Brands You Might Think Are Vegan, and Why We Red-Tag Them

How a brand gets a vegan reputation it has not earned

Nobody in this piece is lying. Every animal material below is printed on the brand's own product page, which is how we found it. The problem is that reputations form once and are rarely checked again. A brand announces a vegan pledge, or launches a vegan line, or sells mostly cotton, and the word "vegan" settles on it. Directories copy each other. Years later a wool cardigan arrives in New In and nobody notices, because nobody is looking.

We looked. Each brand below fails our materials gate, so it carries a red tag and a score below zero. That does not mean you cannot buy from it. Every animal-free piece we list from a red brand is still animal-free, and it carries a 50-point penalty for the range it helps to fund. You decide what that is worth. Scores are as of 24 September 2026.

Crocs: −93

In July 2021 Crocs announced that it would be "a 100 percent vegan brand" by the end of that year. PETA gave it an award, and vegan guides still list it as fully vegan.

On 24 September 2026 Crocs' UK site was selling the Crafted Pony Hair Clog at £79.99. Crocs' own product details describe it as having a "Genuine cowhide leather upper with animal hair" and a "Leather Crocs™ label on upper". The company's current restricted-substances policy also tells its factories how to keep "vegan and non-vegan production" apart, which is not a sentence a fully vegan brand needs to write.

Most Crocs are still made from its Croslite foam, and those are animal-free. Read the full assessment.

Lucy & Yak: −70

Lucy & Yak is one of the most transparent brands we have assessed. It names 23 of its suppliers, publishes a composition on every product, is a member of Fair Wear, and runs a take-back scheme. It is also widely listed as vegan by ethical directories.

Its current knitwear and scarves include pieces blended with Responsible Wool Standard wool. The Juniper cardigan, for example, is 20 per cent RWS wool. Those pieces were sold out when we checked, but they were still listed in the current range, including in New In. Its supplier list also includes a bag maker called Smart Leather, although every bag on sale was cotton or recycled polyester.

A brand this open about its supply chain is exactly the kind we would expect to answer quickly. Read the full assessment.

TALA: −93

Grace Beverley's activewear label is built on recycled fabrics, and at least one sustainable-shopping directory describes it as using non-animal materials. Its UK site sells the Knit-Waisted Cardigan at £68, listed as 10 per cent wool. The rest of what we checked was recycled synthetics, cotton and viscose. Read the full assessment.

Veja: −55

Veja is often the first name people give when asked for vegan trainers, and it does make them. The Campo, cut from a corn-waste alternative, is genuinely animal-free. But the V-10 and V-12, the models most people picture, are made with bovine leather, and leather runs through much of the range.

So the Campo scores −5 with us: the brand's published evidence is good, and the 50-point brand penalty takes it below zero. Veja as a brand scores −55. If you want a Veja, the Campo is the one to buy. If you want a brand that is animal-free throughout, our rated list has several.

Stella McCartney: −55

Stella McCartney has never used leather, fur, feathers or skins, and did more than any other luxury house to show that it did not need to. That deserves saying plainly. The brand does use wool and silk, sourced through published responsible-wool and peace-silk programmes, and our gate does not grade animal materials by how well the animal was treated.

Its Elyse platform, on a plant-based upper, scores −5. The brand scores −55. We explain why welfare standards do not change the tag in where fashion's animal materials come from.

Thought: −80, and our own mistake

We had rated Thought as clear of both gates, on the strength of its bamboo and organic cotton basics. A re-check this month found a 100 per cent wool mitten in its UK store, wool-blend hats, and a range of wool socks. We were wrong. We corrected the rating the same day, and the change is dated in our corrections log.

Thought's bamboo scarf is still exactly what its label says. It now scores −30.

Why this keeps happening

• Pledges age. A promise made in 2021 is not a description of 2026's range.
• Vegan lines are not vegan brands. A vegan capsule tells you about the capsule.
• Directories copy directories. Several of the listings we found were years out of date and disagreed with the brand's own product pages.
• Small percentages hide. A jumper that is 10 per cent wool is sold as a jumper, not as a wool jumper.

What to do with this

If you want to buy only from brands that are animal-free throughout, check our brands list before you buy, and look at the composition line, not the product name. If you are happy to buy an animal-free piece from a mixed brand, you now know what it funds. Either way, a brand that disagrees with its tag can write to us with the evidence. Every brand here is being sent its assessment and invited to reply, and we publish what it tells us.