Is Uniqlo Really THAT Good?

Summary

Michael investigates whether Uniqlo lives up to its reputation as the “greatest clothing brand on planet Earth” by examining its quality, construction, and value proposition. The video is structured into four parts: The Good, Is Uniqlo Fast Fashion, The Bad, and The Ugly. He compares Uniqlo products against premium alternatives from Standard & Strange, The Real McCoy’s, Mr. Freedom, and Black Sign to illustrate the quality differences at various price points.

The verdict is nuanced: Uniqlo excels at cotton products (t-shirts, sweaters, denim) because cotton is cheap enough that they can use heavier, higher-quality materials while maintaining low prices. Their construction and quality control are consistently excellent. However, when it comes to more expensive raw materials like wool, the quality of the fabric starts to degrade to hit price points. The video also addresses ethical concerns about forced labor accusations and concludes that Uniqlo is not fast fashion but operates in a middle ground.

Highlights

”Every Single Employee Except One Walked Out”

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“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.” — Michael, 0:51

”I Kick In the Door - The Nicest Jeans You’ve Ever Seen?”

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“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… Boom! I kick in the door and I’m like ‘the nicest jeans you’ve ever seen? What about these?’” — Michael, 7:00

”Super Washing Burns the Barbs Off with Chlorine Gas”

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“Super washing removes those, typically through chlorine gas… And they burn the barbs of the wool off, and then a lot of brands and yarn makers then coat the fiber in very thin polymer that never comes off.” — Michael, 11:46

”Fantastic Quality Control, But At the Mercy of Raw Goods”

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“Uniqlo 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.” — Michael, 13:43

”Forced Labor Accusations - The True Ugly”

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“In 2021, US Customs seized a delivery of their t-shirts, suspecting that they’re using forced labor. So you know, it comes up a lot.” — Michael, 15:00

Key Points

• Tadashi Yanai’s Empire (0:00) - Uniqlo’s founder is the richest man in Japan, worth $42.8 billion, known for dictator-like control over every facet of the business
• Japan’s Quality Reputation (1:29) - Japan is considered the leading word for quality in clothing, but Uniqlo designs in Japan and manufactures overseas
• Cotton Products Excel (2:34) - Uniqlo’s $20 t-shirts and $40 sweaters are good quality that will last a long time, though they lack the character of premium alternatives
• Loop Wheel vs Uniqlo (3:51) - Premium loop wheel products are bouncier, springier, softer, and have more character due to slower knitting without tension
• Finishing Matters (4:23) - The finishing process after weaving/knitting significantly impacts quality - chemical treatments, pressing, etc.
• Woven Cotton Quality Drop (4:49) - Uniqlo’s woven products show more obvious quality differences compared to premium brands like Black Sign chinos
• Cotton Luster (5:12) - Higher quality longer-staple cotton has visible shine and silkiness vs Uniqlo’s cardboard-like appearance
• Selvedge Denim Value (6:55) - Uniqlo’s $50 selvedge denim impresses non-denim nerds but differs vastly from artisan options like Mr. Freedom
• Mr. Freedom Comparison (7:49) - Mr. Freedom jeans use 12 different thread types, cone mills denim, copper hardware - completely different category
• Barbour Spey Homage (8:27) - Uniqlo’s Barbour-inspired jacket looks good but feels nothing like actual Barbour waxed cotton
• Not Fast Fashion (8:48) - By definition, Uniqlo is not fast fashion - they design fabrics, workshop fits, and don’t make disposable clothing
• In-House Testing (9:53) - Uniqlo has their own manufacturing facilities for testing before finding identical machines at partner factories
• Wool Quality Cracks (10:56) - Wool is where quality drops noticeably - loose knit, very far apart yarns compared to premium options like Max Mara
• Super Washing Explained (11:23) - Uniqlo uses super washing on wool which makes it machine washable but removes natural properties and coats fiber in polymer
• Super Washing Drawbacks (12:20) - Knit loses bounce, absorbs water faster, loses temperature regulation, bad for environment
• Construction vs Materials (13:04) - Uniqlo’s quality lies in construction; materials are where they cut corners to hit price points
• Synthetic Excellence (13:56) - Uniqlo’s synthetic/polyester jackets are top-tier for that category
• Forced Labor Accusations (14:47) - US Customs seized Uniqlo t-shirts in 2021 over forced labor suspicions; ongoing ethical concerns

Mentions

Companies

• Uniqlo (0:00) - Main subject of the video, Japanese fast retailing company
• Standard & Strange (2:49) - Premium menswear retailer that loaned comparison pieces
• The Real McCoy’s (3:12) - Japanese brand making premium loop wheel sweaters
• Black Sign (5:03) - Brand making high-quality chinos with lustrous cotton
• Mr. Freedom (7:17) - Premium denim brand using cone mills denim
• Sugar Cane (7:17) - Japanese denim brand collaborating with Mr. Freedom
• Barbour (8:27) - British waxed jacket brand that Uniqlo copies
• Manscaped (5:47) - Sponsor of the video
• Temu (8:52) - Referenced as actual fast fashion
• Shein (8:52) - Referenced as actual fast fashion
• Cone Mills (8:05) - Famous American denim mill that Levi’s used
• Max Mara (10:50) - Italian luxury brand compared for wool quality
• 11.11 (13:09) - Premium brand making linen shirts

Products & Technologies

• Uniqlo U T-Shirt (2:43) - $20 t-shirt from Uniqlo’s premium line
• Wakayama T-Shirt (2:49) - $95 Japanese made loop wheel t-shirt from Standard & Strange
• Loop Wheel Sweater (3:12) - $180 Real McCoy’s sweater with bound neck and ribbon construction
• Selvedge Denim (6:55) - Self-edge denim, Uniqlo offers for $50
• California Lot 54 (7:17) - Mr. Freedom x Sugar Cane premium jeans with NOS cone denim
• Super Washing (11:23) - Treatment process that removes wool barbs with chlorine
• Plasma Treatment (12:40) - Alternative to super washing that doesn’t use chlorine
• DWR Coating (8:36) - Durable water repellent used on Uniqlo’s Barbour homage

People

• Tadashi Yanai (0:00) - Founder of Uniqlo, richest man in Japan worth $42.8 billion
• John C.J. (9:00) - Fast Retailing President of Global Creative
• Taylor (10:50) - Michael’s girlfriend who thrifted a Max Mara sweater

Surprising Quotes

“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.” — 0:51

“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… Boom! I kick in the door and I’m like ‘the nicest jeans you’ve ever seen? What about these?’” — 7:00

“Uniqlo 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.” — 13:43

“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.” — 14:23

Transcript

0:00 This 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, this is what it looks like to look through a $40 lightweight sweater from Mr. Yanai’s company, and this is what it looks like to look through a 10 times more expensive sweater that is also lightweight.

0:30 The difference is very obvious if I show it to you right away, but if I don’t show it to you and one of these shirts is worth $40 and the other is worth $350, which one is worth which? I tricked you - I paid $40 for both of them, they are the exact same quality. 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.

0:51 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, what people say to customers.

1:10 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 and how it actually works, and if it even makes quality stuff or if it doesn’t. Also, I totally forgot to say that I was kidding - one of these shirts is $40, the other is $350. They are very different.

1:29 Japan is now kind of the leading word for quality. If you get a Japanese sweater, Japanese jeans, t-shirt, yarns from Japan, whatever it may be, it’s considered to be the best of 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”?

1:57 Also, I just want to nip this in the bud - not sponsored by Uniqlo, never spoke with Uniqlo before in my life. This is certainly not a Uniqlo fluff piece, as will be shown later. This video 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.

2:24 Sup nerds, it’s Michael. It’s really terrific to see you, especially back out in the great wilderness. I’m covered in so much bug spray that my skin squeaks when I move my arms, which is kind of weird. But we’re starting off with cotton - The Good.

2:37 Also, look at the size of this deer I saw while walking through the woods! 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.

3:05 We have their t-shirt that goes for $95 and then we have a Real McCoy loop wheel sweater that goes for $180. $20 and something dollars - 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 you see?

3:24 The 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 the sweater which is softer. It’s medium weight, the t-shirt is heavy weight. It’s good quality for $40, it’s kind of silky feeling. I think it’s coated with something, I’m not positive. Also will last you a long time.

3:51 Obviously though, if you compare - I wasn’t sure if it was called Uni or Uniqlo, so I figured I would just sneakily call it both - here are the differences. This applies to both the loop wheel t-shirt and sweater: they’re extra bouncy and springy by quite a bit, they’re softer but heavier, the cotton has a lot more character. The Real McCoy sweater has a bound neck with ribbon cut along the bias.

4:05 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 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 - which great example coming up.

4:23 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.

4:39 So in summary, with knit cotton stuff, Uniqlo does very, very well. I would say better than what most brands are doing at that exact price point. Uniqlo clearly has a lot of value right there.

4:49 Interestingly though, when we look at woven, you’ll notice differences pretty much right away. These are Uniqlo’s giant fit wide fit chinos - 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 in feel.

5:06 And 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.

5:30 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.

5:45 But denim interestingly enough - oh sorry, didn’t see you there. This video is sponsored by Manscaped. This is the coolest shaver I’ve ever seen - it came with my Performance Package 5.0 which has this Weed Whacker 2.0, a toiletry bag, the Lawnmower 5.0 aka the shaver, and other stuff that’s right here that I don’t want my mom to hear me talk about.

6:20 Thank you Manscaped for sponsoring this video. You can use my code IRON SNAIL to save 20% off your first order and get free international shipping and a free gift for your jewels.

6:35 Denim is kind of the end-all be-all here. I’ll be honest with you, I don’t like the pants that I’m showing you. I also for some reason - I must have been drunk or something - I 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.

6:55 I guarantee anybody that’s not a denim nerd, 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.”

7:12 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 re-edition with new old stock Cone Mills unsanforized denim!” And then I’m standing there and I say “ho ho ho” and I leave them the jeans and I leave, and they say “wow, I love the denim community.”

7:28 Anytime Uniqlo denim comes up, 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, to make things higher quality, because they can still keep the price of the garment low because of what they’re using.

7:53 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’s 12 different thread thicknesses and types used throughout, both for style and function. 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.

8:17 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 an artisan denim. It will last you a long time. Well, so will Uniqlo, but obviously two different beasts entirely.

8:27 This is Uniqlo’s ripoff of a Barbour Spey jacket, which is this. What Uniqlo made me want to do this video, because 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.

8:48 There is some “not bad,” but now we’re going to get to part two: Is Uniqlo Fast Fashion, Just Like Temu 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.”

9:11 So the first step - I will tell people 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.

9:31 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.

9:50 And what I really find cool is the way Uniqlo talks to their manufacturers, which is I think what makes them so special. They have their own little baby manufacturing facilities where they test garments, fabrics, tear strains - are there cold pockets in this jacket? Whatever it may be. They make the garments and design them in-house.

10:07 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 into our standards.” I will say no, 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.

10:31 Three - The Bad. Maybe we scratch the word “bad” because… the $40 merino wool sweater, $100 cashmere sweater - those are insane prices that we will get into when we get to The Ugly. But either way, can you guess which sweater is which? Which one is like $400-$500? Which one is $40?

10:48 If you guess the little tiny gray sweater is the fancy one, you would be correct. That is a Max Mara sweater that Taylor thrifted for like five bucks. 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 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.

11:07 And you probably think I’m going to say “also 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.

11:23 I don’t want to say I hate super washing because 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 what you do when you superwash something is - 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.

11:46 Super washing removes those, typically through chlorine gas. There’s also chlorine solution that you can use which is not the 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 very thin polymer that never comes off.

12:04 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, they’re softer, they can be dyed brighter and more vibrant colors. Some say they’re a bit more durable.

12:20 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. You lose some of the temperature regulating properties of wool. And it’s also terrible for the environment.

12:40 And it’s a mix of the polyester properties and wool, which I guess is good, and you’re using less synthetic materials overall so that’s good. You could plasma treat wool which does not use chlorine gas and I don’t think coats the wool in plastic, and it just electrifies the wool and removes the barbs. That’s very cool, that’s new and emerging.

12:49 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.

13:00 3.5 - Uniqlo’s quality lies within its construction. Materials are up for debate. Remember before when I tricked you and I said the shirts were the same price and they weren’t the same price? They were very different. These are the two shirts - one of them from Uniqlo, the other from a brand called 11.11, obviously taken from Standard & Strange by gunpoint. Great shirt, I love this shirt. That’s what I said as I was robbing them blind.

13:24 This is where my big epiphany with Uniqlo was. I found a wool jacket that I really loved at Uniqlo and I was like “this is actually incredible.” Found the same thing with a sweater - “this is phenomenal.” I meant to say a jacket that felt like wool but was polyester. Sweater too. And at that moment, everything that needed to come together came together and I realized “oh, this is what’s happening.”

13:43 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.

13:56 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.

14:12 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.

14:29 Uniqlo works very hard to make very high quality garments out of the 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.

14:47 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.

15:00 And in 2021, US Customs seized a delivery of their t-shirts, suspecting that they’re 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.

15:20 But that is that’s how I think Uniqlo works. Thank you very much for watching. I will see you next two weeks, hopefully in the next two weeks with a clothing item that I can’t…