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Outer Known Review: Sustainable and Ethically Sourced Chemical Free Clothing

Outerknown

Outerknown sells clothes with 67.1% natural plant fibre material across 179 scanned styles. The rest breaks down as 3.9% animal fibre, 22.3% synthetic, 0.0% semi-synthetic and 20.7% with no stated composition.

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2/5 · Mostly unnatural · 62.9% plant fibre · 867 styles scanned
867 styles%
100% plant fibre62.9%
Animal fibre5.9%
Synthetic31.2%

867 Styles Scanned

2026-07-14

The full style-by-style breakdown for Outerknown is being added.

About Outerknown

Outerknown is partly sustainable on materials: our scan of 179 styles found 67.1% plant fibre (22.3% synthetic). See structured field above.
Outerknown garments are manufactured across a publicly disclosed, mapped supply chain rather than at a single facility, and Outerknown posts its factory list online (a practice the Fair Labor Association specifically cited as a strength). Documented manufacturing partners and countries include Peru (Bergman Rivera, World Textile Sourcing), China (Chen Feng Apparel, Chuang Sheng Knitting), Mexico (Hong Ho Mexico), Sri Lanka (Smart Shirts Limited), Malaysia (South Island Garments), Vietnam (Saitex, whose facility was the first in Asia to become B Corp certified; VT Garment Co, a Fair Trade Certified factory making its Apex swim trunks), and the United States (SoCal Garment in Vernon, California). Its recycled “Second Spin” line has been made in Tangier, Morocco. Outerknown states it maps 100% of its supply chain; the specific country of manufacture varies by individual product.
Outerknown is a US sustainable apparel brand co-founded in 2015 by 11-time world champion surfer Kelly Slater and designer John Moore (formerly of Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren), and is headquartered in the Los Angeles area, California. Outerknown launched its menswear line publicly on 15 July 2015 and added a women’s collection for spring/summer 2019. Outerknown is privately held and is not owned by a large fashion conglomerate; as of May 2024 it was placed under a newly formed holding company alongside Kelly Slater’s surf brands Firewire Surfboards and Slater Designs, with Dylan Slater (no relation to Kelly) appointed to lead that holding company. Reported figures (unverified against audited accounts) cite roughly $36 million in annual revenue and a workforce of around 50. Kelly Slater remains the public co-founder and figurehead.
Outerknown is a real, currently-trading, legitimate business as of 2026. Outerknown operates an active e-commerce site with 2026 collections and sale pages, maintains customer reviews from 2026, and its Fair Labor Association accreditation shows ongoing compliance activity including a 2025 factory assessment. This is the clothing/apparel brand founded by surfer Kelly Slater, not to be confused with any similarly named entity in another industry.
Outerknown is positioned as a slow-fashion, sustainability-focused apparel brand rather than fast fashion. Outerknown emphasizes durable, higher-priced casualwear (reviews note its prices are higher than mass-market brands), responsible and recycled materials (it states roughly 95% of its fibers are organic, recycled, or regenerated), a take-back/resale program (“Outerworn”), and full supply-chain mapping. It does not operate on the rapid, high-volume, disposable-trend cycle that characterizes fast fashion. It is best described as a mid-to-premium sustainable brand, not a small-batch artisan maker.
Outerknown is a mixed bag for non-toxicity: 67.1% of its range is plant fibre that breathes and biodegrades, with 22.3% plastic-based synthetics that can shed microplastics. Certifications: Outerknown holds and works within several third-party certifications, verified across independent and primary sources. It is Fair Trade Certified through Fair Trade USA at factory level (including VT Garment Co). It uses GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) certified organic cotton via GOTS-approved suppliers such as Bergman Rivera and Serflex S.A.C. Outerknown uses Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) cotton and reports having converted farmland (cited as ~28 acres) to ROC practices. It works with bluesign-certified suppliers/fabrics. Critically, Outerknown is an accredited member of the Fair Labor Association (accredited October 2017, and the first brand to pursue FLA accreditation from its founding), with ongoing monitoring including a 2025 factory assessment in Sri Lanka. Outerknown itself is NOT a certified B Corporation, though it works with B Corp certified suppliers. OEKO-TEX and European Flax certifications are not publicly documented as brand-held (European Flax/linen is not a core Outerknown material)..
Outerknown holds the following certifications: Outerknown holds and works within several third-party certifications, verified across independent and primary sources. Beyond any paper certification, our scan of 179 Outerknown styles found 67.1% is 100% plant fibre, which is the measurable material fact behind Outerknown’s claims.
Outerknown is not entirely 100% cotton: our scan of 179 Outerknown styles found 67.1% is 100% plant fibre (mainly cotton), while 22.3% of Outerknown’s range is synthetic, usually cotton blended with elastane for stretch. So many Outerknown basics are pure cotton, but Outerknown’s fitted and active styles typically add a small share of synthetic.
How we scan. Every figure on this page comes from the Throne Standard scan: we read the fibre composition off each live product on the brand’s own site, style by style, and count only single-fibre plant cloth (cotton, linen, hemp) as natural. Animal fibres such as wool, silk and cashmere and plastic-based synthetics such as polyester, nylon and elastane sit outside the plant-fibre figure, and regenerated fibres such as viscose, bamboo, modal and Tencel are counted as semi-synthetic. Percentages are calculated over the styles that state a composition; anything unlabelled is shown separately.

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