New clothes ARE kinda garbage these days, from low quality synthetic fabrics to zippers that are a problem from the very first wear to lack of detail and poor fit. And the low quality and short lifespan of this clothing is creating an environmental and ethical crisis for the planet and its people!

Earlier this year I talked about how brands swap out fabrics, remove details, squeeze factories, and do all kinds of other things…all to keep clothes cheap and profitable. But it’s important to call out that sometimes these items don’t immediately appear “cheap” when you look at the price tag. Sure, it’s easy to see that the prices SHEIN offers are clearly the result of a lot of cut corners…but what about Anthropologie? Free People? Zara? Brands that are more expensive than SHEIN, but still most definitely fast fashion? They need to keep the prices on the price tags high in order to offer cover some other expenses that you might be surprised to learn about…

Last year, I did a three part series unpacking the complicated (and infuriating) reasons why new clothes are kinda garbage these days. You can find that anywhere you listen to podcasts. Putting together this post was REALLY DIFFICULT because this is such a complicated discussion. So here you are just seeing the most basic, top level explanation of it all. To learn more (and really get into the details), listen to the episodes! You can start the series with episode 187.

Yes, this stuff is depressing and infuriating. But you know what? I’m actually more OPTIMISTIC than ever that we can change this!!! Why? Because we are talking about it. More and more people are realizing that it’s true. And that is launching a social trend. Guess what? Social trends lead to real change, including both legislation (like the Fashion Act) and permanent changes in our personal behavior (like skipping impulse shopping and learning how to repair and care for our clothing). So talk about this with everyone you know! YOU ARE A BIG PART OF WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!!

The math just doesn’t math.

Fifteen years into the fast fashion era, the fashion industry has created a lot of expenses for itself that just don’t play well with the low prices of the fast fashion model. Most of these expenses are the direct result of trying to sell us as much stuff as possible, as often as possible…and as fast as possible.

To make the math, well, MATH, brands have decided to cover those expenses by spending less money on actually making the clothes they sell.

That means…most new clothes are now kinda garbage, thanks to years of brands swapping quality and fit in favor of the fast fashion business model.

Your new clothes were shipped across the world via airplane.

• Most of the new clothing we buy has taken at least one airplane trip, if not several, from the factory to the warehouse, and possibly from the warehouse to stores or our homes.

• This is a symptom of the fast fashion era: before fast fashion, most clothes shipped via boat across the ocean. This journey took 4-6 weeks. Fast fashion doesn’t have time for that, so it opts to ship everything via air freight, which only takes about 5 days.

• The problem? Shipping via air costs about 4X the cost of shipping via boat. This expense is covered by spending less to make the actual garment.

You’re paying for clothes that no one wanted to buy…

• Every year, the fashion industry produces about 45 billion garments that are never sold. There are many reasons this happens (unachievable sales plans, mistakes in production), but the primary cause of these unsold clothes? Brands buying more than they can actually sell in order to get even lower prices from the factory. A bigger order = lower pricing for the brand.

• And guess what? We are paying for those garments every time we buy something new. How? Retailers cover the cost of producing and destroying those unsold garments by spending less to make clothing in the first place.

All of those deals, sales, and discount codes? They are a bad deal.

• Right now, clothes are actually LESS expensive than they were in the 1990s. And that’s before we account for the endless series of discount codes, flash sales, and huge clearance sections.

• But here’s the catch: retailers now know that they will sell most stuff on sale. So while the price tag on a pair of pants might say $75, they know that most of those pants will sell for more like $45-50…so rather than creating a pair of pants that are highly profitable at $75, they make a pair of pants that are highly profitable at $50. This means they cut fabric quality, trims, and details to make the pricing work out, resulting in a lower quality item.

• Ultimately the “full price” of an item is more of a branding moment than an actual reflection of quality.

Free shipping isn’t actually free.

• Yep, it’s true. Until our orders start teleporting themselves everywhere, shipping is never free. Retailers and brands ARE paying to ship stuff to us, even when they say they are giving us free shipping.

• In fact, brands cover the cost of this free shipping by…spending less to make the stuff they sell us. Yes, there is a direct line between “free shipping” and the lower quality clothing of the fast fashion era.
  

Lots of stuff gets returned.

• About 30% of all clothing bought online each year in the US is returned. That means, for every 10 garments sold, 3 are returned to the retailer. And this high rate of returns is directly related to…new clothes being kinda garbage right now.

• These returns cost a lot of money to process, including return shipping. Some experts believe that the cost of processing a return can be as much as 59% of the original selling price. So if you buy something for $50, it probably costs the retailer close to $30 to handle that return.

• Retailers are losing A LOT of money via returns. They can either spend the money to ship/process the return OR just toss out the return when it arrives.

• How do retailers cover the costs of these returns? They spend less on the actual clothing they make and sell. Which means…the quality and fit are bad, leading to even more returns.

Brands don’t want to spend money on designers.

• One of the biggest signs that a brand is fast fashion? They launch new products every day/week. And they have 100s/1000s of different styles available to purchase at any given time. This is an increase of about 400% since the beginning of the fast fashion era.

• The problem? These brands didn’t hire more designers and production managers to work on this increased quantity of new styles. Furthermore, these teams have half as much time to perfect this huge number of styles…which means…nothing is exactly right. And so… even more stuff gets returned, too!

The biggest reason most new clothes are kinda garbage?

WE KEEP BUYING THEM, EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE TERRIBLE!!!

It’s true…as long as we continue to buy these terrible clothes and we don’t tell brands that we expect and deserve better, they will continue to sell us low quality, poorly fitting, and short-lived clothes.

What you can do:

• Support legislation like the Fashion Act, which will (finally) regulate this largely unregulated industry. Learn more at thefashionact.org

• Contact your elected representatives to tell them that you want legislation that will regulate the fashion industry and protect both workers and customers.

• Buy less new clothing. Revisit the clothes you already own. Use care and repair to extend the life of what you already own. Shop secondhand when possible. And when you do buy something, do your homework: read product details and check out the care/content labels.

• Tell brands that you are sick of being ripped off by low quality/poorly fitting clothing.

• Share why new clothes are kinda garbage with your friends and family. Get them to join the slow fashion movement!