Methodology
Every brand is evaluated across five core pillars, that together determine a brand's position on the Soulscale Index.
Does the brand stay true to its founding story and values as it grows?
Do decisions feel genuine or purely market-driven?
Has the brand maintained its commitment to quality, detail, and craftsmanship even at scale? No cutting corners. No dilution.
Does the brand maintain a genuine, reciprocal connection with its people; customers, employees, and the communities it operates within?
Is the brand's mission more than words on a wall? Do they walk the talk on values, sustainability, and the impact they claim to care about?
Can the brand evolve, adapt, and innovate without losing the essence of what made it worth paying attention to in the first place?
Each brand is evaluated on a scale of 0–100 across the five dimensions above. The overall Soulscale Index score is the equally weighted average of all five pillars: sum all scores and divide by five.
Scores are not based on revenue, valuation, or market share. The revenue scale is derived from publicly available information about the brand's approximate revenue range. It's descriptive, not evaluative, and is not an input into any of the five pillar scores.
Scores are based on integrity; the gap between what a brand says and does. Hypocrisy is penalized. Consistency is rewarded.
Brands scoring 85+ have genuinely scaled without losing their soul. Scores between 80–84 show meaningful commitment with some compromise. Below 80, the gap between mission and practice widens.
All scores are based on publicly available research: B-Corp certifications, impact reports, supply chain documentation, founder mission statements, and third-party verifications where available. Verification depth varies by brand; some are fully transparent, others have limited public disclosure. We prioritize evidence over narrative.
The scores in the index were AI-generated, using a general-purpose large language model with a structured research prompt, at the time each brand was added, using publicly available data as its source material.