I Saw It First

Is I Saw It First an ethical and sustainable fashion brand?

I Saw It First is a fast-fashion brand and is a very low-ranking brand in The Good Shopping Guide’s Ethical Ratings Table for Fashion Retailers.

I Saw It First is an online fast fashion brand. The brand’s parent company is I Saw It First Ltd, and was founded by Boohoo co-founder, and fast-fashion business owner, Jalal Kamani. I Saw It First receives a very poor Good Shopping Guide score in our Ethical Fashion Retailers Ratings Table, and is one of our lowest-ranking fashion brands for its ethics and sustainability. Although I Saw It First has not yet met our Ethical Benchmark, we hope to see the brand make progress in the future.

In what areas does I Saw It First perform poorly for its sustainability and ethics? 

The brand was marked down under our research criteria for Environmental Report, for example. I Saw It First’s website has a sustainability page, however, this page only offers consumer advice and doesn’t discuss the brands’ own efforts to be more sustainable and ethical. To rate highly for an Environmental Report, brands must clearly state goals, strategy and progress made so far.

An FAQ section on the I Saw It First website also mentions some efforts to recycle more at the brands’ operations centres, but there are no targets or progress reports to evidence this.

During the pandemic, I Saw It First committed to donating profits from its ‘Clap For Carers’ and ‘Isolation Nation’ collections to the NHS. However, it is not clear if this scheme is still running or how much money was actually raised or donated to the NHS. This is an example of the greenwashing that some brands effectuate, in order to appear sustainable, charitable, altruistic and ethical, but actually prioritise profit above ethics and true sustainability.

I Saw It First is not a member of the Ethical Trading Initiative, and in its Modern Slavery Policy, the brand admits that across its multiple suppliers, only some factories are checked against this policy. The brand recognises the “risk in terms of effective monitoring and management of modern slavery.”

The Good Shopping Guide encourages all fashion brands to ensure that all factories have been checked against Modern Slavery policies to guarantee that workers are not trafficked, are held in unsafe conditions, are free to leave and are able to manoeuvre better working conditions or wages if necessary.

In what areas does I Saw It First perform well for its ethics and sustainability? 

I Saw It First performs well under our Animal Welfare criteria. I Saw It First adheres to the Five Freedoms, which combines the essential elements of animal welfare into one model, and was the first widely embraced evidence-based framework. See I Saw It First’s Animal Welfare Policy (AWP) here.

How can I Saw It First brand improve its Ethical Rating?

The Good Shopping Guide score results from multiple ethical criteria. To reach our minimum Ethical Benchmark and qualify for Ethical Accreditation, I Saw It First has some issues to resolve, including its lack of knowledge about its supply chain and the workers involved in those supply chains.

If your fashion brand values ethics and sustainability, why not check out The Good Shopping Guide’s Ethical Accreditation? Increase customer and investor confidence and stand out from the greenwash.