At Subset, sustainability isn’t a marketing approach — it’s our mandate. Each year, we strive to improve upon our standards as the most sustainable basics brand in the market. While 2025 challenged us in many ways, we remain steadfast in our commitment to running an environmentally and ethically founded business. From surpassing 2 million items recycled through our expanded Recycling Program, to ocean-freighting our goods for the very first time, we made incredible strides toward our sustainability goals and significantly reduced our footprint as a company. We are so proud of our progress, and are excited for what’s to come. Keep scrolling to read the 2025 Impact Report.
Make organic cotton your daily default.
Better clothing for this planet.
Our approach to sustainability is simple: focus on improving what we do best. We recognize there is not one silver bullet solution to climate change, so we solve for something simply, backing all of our decisions with scientific research and the highest quality certifications.
Beyond our mission, vision, and sustainability stance, we set pillars that guide our business decisions. Always in mind, these guideposts represent Subset’s core values.
Each year, we take a moment to look back on the sustainability goals we set, and the progress we made in achieving them. Here's a look at what we accomplished:
Prevent excess inventory + waste:
This year we focused on making the products our customers want the most: undies and bras. We opted to forgo the production of new and unproven categories in order to avoid creating excess inventory and waste.
Reduce Scope 3 emissions:
In 2025, we made tremendous strides in reducing our Scope 3 emissions in both upstream and downstream shipping. First, we moved our warehouse from Brooklyn to Ohio - bringing us closer to more of our customers geographically, and thereby reducing the impact of shipping orders across the country. Second, we utilized ocean freight to import new inventory, cutting emissions across multiple purchase orders significantly - by up to 100x according to some estimates.
Recycle even more:
Since 2018, we have been helping our customers to dispose of their undies responsibly, by offering the world’s first Recycling Program for intimate apparel. In 2025, we partnered with Trashie to expand our offering beyond the top drawer, enabling customers to send back everything from underwear to sneakers. We’ve recycled over 2 million items to date, and counting.
We’ve set ambitious targets for our material portfolio that represent future innovation in the fashion industry. These goals represent absolute ideals — that we may not fully achieve — but are North Stars that will guide our progress over time.
Organic Cotton represents the majority of our material portfolio. Here's a look at our fiber consumption from 2025, reflective of the products we sold across Underwear, Bras, Lounge, Socks and Merch [exclusive of trims].
95.6% of Our Fiber Portfolio
0.4% of Our Fiber Portfolio
4.2% of Our Fiber Portfolio
There are many reasons as to why we have made organic cotton our #1 preferred material - and why it remains over 95% of our material portfolio. Organic cotton is grown without the use of synthetic and toxic pesticides or fertilizers, making it better for the planet and its surrounding communities. Additionally, our GOTS-certified supply chain ensures that no harmful chemicals are used throughout the entire manufacturing process, and that everyone involved in the production of Subset goods is paid fairly and treated ethically.
Not only do we commit to using organic cotton in all of our products, we go a step further by ensuring our entire supply chain is certified to the Global Organic Textile Standard [GOTS]. As a GOTS certified company, organic standards for chemical use are upheld at each node of our supply chain, including weaving, dyeing, cut and sew and even distribution. This means that our products are certified-free from harmful compounds, including PFAS chemicals that have been known to cause cancer. Plus, GOTS certification includes a social component that matches Fair Trade standards, ensuring ethical production from farm to factory.
We worked with Green Story to calculate the carbon footprint, water savings, and land area saved from pesticides of our products. This not only helps our customers to understand the impact of choosing more sustainable materials, but it also pushes other brands to begin measuring the impact of what they produce. Here's a look at how the production of just one pair of Subset Underwear compares to other alternatives in the market:
When we changed our name to Subset back in 2023, we were left with a lot of inventory that still said Knickey in our warehouse. Rather than destroy these items through incineration or ship them to the global south [like many brands might] we decided to work through them. Sustainability is all about making use of what we already have, and that’s why we’ll continue to sell these perfectly good units until we run out.
Each year, we measure the Greenhouse Gas Emissions [planet-warming gases] related to making our products and running the business; in order to keep an eye on the areas we can work to reduce. In 2025, our biggest impact came from producing our products.
1,803
metric tonnes
To account for a large portion of our carbon impact, we offset the emissions that arise from shipping from our factory to our warehouse, along with shipping orders to our customers. We work with our import shipping partner, Flexport, to invest in verified offset projects that help restore mangroves in Pakistan and capture carbon emissions in the process. Additionally, any customer that checks out with Shop Pay helps to fund carbon removal projects through Shopify’s Carbon Removal initiatives.
We know that offsetting is not the solution to curbing carbon emissions. The most important way to do that is to actually reduce emissions in the first place. However, as much as we push to reduce our carbon footprint throughout our entire supply chain, there are some areas where we have little to no control over the total energy use or fuel source - like the gasoline that our shipping partners use to power their delivery trucks. We will continue to work to reduce energy use and emissions in areas that we can control, and use offsets to make an impact in the areas of our supply chain where we can’t.
Localized Sourcing
The organic cotton used in all of our products is grown and processed in India, and we source all of our our elastics in India as well. By sourcing our materials and most of our trims locally, the impact of shipping goods to and from our factory is greatly reduced.
Solar Powered Manufacturing
Our primary supplier in India uses rooftop solar panels, which provide 30% of the factory’s energy needs. This reduces reliance on the national electricity grid, which is still primarily powered by coal.
Importing by Boat
Due to improvements in inventory planning, we were able to take advantage of ocean container shipping this past year. Shipping via ocean rather than air can reduce emissions up to 100x.
As a company founded on the principles of circularity, we take responsibility for every product we put into the world. Which is why we started the world's first Recycling Program for intimate apparel back in 2018. This past year we expanded our program beyond the top drawer with Trashie, to recycle even more clothing - including shirts, shoes, jeans and sheets.
clothing & textiles recycled
recycling packages processed
garments diverted from landfill
In 2025, we officially crossed the 2 Million Items Recycled mark - our biggest milestone in circularity yet - and we're just getting started.
Zach leads our Ohio fulfillment team and makes sure that all of your orders arrive perfectly packaged. He was instrumental in getting our new warehouse up-and-running when we relocated our operations to Ohio.
Our manufacturing facility in India is a Fair Trade certified factory. This means that the workers who make Subset products are paid a living wage, provided a safe and healthy working environment, assigned reasonable hours, and allowed to organize and collectively bargain.
To celebrate the indispensable people behind the scenes, we participate in Fashion Revolution Week each year, sharing the individuals that make Subset clothes. This includes our manufacturing team in India, and our distribution team in Ohio.
We have always prioritized community engagement and support in order to provide new, clean underwear to individuals in need - and 2025 was our biggest year of giving yet. As part of our warehouse relocation, we set aside Subset inventory to share with organizations across the country. This year we donated over 20,000 items with a combined value worth over $500,000.
Over 10,000 Bras & Underwear donated to their Menstrual Oasis and Back-to-School events held in the Baltimore area.
I Support the Girls, is an organization working to provide menstrual care and undergarments to women and folx in need.
Over 8,200 units donated to Global Empowerment Mission, LA Clothing Drive & others.
Over $8,000 worth of product mailed directly to Subset customers impacted.
Over 2,500 units donated to support those who have come to New York City seeking asylum.
NYDIS provides temporary shelter for asylum seekers.
Over 1,500 units donated to help unhoused individuals.
Hygiene4All provides showers, personal hygiene supplies, clothing & bedding, along with a community space for those experiencing homelessness in Portland, Oregon.
Over 900 items donated to Columbia Medical Center’s free clinic.
Columbia Care Access Project provides medical services and essential resources to the unhoused community around New York City.
Over 700 pairs of maternity underwear donated to help mothers caring for newborns in the NICU.
&mamatoo provides postpartum care baskets to pregnant and postpartum mothers.
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