10 Brands Like Older Brother for Eco-Friendly Fashion
You've put the same $295 double-knee pants in your cart three times now, and closed the tab three times. Older Brother earns that hesitation. The Portland label dyes with indigo, madder root, myrobalan and oak galls, works in Japanese organic cotton and linen, and says on its process page that it makes "universal garments, equally tailored to fit men, women and people." Building a whole wardrobe at those prices isn't happening for most of us. These 10 brands work the same seam from different angles, and every price below came off the brand's own US site this week.
Quick comparison: the closest match on materials is Kotn, which sells a unisex denim and Egyptian-cotton shirting. The cheapest entry point is Wama Underwear at $32 USD for hemp boxer briefs. For footwear, Veja and Allbirds split the job between leather and wool. And if the appeal of Older Brother is clothes you keep rather than replace, Nudie Jeans and Patagonia both repair what you already own.
| Brand | Price (USD) | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Patagonia | Premium | Repairs and buying secondhand |
| Girlfriend Collective | $98 to $128 on leggings | Sizes XXS to 6XL |
| Everlane | $56 to $135 on womenswear | Plain-colour workwear basics |
| Veja | $140 on the ETNA | One sneaker that goes with everything |
| Tentree | $78 to $108 on sweats | Soft cotton under $100 |
| Kotn | $49 to $148 on men's tops | Egyptian-cotton shirting and unisex denim |
| Allbirds | $91 to $160 on shoes | Wool and tree-fibre sneakers |
| Nudie Jeans | $195 on workwear pants | Denim repaired free, for as long as you own it |
| Outerknown | $99 to $155 on shirts | Heavyweight overshirts |
| Wama Underwear | $32 to $68 | Hemp basics under $50 |
Patagonia
Patagonia is the one brand here that will take your old clothes back and sell them to somebody else. Its Worn Wear site buys eligible used Patagonia gear and resells it, so a used Cap Cool Daily Hoody lists at $38 USD and a used P-6 Logo Uprisal Crew Sweatshirt at $47 USD. Patagonia also repairs what it sells.
The design language sits a long way from Older Brother's. Patagonia cuts for wind and rain, not for a dye vat, and its palette runs bright where Older Brother runs earthy. What the two share is the assumption that a piece stays with you. Patagonia's new-season prices sit in premium territory, which is why the secondhand side of the business is the interesting door for anyone who liked Older Brother's price tags less than its philosophy.
Best for: buying used and getting things mended instead of replaced.
Girlfriend Collective
Girlfriend Collective makes its Black Compressive High-Rise Legging ($108 USD) from 79% recycled water bottles and 21% spandex, and puts the count on the product page: 25 bottles per pair. Sizing runs XXS to 6XL, which is wider than anything else on this list.
Older Brother's fit philosophy is about dropping the men's and women's split. Girlfriend Collective's is about the size range, and the two land in a similar place for anyone tired of being told which rail to shop from. The catalogue is activewear rather than everyday clothing, so treat it as the brand you buy leggings from and not the one you rebuild a wardrobe with. The Compressive Pocket Legging costs $118 USD.
Best for: leggings in a size range that goes to 6XL.
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Everlane
Everlane sells the plain, flat-coloured version of what Older Brother makes, at roughly a third of the price. The Utility Twill Barrel Pant costs $84 USD, the Utility Seamed Wide-Leg Pant $135 USD, and the Tissue Boatneck Top $56 USD.
Everlane's own product pages say it works with factories that recycle up to 98% of their water, though it doesn't name the factory on the pages we checked. That's a narrower claim than Older Brother's dye list, which specifies indigo, myrobalan and iron oxide by name. What Everlane gives you instead is availability and a size run you can find in stock on a Tuesday. We've written more about where it sits among its peers in our guide to sustainable brands like Everlane.
Best for: office-shaped basics in one colour.
Veja
Veja handles the part of the outfit Older Brother doesn't make. The ETNA in suede or leather costs $140 USD, and the older models people know the brand for, including the Campo, the V-10, the Esplar and the Volley, sit around the same mark.
Veja's own site puts its start at 2005 and describes the work as "mixing social projects, economic justice, and ecological materials." The visual overlap with Older Brother is real: low-contrast colours and no logo doing the shouting, on a shoe that disappears under a wide trouser leg. Sizing is unisex across most models, which matters if you've been buying by measurement rather than by department. If you want the full field, we compared the alternatives in our roundup of sneaker brands like Veja.
Best for: one pair of sneakers that works with everything else here.
Tentree
Tentree is where this list gets affordable. The Juniper Hoodie in organic cotton costs $88 USD, the Reynard Crew $78 USD, and the Quilted Colville Overshirt $108 USD, which is the piece closest in shape to something from Older Brother's rack.
Tentree's headline claim is printed across its product pages: every item plants 10 trees. That's the brand's own accounting, and it's a different kind of argument from Older Brother's, which is about what goes into the cloth rather than what happens after you buy it. The clothes are soft and cut roomy, with none of the plant-dye colour shift you get from indigo. Stock is deep, and most sizes stay available.
Best for: soft organic-cotton sweats you can buy without thinking about it.
Kotn
Kotn is the closest match on this list, and the only other brand here selling a piece labelled unisex. Its Unisex Antifit Denim costs $79 USD. Men's tops run $49 to $148 USD, from the Thebes Longsleeve at $49 USD up to the Haydar Shirt at $148 USD.
Kotn builds around Egyptian cotton and describes its work as "timeless designs that honour the people who make them and the places they're made." It doesn't name a factory on its collection pages. The aesthetic overlap with Older Brother is strong: unfussy shirting in quiet colours, with a Classic Oxford Shirt at $128 USD that would sit happily next to a naturally dyed pair of trousers. The difference is the dye. Kotn's colours are conventional, so you get the shape without the mineral-dye character.
Best for: Egyptian-cotton shirting, and the one unisex denim on this list.
Allbirds
Allbirds makes shoes out of the same family of fibres Older Brother uses for clothes. The Men's Cruiser ($105 USD) puts a TENCEL Lyocell tree-fibre blend in the upper, a merino wool blend in the lining, and SweetFoam sugarcane-based EVA in the midsole.
Prices run from $91 USD for the Men's Strider to $160 USD for the Women's Wool Runner NZ Mid Waterproof. Allbirds is the softer, more casual option next to Veja's leather, and it's the pair you wear when the trousers are already doing the work. Colourways sell through quickly, so the model you want and the colour you want don’t reliably show up together. Our list of shoe brands like Allbirds covers the alternatives when a size runs out.
Best for: wool and tree-fibre sneakers you can wear without socks.
Nudie Jeans
Nudie Jeans repairs its jeans for free, and has done since 2007. The Swedish brand started in Gothenburg in 2001 under founders Maria Erixon Levin and Joakim Levin, and its repair shops also resell worn pairs and take donations into its recycling programme.
The Tuff Tony Pants in washed black duck canvas ($195 USD) are 100% organic cotton, high waisted and wide legged, which is about as close as anyone here gets to Older Brother's trouser silhouette. Nudie says on its sustainability page that it uses regenerative organic cotton alongside conventional organic. Dry indigo denim ages the way plant-dyed cloth ages, going pale at the knee and the seat, so the two brands reward the same habit of wearing one pair into the ground.
Best for: a pair of trousers you'll still be wearing in five years.
Outerknown
Outerknown builds its range around the Blanket Shirt, a heavyweight overshirt that costs $149 to $155 USD depending on the fabric. The Artist Oxford is $135 USD and the Hooded Sun Shirt $99 USD.
Outerknown's materials page reports that its preferred-fibre usage moved from 87% to 95% in 2022, counting Regenerative Organic Certified cotton, organic cotton, hemp and recycled nylon among others. That's the brand's own figure, published on its own site. The surf-shaped styling is looser and warmer than Older Brother's, and the plaids are woven rather than dyed in a vat, so the colour reads flatter. Kelly Slater designs pieces under his own name for the label, including the Tahiti Pro APEX Evolution Trunk ($168 USD).
Best for: a thick overshirt to wear as a jacket in shoulder season.
Wama Underwear
Wama Underwear is the cheapest way onto this list. Hemp Boxer Briefs cost $32 USD in a blend of 53% hemp, 44% organic cotton and 3% spandex, and the range tops out at $68 USD for Hemp Pajama Pants.
Hemp is the fibre Older Brother's world talks about and rarely sells, and Wama has built its whole catalogue on it. The range is small, at 10 products, which makes it a supporting act rather than a wardrobe. The Hemp Crew Neck T Shirt ($40 USD) and the Hemp Long Sleeve Shirt ($50 USD) are the two pieces that leave the underwear drawer. Wama doesn’t dye anything with plants, so think of it as the layer underneath rather than the layer people see.
Best for: hemp basics you can try for under $50.
Where to Start If You Want the Older Brother Feel
Start with Kotn if what you liked was the cloth and the cut, because the Unisex Antifit Denim ($79 USD) and the Egyptian-cotton shirting get you nearest for the least money. Start with Nudie Jeans or Patagonia if what you liked was the idea of owning one good thing for a decade, since both will mend what you already have. Veja and Allbirds fill the gap Older Brother leaves at your feet.
What none of these will give you is the plant dye. Indigo and madder root produce colours that move as you wear them, and no brand on this list does that at scale. If that's the part you can't let go of, buy one Older Brother piece and build the rest of the outfit from the names above. More of our brand comparisons are over on the articles page.
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Written by
Spencer Lanoue
