With Black Friday around the corner, most brands are inundating your inbox with tempting deals and promotions. Recent discussions around Black Friday have questioned the ‘realities’ of these sales and its power as a marketing tool.

Increasingly, brands are rejecting the cycles of overconsumption, mass production, and ‘profit over planet’ patterns. Instead, they are opting for approaches that encourage us to reconsider the structures from the outset, or to directly reinvest in communities and organizations to support their broader ethos.

Here are some brands redefining Black Friday and Cyber Monday this time of year.

KOTN
With Kotn celebrating its 10th anniversary this month, the brand is once again skipping traditional Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales—an action it has initiated since 2017. Instead, every dollar spent during the weekend will fund two brand-new primary schools in their cotton-farming communities in Egypt through their ABC’s Project. “From day one, the goal was to support the farming communities that grow our cotton, not just focus on the product. And now we’re seeing the impact; this year is actually the first year one of the kids who started in our schools is graduating and heading to medical school, which is pretty incredible,” says Rami Helali, Co-founder & CEO at Kotn.

In addition to donating proceeds, this year they’ve partnered with Little Free Library to install outdoor libraries at their Toronto and New York shop locations, stocked with books by MENA authors curated by Middle East Archive, helping dismantle barriers to literacy access.

Maguire Shoes
Not participating in traditional sale events like Black Friday and Boxing Day has been Maguire Shoes‘ stance since its inception. “I rethought the traditional pricing model and decided to move away from seasonal sales, choosing instead to offer our best price year-round,” says Myriam Belzile-Maguire, founder and head of design at Maguire. “Why should a loyal customer who buys on day one pay more than someone who waits for a sale? I wanted to give every customer a fair and transparent price from the start.” Set to break a sales record this month, Maguire has noticed that their consumers are buying when they need to and confident they won’t miss out on a better price later.

Asket
Founded a decade ago in Stockholm, Sweden, on the premise of celebrating clothes that are truly worn and loved, Asket focuses on timeless, essential garments designed to last rather than feed the constant churn of trend cycles. Aligned with this philosophy, the brand has never offered discounts or sales, so when Black Friday first arrived in 2015, they simply decided not to participate. The following year, they took an even more powerful stance and closed their stores for the day. To redirect consumers’ focus from buying new things to caring for what they already own, they also launched a garment-care program. To this day, Asket has continued this tradition—shutting down both its e-commerce and physical stores each Black Friday as a powerful counter statement.

Belacaro
In a world that supports (and pushes) impulse purchases, Belacaro recognizes that it’s sometimes tough to distinguish between essentials and desires. Bidding farewell to fleeting trends, the brand prefers a more conscious approach to shopping. It invites consumers to take the time to choose and prioritize quality over accumulation. “Choosing thoughtful, responsible consumption supports a more sustainable future. Every purchase reflects our values and helps build a better world,” says founder Caroline Belanger. Handcrafted in Quebec from carefully sourced baby alpaca wool and made to order, this writer’s personal favourite from the brand for winter is their balaclava.

Patagonia
In 2011, Patagonia ran a Black Friday ad in The New York Times with bold lettering that read: “Don’t buy this jacket.” This year, they are embracing Giving Tuesday, an initiative to protect the natural environment, in partnership with Adyen and Conservation Lands Foundation. Customers will be able to donate to Conservation Lands Foundation during checkout this festive season, with payment partner Adyen matching donations at retail locations and on Patagonia’s website.

ALIGNE
ALIGNE currently has a banner on its website homepage stating, “We do not participate in Black Friday.” And this isn’t new. The brand has chosen not to participate in Black Friday since it was re-founded by Ginny Seymour. “From day one, our focus has been on creating future-friendly designs at the best possible price, without inflating costs only to slash them later,” Seymour says. Rather than sales, they instead invest in Giving Tuesday, a moment dedicated to supporting the communities and causes that matter. This year, they’re bringing that spirit to New York with their first-ever Giving Tuesday event in the city—it’s their way of creating impact beyond their clothes.

Feature image courtesy of Maguire Shoes.