-92% organic cotton, take-back service for end-of-life socks, one pair donated for every pair bought, made in Portugal, available through website or through UK social enterprise website Big Issue, €€€)

Unisock (UK: 90% GOTS certified organic cotton, made in a family-run factory in Portugal, available through website, €€)

Lucy & Yak (UK: 57-80% organic cotton, made in small factories in India paying fair wages, Buy-back option, can buy in their 4 stores in England or directly from their website, € – €€)

Peper Harow (UK – 66% GOTS certified organic cotton or 24% GRS certified Recycled Cotton & 24% Recycled Polyester, made in the UK, €€)

Thought (UK – 78% organic cotton, 19% recycled polyester 3% elastane, € – €€)

Conscious Step (America: 75% GOTS certified organic cotton, Fairtrade, Vegan, 1% planet member, one pair donated for every pair bought, made in India.

Recycled Yarn Socks

Dedoles (eco range) (Hungary: 60-80% Recycled Cotton, heavily involved in tree planting, made in Turkey, available through their Irish website €€)

Rockay (UK & Denmark: 100% recycled content, some from marine waste, sports, lifetime guarantee, ethically made in Europe, available through website, €€€)

Thunders Love (Spain: 90% recycled cotton, made in Spain in family workshops, €€€€)

Healthy Seas (Holland: 70% GOTS organic cotton and 28% recycled nylon from marine waste, Fair Wear member, compostable packaging, available from website, €€)

Ostrich Pillow – Compression socks (Spain – 50% bamboo, 25% recycled polyester, 10% recycled nylon, 15% spandex, Oeko-Tex Standard 100, ethically made in china, carbon offsetting of products through Pachama, €€€€)

Rifó (Italy – 95% recycled cashmere and 5% recycled wool, made in Italy, available from website and Oh By Gum! in Galway and Fresh Cuts Clothing in Dublin €€€€€€€€)

Teko for Life (UK: varying amounts of recycled polyester and other fibres made from salvaged from marine waste, made in Italy, €€€€)

Arvin Goods (USA: varying amounts of recycled cotton and polyester, organic cotton and Hemp BioFibre, made in China, €€€)

Socks with a Lifetime Guarantee

Rockay (See above)

Darn Tough (USA: 45 – 65% wool, made in USA, available from Basecamp Outdoor Store in Dublin and Adventure in Wicklow, €€€€)

Deadstock Socks

Socko (UK – wool / nylon, made in UK, from deadstock (existing) fibre that would otherwise have gone to waste, come with a mending kit, €€€€)

Thanks for Reading

Written by Elaine, Revised by Sophie

PS – If you want to find out where to buy other items check out my article Where to Buy

50 Sustainable Ethical Clothing Brands in Europe 2025.

We all know that the fashion industry generates a huge amount of waste and pollution, with reports citing fashion as the 4th most polluting industry in the world. In reality the fashion industry is likely to be even more damaging that current estimates, due to emissions from transportation of raw materials not being recorded. One study estimates that a t-shirt made in Cambodia could have travelled between 25,000km and a whopping 64,000km (over-one-and-a-half times the Earth’s circumference) before being bought in the UK.

This is partly down to how garments are made but also the sheer volume being produced. According to the management consultancy company McKinsey more than 100 billion items of clothing are produced annually. And it’s not as if we need all of this clothing. Research has found that although people bought 60% more garments in 2014 than in 2000, they only kept the clothes for half as long. This is mostly likely influenced by the faster trend cycle being driven by fast fashion brands like Zara, who put out 24 collections a year. For more staggering facts about fashion’s environmental impact check out this excellent article on Ecocult,.

It’s always best to buy pre-loved if you can, so check out my list of Irish companies that sell pre-loved clothing! If you can’t find what you need second hand then this article is a list of all the ‘sustainable ethical’ clothing brands in Europe, and non-European with an Irish stockist. I’ve started the process of adding size guides to all the entries, so hopefully this will you fine petite and plus size clothing to suit you as I’ve heard that can be really hard to do.

I appreciate that everyone’s definition of ‘sustainable’ and ‘ethical’ differs. For most of us it includes no fur! For others it means no animal derived products like wool, silk or leather but even if you’re okay with using animal derived fabric you may baulk at mainstream silk which typically involves boiling the silk worms alive when the fibre is harvested. I’ve compiled a separate article on the sustainability / ethics of the most popular fibre types. You can use this to decide your own definition of ‘sustainable’ and ‘ethical’. Just remember, sometimes all we can do it make the least bad choice.

Where to buy Second-Life Clothes in Ireland 2025

where to buy second hand clothes in Ireland

We all know that the fashion industry generates a huge amount of waste and pollution, with a report in 2018 citing fashion as the 4th most polluting industry in the world. What makes that statistic worse – as if that’s possible – is that every second a bin lorry’s worth of clothes are landfilled or incinerated globally! This is largely because we now create more than 100 billion garments per annum.

Want to be part of the solution, and not the problem? Then the simplest, least expensive and most accessible way to help is to buy pre-loved clothes. In fact one study estimates that the environmental impact of reused clothing is 70- times less than new!

If you opt to buy from a seller on one of the popular online apps be careful or you could meet some very nasty people.

‘Nuff said, so here’s your guide on where to find second hand clothing in Ireland and some tips on what to look for!

Are Instore Clothes Bins just Greenwashing?

I’ve always wondered about these little babies. On the face of it they seem like a good thing, right? But in my experience looks can be deceiving and well intention initiatives can have unintended negative consequences. Is that the case here or am I just too cynical. Well lets look at them in a bit more detail.

Sooooooo recycling? Long time subscribers to this website will know I’m not a fan of recycling. If you don’t now why here’s my article on Why Recycling isn’t the Answer. Is clothes recycling any different? What happens to clothing that goes into these bins?

Best Sustainable Ethical Outdoor Clothing & Gear for 2025

Whether it’s climbing, hiking or skiing, more and more of us are buying into the benefits of outdoor living. To enjoy these new pastimes fully it helps to have the right outdoor clothing and gear.

In Ireland we seem to be particularly bad at investing in good quality, outdoor clothing. I personally remember many a day shivering in a sodden gabardine coat and wet socks. Well, those days are behind us with this article on which outdoor clothing is best for sustainability and ethics.

Since I originally article I learned that the certification scheme Bluesign allows the toxic chemical, PFA, in qualifying products, so bear that in mind when choosing a brand. PFAS are a class of 15,000 chemicals used across dozens of industries to make products resistant to water, stains and heat. Though the compounds are highly effective, they are also linked to cancer, kidney disease, birth defects, decreased immunity, liver problems and a range of other serious diseases. People living along the cost should be particularly concerned about reducing our use of PFAs with research showing that sea spray levels of PFAs were hundreds of thousands times higher than levels in the water.

If you’d like to really deep dive into the nitty gritty of this area check out this in-depth analysis of the environmental impact of outdoor clothing by the UK magazine Ethical consumer