GU
Anyone assuming that disclosure is a matter of price should look at this page — and then at that of a luxury bag costing €4,300.
GU
- Origin
- Japan
- Founded
- Not disclosed
- Group
- Fast Retailing
- Production
- Supplier list published
- Core materials
- Not disclosed
- Price level
- 1/4
How much this brand discloses, and how much of it we could verify. It is not a quality rating — a composition line cannot tell you how good a fabric is. How we calculate it
- Production disclosure 25/25
- Linked sources 20/20
- Own material check 0/15
- Fabric weight stated 0/12
- Country stated per product 0/10
- Construction detail stated 0/10
- Cost breakdown published 0/8
Evidence for the price Above what this price band usually documents
¥990, and the origin is right there
On 30 July 2026 we checked a GU t-shirt in the Japanese shop, article 356276, ¥990 — roughly six euros. The page states the composition (100% cotton, ribbing with recycled polyester) and a line you would hardly expect at this price: “Product origin (sewing, knitting, assembly): Bangladesh”.
We cross-checked a second item, a hat at ¥100. It carries the same line with a different country: China. The statement is therefore systematic, not a one-off.
The cheapest item in our entire research is also the most forthcoming.
705 factories, with address and workforce
Parent company Fast Retailing publishes a list of its production partners. We downloaded and examined the table, as of 2 March 2026: 709 rows with country, factory name, address, city, region, product type, factory type, number of workers, share of female workers, share of migrant workers, parent company, and whether a trade union exists.
That goes beyond what Fendi publishes — there you get names and addresses, but no workforce figures and nothing on unions. Per the group, the list is updated every six months.
A limitation worth knowing
The list has no brand column.
You cannot tell from it which factory produces for GU and which for Uniqlo. The corporate page names no brand in its scope, speaking instead of “FR brands”. That GU and Theory are covered appears explicitly only in a trade article from 2019 — not in the current publication.
We therefore treat the list as a group disclosure, not as brand-level proof.
The brand
GU was founded in October 2006 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fast Retailing, the same group as Uniqlo. It is positioned explicitly below Uniqlo on price.
One detail for later: the product page source already carries fields for fabric origin — knitting and weaving, dyeing — with a note that they apply to items from season 24FW onward. On the items we checked they were empty. Were that to roll out broadly, it would be a second-tier supply chain statement at product level.
Verifiable statements with a source, not a rating. We publish no ethics score of our own — for that, follow the external link.
- Supplier list published
- View the list
What we can document
- “Product origin (sewing, knitting, assembly): Bangladesh” visible on the product page (art. 356276, ¥990), checked 30 July 2026
- Second item with the same line and a different country (China) — the statement is systematic
- Composition stated: 100% cotton, ribbing with recycled polyester
- Fast Retailing production partner list, 709 rows, as of 2 March 2026, downloaded ourselves
- List columns: country, factory name, address, city, region, product type, factory type, number of workers, share of female workers, share of migrant workers, parent company, trade union
- Updated every six months per the group
- GU founded October 2006, wholly owned subsidiary of Fast Retailing
What we cannot
- Which of the factories produce for GU — the list has no brand column
- Whether the origin statement appears outside the Japanese shop; we checked the Japanese one
- Fabric origin — the fields exist in the page source but were empty on our items
- Whether conditions in the listed factories match the stated figures; we visited none
Where to buy GU
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GU
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Sources
4 in total · archived internally- T-shirt ¥990 with origin line “Bangladesh” (art. 356276) — GU Read 30 July 2026
- Production partner list as a table, 709 rows, as of 2 March 2026 — Fast Retailing Read 30 July 2026
- Scope and update cycle of the factory list — Fast Retailing Read 30 July 2026
- GU as wholly owned subsidiary, founded October 2006 — Fast Retailing Read 30 July 2026
Reader reviews of GU
These are readers’ own experiences, not an assessment by our editorial team. We do not test — we document, and we cite. Every review is checked before it appears.
No reader review yet. Yours would be the first.
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Questions readers ask
Does GU really name the country of manufacture?
Yes. The product page we checked on 30 July 2026 states “Product origin (sewing, knitting, assembly): Bangladesh”. A second item carried the same line with China — the statement is systematic.
Does the group publish a factory list?
Yes. Fast Retailing provides a production partner list; we downloaded it: 709 rows with factory name, address, number of workers, share of female and migrant workers, and whether a trade union exists.
Does the list say which factory sews for GU?
No. It has no brand column. That GU is covered appears in a trade article from 2019, not in the group’s current publication.
Who owns GU?
Fast Retailing, wholly. Uniqlo belongs to the same group.