How Ethical Is UNIF?

UNIF is an LA-based online family-owned fashion brand founded in 2010. But, how exactly does UNIF impact the planet, people, and animals? How ethical is UNIF? Let’s take a look. This article is based on the UNIF rating published in April 2020.

UNIF (an acronym for “Ur Not In Fashion”) is an LA-based online fashion brand founded in 2010 by designers Eric Espinoza and Christine Lai.

UNIF has a bold aesthetic, taking inspiration from the ’90s grunge and punk scenes, with a dash of Y2K and vintage vibes.

On its Instagram page (boasting 1 million followers), the brand proudly states it is family owned and operated and does not mass produce, which sounds impressive and right up our alley.

So, how exactly does UNIF impact the planet, people, and animals? How ethical is UNIF?

How sustainable is UNIF?

Usually, in our “How Ethical Is…?” articles, we take a look at the brand’s rating and break it down so that you know more about how a brand is performing across the three key areas of Environmental Impact, Labour Conditions, and Animal Welfare.

Browsing the brand’s website, we found cotton t-shirts “made in LA”, as well as “imported” polyester and rayon dresses, faux fur jackets, and leather shoes. Otherwise, we couldn’t find any relevant information about the brand’s products or how it produces its items.

There’s not much to say or dissect about UNIF’s ethical and sustainable practices. We found nothing, zero, nada. UNIF provides insufficient relevant information about how it reduces its impact on our three key areas of the Planet, People, and Animals.

As a result, we gave UNIF our lowest possible score, “We Avoid”. As a shopper, you have the right to know how UNIF production practices impact the planet, people, and animals.

UNIF might be family owned and operated, and it might not mass produce, but it needs to start disclosing more information about how, where, and by whom its items are made, as well as the materials used. Transparency is crucial to ethical and sustainable fashion and is the first step towards reducing a businesses’ impact.

Note that Good On You ratings consider 100s of issues, and it is not possible to list every relevant issue in a summary of the brand’s performance. For more information, see our How We Rate page and our FAQs.

See the rating.

Good swaps

For that trendy look minus the secrecy, we tracked down some ethical alternatives to UNIF:

Editor's note

Feature image via UNIF, all other images via brands mentioned. Good On You publishes the world’s most comprehensive ratings of fashion brands’ impact on people, the planet and animals. Use our Directory to search thousands of rated brands.