Episode 99: Nothing is Disposable, part III (with Chloe and Sammy of the OR Foundation)

Welcome to Clotheshorse, the podcast that dreams of a world free of single use t-shirts.

I’m your host, Amanda and this is episode 99, the final installment of my series with the OR foundation. Today I’ll be talking to two members of the OR foundation team in Ghana, Chloe and Sammy. I am so excited for you to meet them because they have so many important things to share that you have to hear!

Chloe is a designer, researcher, community organizer and the program Manager of Ghana Operations for The OR Foundation. Sammy is also a fashion designer and a project manager for the OR foundation. If you watched the CBS Mornings segment that I linked in last week’s show notes, then you’ve already seen him in action! And if you missed it…please go watch that segment because it’s really important to SEE what it’s really like in Kantamanto and Accra. I will link it in the snow notes again. There is a moment where the reporter is talking on the beach, and clothes are just integrated into the sand….it’s chilling. It’s infuriating. It’s horrific. We don’t think of beaches that way…we think of picnics and reading magazines and relaxing and getting some sun. Something I wonder is…if we stopped being able to export all of our unwanted clothing to other countries, would our beaches become overrun with clothing? Or would we start to see it happen and then realize that we had to change things pretty fast? Would we hold on to our clothes longer? Would single use office 5K and bachelorette party t-shirts go the way of the dinosaurs? Would we be clamoring for Congress to pass laws regulating fast fashion, making companies responsible for their waste?

Fashion is filled with dirty secrets. There are the toxic work environments, the culture of racism, classism, ageism, and anti-fat bias that permeate the marketing and product strategy of the industry. the constant waste of packaging and paper and fabric…there is the exploitation of the workers who make our clothing. The destruction of water ways and farm land and so much more that we don’t even know about. And the final chapter…this delusion of clothing recycling and donation that is really destroying the environment, quality of life, and economy of Ghana and other nations of the global south. H+M doesn’t want us to see this. Fashion Nova doesn’t want us to know this. Shein, Madewell, Forever 21, American Eagle…none of the big fast fashion brands want us to know the sad truth about the origin and afterlife of the clothing we buy from them.

Before we jump into my conversation with Chloe and Sammy, I want to talk to you about one more secret of the fashion industry: overproduction, as in making way too much stuff. Yes, we know they already make too much stuff, to the tune of 150 billion garments every year. That’s about 20 garments per person on the planet. But almost half of the world’s population makes less than $5.50 per day. So they aren’t buying 20 garments each year. And plenty of other people all over the world are wearing stuff as long as possible, shopping secondhand, making their own clothes, etc. Yes, Americans are buying an average of 70 new garments each year…but even that isn’t enough to roll out to an average of 20 garments per person on the planet.

What I’m saying is that there is no need to be manufacturing 150 billion garments each year. And the proof is in the disgusting, shocking data pudding: according to the Australian Circular Textile Association (ACTA) ,30% of those 150 billion garments –if you don’t have your calculator ready ,don’t worry, I did the work for you…that’s 45 billion garments…are never sold. They are destroyed, burned, sometimes donated., but as we know even donation floods the world with a lot of stuff that just becomes someone else’s problem.

How does this happen?

Buying into the wrong trends and the wrong product. The fast fashion model relies on selling you as much stuff, as often as possible. These means showing you a steady stream of new stuff. In order to do that, they have to buy into ever single trend—no matter how unwearable, short-lived, or ultimately unpopular. This results in a lot of stuff that no one really wants. And there is an incentive to buy the biggest quantity of each item…costs go down as the units on an order go up. So there is motivation to really buy hard into every single trend. So if it turns out that it was a bad trend or an unpopular idea, the retailer is stuck with even more unsellable stuff.

It’s all coming too fast. Now that all of the big retailers/brands are selling you stuff at the lowest prices and bombarding you with dealz dealz, dealz, they are trying to remain competitive by bringing you stuff as fast as possible. They want to be the first one to offer you the trend. This means everything comes faster than ever. Instead of working on products 4-6 months before they would arrive in stores, retailers are working on products 90 days before they will arrive in stores. Sometimes writing orders in the same month that they deliver. This means less fittings (so the fit isn’t great), less sample reviews (meaning there is less time to get the details right), and the fast turnaround means that no one gets to fine tune and optimize the final product. Lots of less-than-great stuff finds its way on to the website and into the store. And no one wants to buy it. And the amount of time companies are allotting to sell this stuff is shrinking. They need to move it in and out as fast as possible to make room for the next round of super trendy product. In the beginning of my career, we would plan that on average an item would remain at full price for 10-12 weeks. Of course, things that were really popular would be reordered and reordered until the demand fell off, meaning that those things might stay at full price for six months…even years. There was a scarf–remember when lightweight scarves were trendy–that I reordered for more than three years straight at my first buying job, just adding new colors every season. Less popular items *might* go on sale after 6-7 weeks back then..but that was kinda rare and it usually only happened after trying to remerchandise it in stores and on the website. For an average item that was doing okay, we would probably take it to a slight markdown….like 20% off after ten weeks. A month after that, we might discount it to 50% off….another month or two later, 75% off. So a style might be around for about five months. We weren’t in a hurry to just get rid of it. My how things changed over time…soon things were going on sale in 4 weeks…and going to a deep discount right off the bat. A month later, they were being pulled out off of the website and the stores…being “jobbed” out….either destroyed or sold off to places like TJ Maxx or Ross.

Delusional sales plans that excite shareholders and fund executive bonuses. Some basic retail math: the higher the sales plan, the more product the company needs to produce to sell. Leadership will create super high, most likely unachievable sales plans. Buying and design creates enough product to hit those sales plans. When the company misses the sales plan, there’s a ton of extra inventory that goes unsold. These big companies can afford to make these big mistakes, to be just so inherently reckless and wasteful, because there’s still a steady (and massive) flow of cash coming their way from customers every day, every week. And so our business, that chunk of our wallets that we are giving to them, allows them to keep rolling despite all of this terrible behavior. That’s the difference between a big retailer and a local boutique or small designer or maker. If someone from our community like Dani of Picnicwear or Selina Sanders decided to create a sales plan that they knew they could never hit, and then made tons and tons of inventory to meet that sales plan….then missed it. Guess what? They would go out of business. But they would never do that because they haven’t lost sight of their ethics, their own sense of right and wrong, responsible and wasteful.

Companies view their product as disposable. We know that’s not true, but in their view, it’s super cheap, so having to destroy it is really NBD for them. They don’t view it as an important loss. And they need to keep product from building up in their stores and warehouses because there is always a ton more on the way! And it’s so ugly…becuase we know that people worked long, grueling days to make this stuff. And they worked under terrible conditions and made little money in exchange for their skilled work. HOW CAN THIS STUFF BE DISPOSABLE WHEN YOU KNOW EVERYTHING INVOLVED IN MAKING IT?! Brands view this stuff as so disposable, so meaningless that sometimes they will destroy an entire order before customers ever see it. Maybe because they didn’t like the way it turned out–like it was just that bad–or maybe suddenly they are over budget…it’s easier, cheaper to just destroy it and write it off.

And oh yeah! Did I mention that retailers have found an easy way to pass the burden of this subpar, unwanted product onto you, the customer? ⅓ of that 150 billion garments made each year sells on sale.

Retailers will continue to mark things down, maybe $9.99, $4.99, $1.99. Whatever it takes to get you to buy it! I had a boss who would say “what’s the price that makes this item less ugly?” And that’s exactly what retailers are doing! Recouping a couple of bucks from you AND saving themselves the burden of disposing of it themselves…because disposing of that stuff costs them money!

And yes, we are addicted to deals and a lot of us know that it’s foolish to ever pay full price from a fast fashion brand. But retailers are also using US as a solution for their unsold inventory, all of this stuff that isn’t that great, that they just couldn’t sell, that they didn’t bother to fit or QA…. They mark it down super cheap so that we will take on the burden of disposal of their mistakes. WE ARE PAYING THEM TO TAKE OUT THEIR TRASH.

Now you have to deal with the clothes that you really didn’t like that you only bought because it was such a hot deal that you couldn’t resist it…now it’s your burden and when your closet is so full that it’s overwhelming you, that you’re getting anxiety every single time you open the door to pull out a pair of shoes…you have to figure out what happens to it all…meanwhile the retailer has already moved on ten times over.

So what can we do as a group of people who want better for the world?

TBH this is a tough one, because sure, we can yell at brands/retailers to stop overproducing (and that might help a little), but there are two things that always force companies to change: the LAW and the fear of losing money/sales/profit.

This means letting our elected representatives know that we want regulations around overproduction and Extended Producer Responsiblity (EPR). As I talked about in the last episode, EPR policy puts the responsibility of disposal of a product on the retailer or brand. So it’s in their best interest to stop making crappy clothes, to recklessly over produce, to make things so fast and cheaply that there’s no way they will fit anyone or make anyone happy for very long. Suddenly if they have to pay for the disposal, to take back the burden of this product, I can assure you that they will want to make better things, and the right amount of them.

Next, hit ‘em where it hurts: in the wallet. Don’t impulsively buy items that are a hot deal just because they are cheap. Let brands bear the burden of overproduction! Aren’t you kinda pissed off about all of this? What do we say around here? Don’t give your money to assholes. Don’t give your money to companies who are wasteful, reckless, who don’t value their workers, the product they make or their customers. Because if they did value any of us, they would do a better job.

Well, now that I’ve gotten you all riled up, let’s listen to my conversation with Chloe and Sammy. I’m just going to note here that the audio is a little different here because we had to use Zoom to record and there were some international internet issues. By the time you are hearing it, Dustin has done all kinds of stuff to jzuzj up the sound quality, but I just want to call that out.

I just want to thank Chloe and Sammy again..I am so grateful that they took the time to talk to me…honestly I’m grateful for the entire OR foundation for sharing their stories, their knowledge, and their time with me. When I first learned about everything going on in Kantamanto, it was…I don’t know…a game changer for me, a call to action, a time to double down on my work on Clotheshorse…every time I’ve felt burned out, frustrated, nearly defeated by internet trolls…I remember Kantamanto and I realize that I have to keep fighting the fight against an industry that seems fun and glamorous…until you pull back the curtain and see the exploitation and destruction at its core. Wow, that sounds really goth?! Please go give Chloe and sammy and the OR foundation a follow on instagram. I’ll be linking to everything in the show notes.

I know that this series has been disturbing for a lot of you. I also know it’s been incredibly eye opening. And I know it’s been full of things you probably felt better off not knowing…but the reality is…none of us better off not knowing this.

My brother and I used to watch a lot of Saturday Morning cartoons when we were kids. We would settle in on the couch with I don’t know, a bowl of puffed rice (we weren’t allowed to have fun cereal) and watch hours and hours of television every saturday while my mom slept in. And we had a tacit deal that sometimes we would have to watch shows together that only one of us liked. Like I was into Jem, and my brother thought that was boring. He liked GI Joe, which I thought was boring. At the end of every episode, they would do a quasi-educational segment for liek 60 seconds. I know now—thanks to research I did for an episode of Clotheshorse about Cabbage Patch Kids—that these segments existed because of laws around providing a minimum amount of educational content to children in exchange for exposing them to hours of commercials for candy, toys, and cereal.

Anyway…these segments on GI joe always ended with KNOWING IS HALF THE BATTLE. And I find myself repeating that phrase constantly as I work on Clotheshorse….mostly just ot myself, occasionally to Dustin or Brenda. Knowing the truth, spreading that knowledge…that’s half of the battle we are waging here against fast fashion, against corporate greed, against greenwashing, waste, worker exploitation, pollution…knowing the facts is step one.

By now you know that I have been working in the fashion industry most of my adult life, specifically in the fast fashion area. And I always had this inkling that grew and grew over the years that something bad was happening there, even if my employers pretended otherwise. When I lost my job, at the beginning of the pandemic, I decided I was going to piece together what I already knew, and learn everything that I didn’t know. I’ve been on some wild research and reading journeys over the span of the pandemic, and I have learned so much. And I was sad. I was angry. I was sickened by my participation in this industry that is so ugly. Real talk: There is a good chance that at some point you bought/wore something that I developed for one of my employers. The emotional burden of being a part of all of this bad business is…it’s a lot. But something happened as I learned more and more about all of this: I realized that very few people knew anything about the dirty business of clothes, shoes, and accessories. And I had the advantage of seeing how the pieces fit together as someone who had worked in the industry for so long. I realized that I had a mission and that was to share my knowledge, my experience, with as many people as possible, in the hopes that they would in turn tell someone else, who would tell someone else, and so on and so on and so on…and soon we would have this critical mass of people who would demand a change in the world.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, sad, angry about everything we’ve talked about in this series…tell someone else about it. Knowing is indeed half the battle. And the more people we can get knowing the truth, the more power we have to make a change. Yes, we can change ourselves and our relationship with the stuff in our lives…but that’s just the beginning. Tell your friends, your family, your neighbors, your coworkers (even the ones who microwave tuna in the office kitchen or throw salads in recycling bin)…imagine if everyone knew the true story of what happens to our clothes when we are done with that. Imagine if everyone saw a beach with discarded clothing layered into the sand. Imagine how angry and disgusted they would be. Let’s shatter the delusions that fast fashion sells us. Let’s do better together.