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The 9 Best Scrub Brands in 2026 — Who Owns Them, Where They Came From, and Where They're Going

· Hedy Nie· 12 min read
The 9 Best Scrub Brands in 2026 — Who Owns Them, Where They Came From, and Where They're Going

Most "best brands" guides treat brands like products. They aren't. Brands are companies with histories, ownership, and direction — and those things shape the product you receive in ways the marketing copy doesn't tell you.

A brand whose founders left two years ago will start to feel different by year three. A brand bought by private equity will start optimizing for margin in ways that show up in fabric weight and pocket reinforcement. A brand whose CEO was a nurse fights for different priorities than a brand whose CEO came from fashion.

This piece is about the corporate story behind nine of the most recommended scrub brands of 2026. Fabric, fit, and pricing are covered in our women's fit guide, our comfort guide, and our affordable guide. This piece is about who you're funding when you spend $68 or $96.

Why the company story matters

Three things to watch when you pick a scrub brand for the long term:

Ownership stability. Brands change hands. When they do, the new owners almost always change the product within 18 months — usually toward higher margin. If you've found scrubs you love, watch for the acquisition announcement; that's your signal to stockpile.

Founder presence. Brands where founders are still day-to-day involved make different choices than brands where founders cashed out. Not always better — but different. The original Jaanuu under Pooja Mottl in 2014 made different scrubs than 2023 Jaanuu. Same name on the label.

Manufacturing relationship. Brands that own their manufacturing relationships (we do; Mandala does) can change spec faster than brands buying from white-label suppliers. The trade-off is different than what marketing suggests.

Now the brands.

FIGS — The category-defining IPO that's now 5 years post-IPO

Founded: 2013, Los Angeles, California Founders: Heather Hasson and Trina Spear Status: Public (NYSE: FIGS, IPO'd May 2021 at $22, traded around $5-7 in 2026) Manufacturing: Asia-based contract factories; relationship details not public Recent direction: Founders Hasson and Spear stepped back from day-to-day leadership in 2023. Catherine Spear (Trina's sister) leads as CEO. Q1 2026 earnings showed margin pressure and revenue down ~12% YoY.

FIGS invented the modern premium scrub category. The thesis Hasson and Spear pitched in 2013 — "healthcare apparel deserves the same design and marketing treatment as athletic apparel" — was right, and the category they created is now everyone's reference point.

What changed since IPO: pressure to grow has pushed FIGS into adjacent products (lifestyle apparel, men's expansion, international) at the cost of focus on the core scrub line. Reddit threads from 2024-2026 increasingly mention "FIGS quality has dropped" — almost certainly true, almost certainly because the company is optimizing different metrics now than it did in 2013.

If you've been a FIGS customer for years and they feel different now, you're not imagining it. That's what post-IPO public-company pressure does. We get into whether they're still worth it in our FIGS review, and the cheaper options in our FIGS alternatives guide.

Jaanuu — Acquired in 2025, watching for direction shift

Founded: 2013, Los Angeles Founders: Pooja Mottl, Shaan Sethi (a brother-sister pediatrician/MBA team) Status: Acquired by VentureOn Management, May 2025 (asset sale, terms undisclosed) Manufacturing: Mexico and Asia mix; antimicrobial fabric (SilverTech) developed in-house Recent direction: Distribution expansion via S&S Activewear partnership (announced January 2025). Asset sale in May 2025 brought new ownership. Original founders' current role unclear.

Jaanuu was built around founder Sethi's medical background — a pediatrician's perspective on what scrubs actually need to do. The product reflects that: silver antimicrobial in the yarn, contoured fits influenced by athletic apparel, gold hardware as signature.

The 2025 asset sale to VentureOn Management is the watch-this-space event for Jaanuu. Asset sales typically signal investor pressure on margin and distribution scale. The S&S Activewear wholesale move suggests the new owners want volume; that almost always trades against premium positioning.

If you've stockpiled Jaanuu before May 2025, those sets are likely the higher-spec version. We expect spec to drift toward higher margin over the next 24 months. Not a prediction we want to be right about, but it's the standard pattern after an asset sale. We go deeper on the current product in our honest Jaanuu review.

Cherokee Uniforms — 53-year-old workhorse, owned by Strategic Industries

Founded: 1972, Sun Valley, California Founder: James Smith Status: Subsidiary of Strategic Industries (formerly Superior Uniform Group), publicly traded as part of parent Manufacturing: Global; relationships established for decades Recent direction: Strategic Industries acquired Superior Uniform Group's medical apparel division in 2019. Cherokee remains a flagship brand within the parent's medical division. Limited brand-level innovation since 2020 but extreme stability.

Cherokee is the longest-running brand on this list and the most boring company story — which is exactly why it's reliable. Public-company ownership, decades-old manufacturing relationships, no recent founder drama, no acquisition shake-ups in the last 5 years.

What you get from Cherokee in 2026 is essentially the same product you got in 2018. The Workwear Revolution and Infinity lines have the same fabric specs, same fit grading, same color range. They iterate slowly and conservatively.

This is unfashionable but valuable. If you want the same scrub in five years that you bought today, Cherokee is your best bet. The price you pay is that the design and fabric tech doesn't advance — they ship 2018-era specs at 2026 prices.

Healing Hands — Family-owned, 25 years in the category

Founded: 2001, New York metro area Founders: Pat and Karen Pasternack (and family) Status: Privately held, family-owned and operated Manufacturing: Mix of US and Asian factories; fabric sourcing largely from Korea Recent direction: Steady iteration on the Purple Label line; HH Works budget line launched 2022; expansion into men's and footwear in progress.

Healing Hands is one of the few mid-size scrub brands still in original family ownership. The Pasternacks have been running it for 25 years. That structural stability shows up in the product: the Purple Label line has used the same fabric formula since 2018 because they've been happy with it.

They don't get the press FIGS does. They don't have an IPO story. They also don't have shareholder pressure forcing margin compression. The trade-off in 2026: the brand feels less current than FIGS or Eipnare, but the product feels more dependable.

Healing Hands is what mid-tier scrub brands look like when they're allowed to mature naturally without exit pressure. Useful counterexample to the IPO-as-success narrative.

Mandala — Founder-led, transparent pricing as core thesis

Founded: 2018, Los Angeles Founder: Yvonne Lin Status: Privately held, founder-led Manufacturing: Vietnam-based, single manufacturing partner Recent direction: No major ownership changes. Lin still runs the brand day-to-day. The "transparent pricing" positioning has expanded into published cost breakdowns on every product.

Mandala's founding thesis was an unusually specific complaint: that DTC scrub margin had gotten too high relative to manufacturing cost, and customers deserved to see the math. They publish manufacturing cost on every product page.

This is unusual enough that we've watched it carefully — and concluded it's a working strategy for them. Their margin is meaningfully lower than FIGS and Jaanuu by their own published numbers (~35% gross margin vs FIGS' published ~70%). That's a real positioning, not just marketing.

The risk: founder-led brands at this stage are vulnerable to acquisition pressure. We don't have any signal that Lin is selling, but as Mandala scales, the math that pulled Jaanuu into an asset sale will apply to her too. Watch for ownership changes if you've built a wardrobe around them.

Barco / Grey's Anatomy — Largest scale, oldest market position

Founded: Barco Uniforms 1929 (yes, 1929); Grey's Anatomy line launched 2007 Founders: Various across the 96-year history; current parent ownership traces through Barco Uniforms Status: Privately held by the Edwards family (third generation) Manufacturing: Global, including significant US production for institutional clients Recent direction: The Grey's Anatomy line continues to be the largest single brand in US hospital supply. Steady iteration, no recent acquisition activity.

Barco is the elder statesman of scrub manufacturing — almost a century old, multi-generational family ownership, the standard hospital uniform supplier of the 20th century. The Grey's Anatomy line, launched as a more fashion-forward sub-brand in 2007, is what most people now call "Barco scrubs."

What makes Barco different from every other brand on this list: their primary customer isn't the individual nurse. It's the hospital procurement office. They sell into institutional contracts at scale, and the consumer-facing Grey's Anatomy line is, to some extent, a brand-extension play off institutional credibility.

If you're buying scrubs from a hospital-supply storefront where the staff don't know the difference between brands, Barco is what they'll have on the rack.

Dickies Medical — Workwear conglomerate's medical extension

Founded: Dickies Workwear 1922 in Texas; medical line added in the 2000s Founder: C. N. Williamson and E. E. "Colonel" Dickie Status: Subsidiary of VF Corporation (NYSE: VFC) since 2017 Manufacturing: Global, leveraging Dickies' core workwear supply chain Recent direction: Sold to VF Corp in 2017 for $820M. The medical line has remained relatively static since.

Dickies Medical is a workwear company doing scrubs, not a scrub company. The product reflects that — heavy-duty stitching, deep pockets sized for tools (penlights, hemostats), durable fabric, but limited in fit refinement and color range.

If your work resembles workwear (vet tech, EMT, surgical assistant in fluid-heavy environments), Dickies treats your needs more seriously than fashion-forward DTC brands do. If your work is closer to clinical (RN, dental hygienist, med spa), Dickies will feel rugged in a way that's not flattering.

WonderWink — Mid-tier, owned by Strategic Industries (same as Cherokee)

Founded: 2003 Founder: Originally an independent brand Status: Subsidiary of Strategic Industries — same parent as Cherokee Manufacturing: Global through parent's supply chain Recent direction: Steady iteration; the W123 line is the flagship since 2018.

WonderWink and Cherokee are now corporate cousins under Strategic Industries. Different price point, different positioning, but shared parent. The W123 line slots into the budget tier ($30-$35/piece) where Cherokee's Workwear Revolution sits ($25-$30).

If you're choosing between WonderWink and Cherokee, you're really choosing between two product lines at the same parent company. The brand difference is real (different design, different fit) but the corporate-level decisions affecting both are made in the same boardroom.

Eipnare — Where we are in this picture

Founded: 2024 Founders: Yonghui Tang and team (we're not nurses) Status: Privately held by ViralMomentum LLC, US registered Manufacturing: Single manufacturing partner; we visit twice a year Recent direction: Launched 2025; current focus is the core scrub line in 24 colors, no expansion into adjacent categories yet.

Disclosure: this is our brand, so read this paragraph with that bias.

We're the newest brand on this list and the smallest. Our founders are still hands-on, manufacturing relationship is direct (one factory, not a network), and we don't have outside investors pushing for exits. That's where we are.

What this means for you: we can change spec quickly. We can also disappear quickly. The same flexibility that lets us iterate is the same fragility that means we don't have the 25-year stability of Healing Hands or 53-year stability of Cherokee. You're trading category maturity for active improvement.

We're disclosing this because the company-story angle of this article is the right place to. Most "best brands" guides hide the structural risks of new brands. We'd rather you make the choice with full information.

What ownership changes have happened in 2024-2026

For people who track this — a list of the major events in the category over the last 24 months:

Date Event Brand affected
Jan 2025 Distribution partnership with S&S Activewear announced Jaanuu
May 2025 Asset acquisition by VentureOn Management Jaanuu
2024 Multiple celebrity endorsement deals; sales decline begins FIGS
Q1 2026 Reported margin compression, revenue down 12% YoY FIGS
2024 HH Works budget line refresh Healing Hands
Ongoing Strategic Industries continues to consolidate medical apparel brands Cherokee, WonderWink

The pattern: incumbents under pressure, established brands rolling up smaller ones, founders cashing out. The next 24 months will probably bring more of this, not less.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does it matter who owns a scrub brand?

Ownership shapes incentives. A founder-led brand optimizes for product. A public company optimizes for quarterly numbers. A PE-acquired brand optimizes for the exit. The product is the output of those incentives.

Did FIGS founders actually leave?

Heather Hasson stepped back from day-to-day operations in 2023. Trina Spear shifted to a strategic advisory role. Catherine Spear runs operations. Different from "left" but materially different from "founder-led."

Why is the Jaanuu acquisition concerning?

Asset sales (vs equity sales) typically happen when the equity isn't worth what an investor needs it to be worth. They're often followed by aggressive cost optimization and distribution expansion — both of which reduce premium positioning. We've seen this pattern in apparel many times.

Are there any scrub brands still founder-owned?

In 2026: Mandala (Lin), Healing Hands (Pasternack family, 25 years), Eipnare (us), and several smaller specialty brands. Everyone else on the major list has institutional ownership at some level.

Should I avoid public-company scrub brands?

Not categorically. Cherokee is publicly owned (via Strategic Industries) and has been remarkably stable. FIGS is publicly traded and is currently in a difficult phase. The structure isn't deterministic, but it predicts pressures.

What's the most stable brand by ownership?

By corporate-history stability: Cherokee (53-year continuous operation, multiple decades under current parent) and Barco/Grey's Anatomy (96-year-old family business). Both are conservatives that don't iterate fast but don't disappear either.

Is there a "new generation" of scrub brands I should watch?

Yes — beyond Eipnare and Mandala, several smaller brands like Strategia, Medelita, and Wear Lively are working in adjacent niches. We don't recommend them blindly because we haven't tested their fabric ourselves. But the category is more diverse in 2026 than it was in 2020.

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Where this guide ends and another begins

This piece focused on company stories. We mostly ignored fit, fabric, and price-to-value. If you're now wondering:

A brand's story doesn't replace those other questions. But it's the question most "best brands" guides skip, which is why we wrote this one.

Hedy Nie is COO of Eipnare. Connect on LinkedIn.

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