Is Uniqlo Good Quality? Quality, Construction, and Controversies Revealed

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Tadashi Yanai is the richest man in Japan and the 31st richest man on the entire planet. He’s worth $42.8 billion, and today he made $1.5 billion. Now, interestingly, if you take a close look, you can kind of see through a $40 lightweight sweater from Mr. Yanai’s company, but you can’t see through a 10X more expensive sweater that is also lightweight. The difference is very obvious if I show it to you right away. Otherwise, it’s hard to tell.

Mr. Yanai is the founder of what many believe to be the greatest clothing brand on planet Earth, the perfect balance between quality and affordability. His leadership style is said to be that of a dictator’s, and when he first inherited his father’s clothing business, every single employee in the company except one walked out. Congrats to that guy, by the way – he probably also made a billion dollars today.

Mr. Yanai wants complete control over every facet of his business: how things are folded, how the credit card is handed back to the customer, and what people say to customers. But apparently, it works because his brand has one of the strongest cult followings that I have ever seen in my entire life. So naturally, I wanted to get into the ring and see what the heck is going on with this brand, how it actually works, and if it even makes quality stuff or if it doesn’t.

Japan is now kind of the leading word for quality. If you get a Japanese sweater, Japanese jeans, a T-shirt, yarns from Japan, or whatever it may be, it’s considered to be the best of the best. But what happens if a Japanese company, instead of doing everything in-house in Japan, says, “Let’s take that same level of quality and obsession for detail and do everything overseas so we can make things much cheaper?” What do you get?

Also, I just want to nip this in the bud – this is not sponsored by Uniqlo, I’ve never spoken with Uniqlo before in my life. This is certainly not a Uniqlo fluff piece, as will be shown later. It’s just fascinating. This article will be split into four parts: the good, is Uniqlo just cheap fast fashion and marketing, the bad, and the ugly. We’ll also be comparing similarly styled garments from radically different price points for better understanding. Let’s get to it: is Uniqlo good quality?

Comparison Table

One: The Good

Sup nerds, it’s Michael. It’s really terrific to see you. We’re starting off with cotton, which is the good. On one end we have Uniqlo with their Uniqlo U t-shirt that goes for $20 and their sweater that goes for $40. On the other end, we have the Standard & Strange Wakayama t-shirt that goes for $95, which, by the way, thank you to Standard & Strange – they basically let me walk into their store and rob them blind. I had guns, so that made it easier. They just said, “Whatever you want for an article, whenever you want it, go into the store, take it, and then give it back when you’re done,” and I said, “Okay, sounds good,” so thank you guys. Then we have a Real McCoy’s Loopwheel sweater that goes for $185.

We’re looking at something that is made in Japan with the utmost highest degree of care and something that is designed in Japan and then sent somewhere else that can be made cheaper. What is the difference here? What do we see? The Uniqlo U T-shirt – it’s rough, which is funny to say about cotton. It’s not that rough, but you notice it, and the knit is very, very tight, which contributes to that a lot. But do I think it will last you a very, very, very, very long time? Yes. Same with their sweater, which is softer – it’s medium weight (the t-shirt is heavyweight). It’s good quality for $40, and it’s kind of silky feeling. I think it’s coated with something, I’m not positive. It will also last you a long time.

Obviously, though, if you compare Uniqlo to the other brands, you’ll notice some interesting stuff. Here are the differences – this applies to both the Standard Strange loop wheel t-shirt and the Real McCoy’s loopwheel sweater: they’re extra bouncy and springy by quite a bit, they’re softer but heavier, and the cotton has a lot more character.

The Real McCoy’s sweater has a bound neck with a ribbon seam along the bias. Really, what you’re feeling is one: the loop wheel stuff is knit a lot slower and not under a ton of tension, so the actual knit is flowy and soft and not just holding on for dear life, and two: the cotton that they use is also longer staple so it’s stronger, it won’t pill as much, it will have a little bit more of a shine to it.

And then finally, a big thing with cotton in general when you’re making a knit garment or denim or whatever it may be is the way it’s finished. What is the process that the woven or knit fabric goes through after it’s woven or knit? Is it treated with chemicals? Is it pressed? Is it spit on? Is it licked? You can get real freaky with finishing.

So, in summary, Uniqlo does very, very well with knit cotton stuff. I would say it’s better than what most brands are doing at that exact price point. Uniqlo clearly has a lot of value right there.

Woven Fabric

Interestingly, though, when we look at wovens, you’ll notice differences pretty much right away. These are Uniqlo’s giant fit wide fit jeans… I forget what they’re called, but they’re the biggest pants I’ve ever seen. But when you look at the actual fabric, first off, you’ll notice that it’s a very, very defined twill. Look closer and compare it to the Black Sign chinos, and you’ll see a whole world of difference and feel. That’s why I’m wearing these. I love these.

These Black Sign chinos are actually a perfect example of the luster you can get with a longer staple, higher-quality cotton. They actually have a little bit of shine to them in the sun. Nothing you’d be like, “Oh my God, is that guy wearing glitter?” It’s just such a nicer cotton that you notice it right away, and it makes the Uniqlo chino look very dry, like cardboard or like a paper bag, versus something that’s closer to silk. The luster is because you have more to bounce off of a single fiber when it’s all twisted together. You also have more strength – it’s also softer and silky smooth. It does feel like bug spray right now, but when I wash it, it will feel different.

Denim

Denim is kind of the end all be all here. I’ll be honest with you. I don’t like the selvedge denim jeans. I also, for some reason – I must have been drunk or something – bought a size 34. I wear like a size 29-30, which is odd. I don’t know why I did that. That being said, they did just release a non-stretch regular fit selvedge denim for like 50 bucks. I guarantee anybody that’s not a denim nerd, and you give them those jeans they will say those are the best jeans that they’ve ever held in their lives.

Picture this: it’s Christmas time, a young couple is sitting around the tree, a girlfriend gives her boyfriend a pair of Uniqlo selvedge denim jeans, and he says, “Wow, thanks, babe! You knew I wanted to get into selvedge denim. These are the nicest jeans I’ve ever seen!” Boom – I kick in the door, and I’m like, “The nicest jeans you’ve ever seen? What about these? These are Mr. Freedom X Sugar Cane California Lot Number 54 reedition with New Old Stock Cone Mills unsanforized denim!” And then I’m standing there, and I say, “Ho ho ho,” and I leave him the jeans, and I leave, and they say, “Wow, I love the denim community!”

Anytime Uniqlo denim comes up, and you’re like, “Is Uniqlo good quality denim?”, especially their selvedge denim, everybody’s amazed, including me, at the quality of it. But in reality, this is part of the reason they’re so good at doing cotton products, and that is because cotton as a raw material is very, very, very cheap because it’s literally everywhere. So that gives Uniqlo a lot of leeway to make things a little heavier and to make things higher quality because they can still keep the price of the garment low because of what they’re using.

Then what’s the difference between these and Mr. Freedom? Virtually everything. First off, interestingly, all of the threads on Mr. Freedom are cotton, and there are 12 different thread thicknesses and types used throughout, both for style, function and things like that. This uses new old stock Cone Mills denim, which is one of the most famous denim mills that ever existed. This is the denim that people around the world study. It’s what Levi’s used – they had a golden handshake. Beautifully aged hardware, copper hardware, nicer pocket bags, the denim is nicer, it’s unsanforized, so it shrinks when you put it in the water for the first time. You get the experience with it; it’s, you know, an artisan denim. It will last you a long time – well, so will Uniqlo, but obviously, they are two different beasts entirely.

Uniqlo has a ripoff of a Barbour Spey jacket. Uniqlo made me want to do this video ’cause I was like, “How on Earth did they make that?” It feels nothing like Barbour, obviously. It’s also not waxed. I think it’s DWR coated, not that good of quality, pretty thin, but does have a good look to it and that’s really the end of the good. There is some not bad, but now we’re going to get to that.

Two: Is Uniqlo Fast Fashion Just Like H&M And Shein?

Part of the frustration we have in marketing is that Mr. Yanai wanted to say “I’m going to build a company that moves very quickly and is being innovative,” said John C.J., Fast Retailing president of global creative. “So we called it Fast Retailing, but the press look at that and go ‘Aha! So you are fast fashion!’ But we are not.”

So the first step I will tell people is it’s not fast fashion because we will never make disposable clothing. By definition, Uniqlo is not doing fast fashion at all because what we accept as fast fashion is literally mind-bendingly fast. There is no consideration that goes into the materials – just base fabrics are dyed to look a certain way, and they’re incredibly cheap and they’re shipped out the door. A big company calls a manufacturer and says, “I need 500,000 of these by next week shipped to me,” and all of a sudden, everybody’s ripping through garments with no care for quality or anything along those lines.

That is not what Uniqlo is doing. They are designing their own fabrics for specific ways for specific looks that have intended purposes. They’re workshopping fits, and what I really find cool is the way Uniqlo talks to their manufacturers, which is what makes them so special. They have their own little baby manufacturing facilities where they test garments, fabrics, tears, strains, are there cold pockets in this jacket, whatever it may be. They make the garments and design them in-house, and then they find a manufacturer that has the exact same machines, technologies, and whatever that their baby manufacturer has, and they say, “Hey, do this, copy us exactly; here is everything you need to do, do it that way to our standards.”

I will say that is not unique to Uniqlo at all – a lot of companies do that. And also, you will see a general increase in quality when you’re not asking a manufacturer to turn around something in 5 days.

Three: The Bad

Maybe we scratch the word bad because of the $40 Merino wool sweater and $100 cashmere sweater – those are insane prices that we will get into that when we get to the ugly.

When we’re looking at Uniqlo, wool is where we start to see the cracks because it’s a more expensive raw material. Both Max Mara ($400-$500 for a wool sweater) and Uniqlo use very, very fine yarns, but Uniqlo just has them very far apart.

It’s not a tense knit at all; it’s very, very loose, and you probably think I’m going to say that the Max Mara sweater is so much softer than Uniqlo; it’s so much nicer in that regard – it is actually not. It might be similar, maybe a little coarser, but it definitely feels crisp when Uniqlo feels like they’re going for soft and a little silky, and that’s because of super washing. I don’t want to say I hate super washing ’cause there’s some cool stuff about it, and you can do it in a better way than other brands do, but super washing is essentially saying, “Hey, how can we make this natural wool fiber as close to polyester as possible?”

And essentially, wool has a bunch of little barbs, a bunch of little hooks, that’s why if you wash it in a washing machine, it felts, it sticks together. You can feel it when you pull apart a felted sweater or something like that. Super washing removes those, typically through chlorine gas. There’s also chlorine solution that you can use, which is not gas, which is apparently way safer for the workers, and they burn the barbs of the wool off, and then a lot of brands and yarn makers then coat the fiber in a very thin polymer that never comes off.

And it does a lot of things that you might like for your wool sweater, but secretly there’s a lot of things that kind of suck that it does to your sweater. What does it do that you’d like? It makes your wool garments machine washable, and they’re softer. They can be dyed brighter and more vibrant colors. Some say they’re a bit more durable. “But Michael, I like all those things! Those sound great for a sweater! What could possibly be bad about it?” The knit can lose a lot of its bounce and not return to the same shape; it absorbs water a lot faster, and you lose some of the temperature-regulating properties of wool, and it’s also terrible for the environment. It’s a mix of polyester and wool properties, which I guess is good, and you’re using fewer synthetic materials overall, so that’s good.

You could plasma treat wool, which does not use chlorine gas. I don’t think it coats the wool in plastic; it just electrifies the wool and removes the barbs. That’s very cool; it’s new and emerging. So there are a lot of benefits of super washing, but there are things that you lose which I don’t like. I’d rather have it 100% natural – if it’s going to felt and I have to hand wash it, so be it.

Three ½: Uniqlo Quality Lies Within Its Construction; Materials Are Up For Debate.

This is where my big epiphany with Uniqlo is. I found a polyester jacket that felt like wool that I really loved at Uniqlo, and I was like, “This is, this is actually incredible!” Found the same thing with a sweater. It’s like, “This is phenomenal!” And at that moment, everything that needed to come together came together, and I realized, “Oh, this is what’s happening.”

Uniqlo, like I said, has absolutely fantastic quality control. All of the garments that I’ve ever touched from them have been spot on. The construction is great, but they are at the mercy of the raw goods that they are using to get things as low priced as possible, and when you look at their synthetic line – their synthetic wool jackets, polyester jackets – that is, to me, top tier. I don’t know why I would ever recommend you get a different polyester wool imitation jacket. It’s not as good as real wool at all, that’s not what I’m saying, but if that’s what you’re looking for, don’t go anywhere else. Uniqlo really researches their products and they make sure they’re built to a certain level of quality, and that’s great.

But when you want to start to implement natural materials, which are much more expensive than synthetic materials, all of a sudden, the construction is still there, but the quality of the fabric starts to degrade pretty fast. Uniqlo works very hard to make very high-quality garments out of materials that will hit a certain price point, and those materials sometimes have a lot of drawbacks or have to be lower quality to make the garment that is built well from a sewing and design perspective possible.

Four: The Ugly

Anyways, the true ugly – it’s probably quite obvious – but Uniqlo is a giant brand that’s always trying to get as much profit as they can and make stuff as cheap as they can, and they’ve been accused many, many, many times of using forced labor from where they get the raw materials to where their clothing is made. In 2021, US Customs seized a delivery of their t-shirts, suspecting that they were using forced labor. So, you know, it comes up a lot. They’re obviously not the only company being accused of things like this, but they are a company being accused of things like that. Although, from what I read online, Uniqlo is a start – they’re a step up from very, very low-tier brands, and they’re trying to be more transparent. But that’s how I think Uniqlo works.

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Final Thoughts

So, Is Uniqlo good quality? Yes! Thank you very much for reading. Talk soon! Okay, bye-bye.

The Iron Snail is a men’s fashion vlog (and now article series!) starring a young man named Michael and featuring a snail no bigger than a quarter. The two are set on taking over the world of fashion by creating a clothing line to end all clothing lines. Until then, we’re here to tell you EVERYTHING you need to know about the best clothing out there, from the highest quality raw denim jeans to the warmest jackets to the sturdiest boots…the Iron Snail has got you covered.