Sustainability Struggles to Sustain Profits
Today I'm writing about clothing sustainability and circular fashion efforts that have flopped with big clothing brands. This is a topic that is important to me as a tailor. I am careful in selecting the fabrics and thread that I use, I strive for biodegradable materials (like wool and cotton) and ones with ethical practices. High quality fabric is also important because I like to make garments that are long lasting so I can wear them for as long as possible. Wool is a great fabric for this endeavor because it's naturally odor resistant and can be worn longer before washing is needed.
Circular fashion is a concept of reselling used garments so they stay out of the landfill and reduce the demand for new garments. You might of heard of the commonly cited statistic that a garment is only worn seven times on average before being discarded. If you search "how often is a garment worn before being thrown out" the first 5 out of 8 results will say "7" and cite an article from barnardos.org.uk/ from 2015. I couldn't find the article, and secondary sources say it was a survey of only 2000 people, all of which were women, and lived in Britain (Associated Newspapers).
So, while I'm already skeptical since I can't find the source article, I understand why it's commonly repeated. It is an easier statistic to quantify for individual perspective compared to for example the amount of textile waste that ends up in our landfills. The United States alone produces 17 million tons of textile waste per year (Ruiz). That sounds alarming but it is hard to really wrap our heads around it compared to thinking about how many times we wear each item of clothing, and considering when you buy something new how many times you think it will last or if you like it enough to wear it more than 7 times.
It's frustrating when source articles end up being dead ends, especially when it's a "commonly known fact". However this highlights the fact that negative effects of fast fashion is a popular topic on the internet. The demand for used clothing and participation in circular fashion has driven the demand for clothing resale. Secondhand clothing stores like Goodwill has so much demand that prices have increased dramatically and used items are sometimes more expensive than new. Anywhere there is more demand than supply is a business opportunity.
There are some online stores that focus on resale of clothing such as Poshmark and TheRealReal. With the internet there are plenty of ways to market used clothing like on Ebay or Facebook Marketplace. Clothing retailers see a viable market and have tried to cash in on it. According to an article from Bloomberg titled, "Shein, H&M and Other Fashion Resale Programs Don’t Make Big Money" they're doing a terrible job at it.
There are over 100 retailers that have started resale programs for their products however not many of them are doing very well (Thredup the recommerce 100). The more successful brands are those with high resale value such as Arc’teryx and Lululemon, which makes the cost of taking back items, sorting them, and listing them worth it compared to companies which have cheap new clothes.
The fatal flaw in the scheme of resale is that no one knows about it! I had no idea big brands like H&M, American Eagle, and Levi's have in-house resale programs. More importantly I didn't know that brands I regularly shop had in-house resale like Hot Topic and The North Face. Part of that may be because companies like REI is well known for their resale program, so while the idea of finding used North Face or Arc’teryx brand items from REI is known to me, going straight to the source brand didn't cross my mind.
It's like sliced bread. Turns out sliced bread wasn't very popular when it first came out. No one knew about it, and there wasn't much advertising, so those who did know about it thought it was weird. In the modern day, "best thing since sliced bread" is a common phrase. It's difficult to find bread at the store that isn't sliced. This is all to say that just because an idea is awesome doesn't mean folks will know why it's awesome without a little help, and they may not even know it exists if you don't tell them.
While only those in the companies will know why more advertising isn't focused on resale programs, a pretty good guess would be that it's not a profitable part of their business. Considering how cheaply and efficiently a new garment can be made for, it's hard to imagine that the work put into accepting, sorting, and listing used garments could be worth the labor for a brand like American Eagle when I could get a new t-shirt from them for $14.99 (after summer promo) or I could buy a used one for just as much.
The value proposition for the resale programs for any of these companies is getting the same name brand items for cheaper prices, while being able to reduce your carbon footprint as well. There is also more security and trust from buying from a known retailer rather than on a site like Ebay. Some companies also add in the "vintage" aspect to their value proposition, it's difficult to find authentic vintage clothing of specific brands so by having it on their website it draws in those who are looking for that niche.
Some companies are doing well with resale programs, even doubling expected sales in some cases like with Allbirds in 2022, while others have shut down their programs after less than a year like in the case of Macy's. Besides a lack of advertising for the resale programs, companies also seem to be avoiding spending any of their sales budget on resale items. For example you can't use the 25% off your purchase SUNSHINE25 promo code at American Eagle on resale items. This fuels the purchase of new items instead. Companies may be worrying about used sales cannibalizing their new garment sales too much and becoming too much of a money pit.
If you look at the list of companies with resale programs from https://www.recommerce100.com/, most of the programs have been started within the past 3 years. Companies are still working on making the programs efficient enough to not lose money on the programs, and ironically by being adverse to putting money into the program they may create a self-fulfilling prophecy. A really good way for a program to fail is no one knowing about it.
I'm not a marketing professional. Heck I'm not even a marketing major. However I do really resonate with Simon Sinek's idea that, "People don't buy what you do people buy why you do it." There are a lot of ethics mixed in with buying used clothing. Sure, folks would also love a price break, but those looking for good deals will go to large clothing resellers like Goodwill that can more efficiently use their labor for resale. However there are many people who are deeply passionate about reducing their carbon footprint and there is a market for it. Companies should focus on that aspect of their resale programs and really market it. With more sales they can learn how to make it more efficient, and it will win them public approval as well.
What I learned from this article and the research around it is that resale programs are more popular than I realized. It may be worth looking into if any of your favorite brands have resale programs, they might! Unfortuneately if the brands don't decide to put money and effort into their resale programs they might be a short lived fad, but with some incentives to customers to buy from their resale programs they could flourish. The main disadvantage for companies that already offer their new clothing at cheap prices is offering resale at enough of a discount to make the offerings tempting for consumers. Honestly this might be done by selling higher quality clothes or only offering resale for more expensive items.
Sources:
Associated Newspapers. (2015, June 10). Study of 2K women shows fashion buys are worn just 7 times with weight and whim to blame. Daily Mail Online. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3117645/Women-ditch-clothes-ve-worn-just-seven-times-Items-left-shelf-buyer-feels-ve-weight-ve-bought-whim.html
Illustration: Qianhui Yu for Bloomberg Businessweek
Rockeman, O., & Hirji, Z. (2023, June 22). Shein, H&M and other fashion resale programs don’t make big money. Bloomberg.com. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-22/shein-h-m-and-other-fashion-resale-programs-don-t-make-big-money?srnd=businessweek-v2
Ruiz, A. (n.d.). 17 most worrying textile waste statistics & facts [2023] - the roundup. TheRoundup.org. https://theroundup.org/textile-waste-statistics/
Thredup the recommerce 100. thredUP The Recommerce 100. (n.d.). https://www.recommerce100.com/
What is Mulesing? and why you should care about it. Merino Wool Gear. (2022, March 13). https://merinowoolgear.com/what-is-mulesing/
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