Natural Footgear operates under a strict ethics policy to ensure that we maintain our independence from third-party entities and/or market influences. When reviewing and rating footwear (or other footgear), we abide by the following guidelines in order to maintain the integrity of our viewpoints, present the most honest findings we possibly can, and earn (and keep) the trust of our valued readers.
Our ethics guidelines, when it comes to shoe and footgear reviews, dictate the following:
- We do not produce paid content for any brands or manufacturers
- We do not personally invest in the companies whose products we review
- We do not allow manufacturers the ability to preview or approve a review of their product before it is published
- We do not limit our reviews to companies that we currently have (or have historically had) financial arrangements with; all companies are welcome to reach out to us about having their footwear reviewed.
In some cases, we may receive free-of-charge samples from a given company for the purposes of testing and reviewing. In such instances, we make it clear to the company providing the footgear that doing so will not, in any way, impact our impression or experience of it, nor will it influence the score that we may assign to it in a review article. Further, we do not permit partner companies to dictate which products we offer or feature on our site or how these products are marketed by us.
Natural Footgear does not directly accept money from footgear brands or manufacturers to review their products, however, some of our reviews may contain marketing links, which means that we will receive an affiliate commission for purchases made via those links (this doesn't cost you, the purchaser, anything, and it helps to keep Natural Footgear going). As mentioned above, whether or not we have a financial arrangement with a given company does not dictate what items get reviewed or how scores are assigned to a given product.
We value honesty and integrity above all else, and we work hard to ensure that we are leveling fair and unbiased assessments of all the footgear we review. The objective nature of our NFAR shoe scoring system makes this task much easier. Each shoe that we review is subjected not only to rigorous testing by our team of foot health professionals, but also an 18-point list of criteria that we carefully consider and evaluate when building out a score for a given shoe, boot, or sandal.
If you have any questions about our ethical standards as they pertain to shoe and footgear reviews, please do let us know.
