It’s A Problem

Right behind energy and transportation, the fashion industry is the 3rd most-polluting industry in the world (3). So whose fault is that? Well.. theirs, ours, and everyone’s. Let me start with stating the numbers: 

THEIRS

• 11.2 million tons of waste – According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in 2017 (last reported numbers) landfills received 11.2 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) textiles. That accounts for 8% of all MSW landfill (9). 

• Make $3.6 billion, burn $36.8 million – In July of 2018, Burberry was caught burning $36.8 million worth of their own merchandise and admitted in their annual report that “demolishing goods was just part of its strategy to preserve its reputation of exclusivity” (5). It later came to light that a range of brands have been discovered to do this including, but unfortunately not limited to; H&M (burning 60 tons in 5 years), Louis Vuitton, Nike, Richemont (Cartier), Urban Outfitters, Walmart, Eddie Bauer, Michael Kors, Victoria’s Secret, and J.C. Penny (5).

• 1 garbage truck per second – So combining burned textiles and landfilled textiles, that comes out to the equivalent of one garbage truck being landfilled or burned per second (10). 

• 60% of fabric fibers are now synthetic – In the New York Times article titled How Fast Fashion is Destroying the Planet (2019), it was reported that more “than 60 percent of fabric fibers are now synthetics, derived from fossil fuels, so if and when our clothing ends up in a landfill (about 85 percent of textile waste in the United States goes to landfills or is incinerated), it will not decay” (7). 

• So roughly 9.52 million tons of textile waste added to landfills yearly won’t decay.

• 2,000 gallons of water – It takes 2,000 gallons of water to make one pair of jeans (10).

• 20% of global wastewater – The fashion industry produces 20% of global wastewater (water contaminated by human use) (10).

• 8% of global CO2 emissions – Clothing and footwear production is responsible for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions (10). 

• 30 pounds – On average, 30 pounds of carbon emissions are produced by making one pair of shoes (8). 

• Up 200% – Clothing production doubled between 2000 and 2014 (10). 

Ours 

• 80 pounds of clothes – The average American disposes of 80 lbs of clothing a year (4).

• 60% more and half the shelf life – The average person is buying 60% more clothing than they did only 15 years ago and, according to the McKinsey 2019 State of Fashion report, they are only keeping those items for half as long (10). 

• 300 million – The number of shoes thrown out each year (8). 

• 138% – The increase in global plastic production from 2004 to 2014 (8). 

• 170 million tons – 170 million tons of plastic already fill the world’s ocean. According to Nothing New’s research, if we keep on this trajectory plastic in the ocean will outweigh fish by 2050 (8).

The Fast Fashion issue is not only ecological but ethical as well. One of the most tragic events to display the utter importance of ethical production and traceability happened on April 24th, 2013, in Bangladesh. 1,100 garment workers died and over 2,500 were injured when the eight-story Rana Plaza factory complex collapsed on top of them. It was later discovered that the “top four floors were constructed without building permits” (2) and workers in the factories had repeatedly reported cracks in the walls and the dangers of the environment to management (6). If you want to cry, a movie was made about it called The True Cost (6). 

In the spirit of trying to change any of the above statistics I teamed up with SUAVS, a new age footwear brand, to complete a study where we explored the sustainable efforts SUAVS employs along with other industry techniques that could propel them towards a completely circular production cycle. 

SPOILER ALERT: they were already doing a lot.

Digital Knitting with a Side of Blue Algae Soles Please

My mission with this project – to help those trying and help those buying.

Who Is SUAVS?

Meet SUAVS – a local Austin, TX shoe brand who leverages digital knitting to produce a more sustainable shoe. CEO Monxi Garza has one main rule, that every customer can do at least 3 activities in their SUAVS shoes. Constantly aligned with three adjectives; simple, smart, and spontaneous, the SUAVS shoe brand has done a lot in the name of sustainable fashion. 

“I initially launched SUAVS with the goal of creating a comfortable and versatile shoe. Once we were already making these super comfy shoes, I started thinking about how I was incorporating sustainable practices in my life. I was growing increasingly worried about the waste I was producing personally. So I thought, what can I do and what can I help others do to decrease waste? First thing we did was implement a give back program by donating all extra unsellable footwear to Soles4Souls. Then we worked on our packaging to ensure it was reducing waste there. A few years ago we began developing 100% recycled knits made from post-consumer plastics and I’m super happy that we’ve been finally able to launch the sustainable line this year!”

-Monxi Garza, CEO of SUAVS

For my graduate school capstone project, I teamed up with SUAVS and set out to complete an extensive UX research study that evaluated both SUAVS digital knitting production process and sustainable fashion practices in the industry as a whole. Ranging from simply not putting one box in another box for shipping (to cut done on paper materials used), all the way to sourcing materials like blue algae to lessen petroleum based components in an insole, it turns out that SUAVS was already implementing more sustainable methods than I originally expected. I conducted 3 rounds of stakeholder interviews to get a better look at the production process as a whole. Here is what I found:

SUAVS SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES

• SUAVS uses 100% Global Recycling Standard (GRS) certified recycled thread made from plastic bottles in their knitted uppers.  

• They digitally knit their uppers resulting in no scraps, no cuts, and fewer combining stitches. They found this option because Monxi wanted to make a more comfortable upper (top part of a shoe) without buying more fabric. With digital knitting, you have more flexibility when it comes to potential thread material and you can create proprietary knits – What’s not to love?

• As mentioned above, they are researching a blue algae (a resource that can grow in our freshwater systems (1)) based foam to use in their midsoles instead of petroleum based materials. Extracting this resource can help preserve the use and oxygen levels in our freshwater systems.

• SUAVS also is on a mission to not throw away shoes. Any returns or damaged product (that is still wearable) get’s donated to Soles4Souls.

• Monxi has contacts in China who help her source material resulting in less air travel. 

• There is also the aforementioned no “box-in-box” approach to packaging. SUAVS does not include a packing slip, they limit internal packaging to 1 piece of tissue paper, return instructions are printed on the box, the box has a second glue strip for returns, and SUAVS shoes are light which helps with shipping resources. 

• Lastly (for now), SUAVS produces androgynous styles. This enables cross-pollination of product and reduces the risk of over-stocking if a certain silhouette is in less demand for say males than females. For example, a men’s size 10 is a women’s size 12. This makes the inventory more agile and allows for real-time adjustments when trends are found in the consumer behavior data. 

“The idea is versatility and for now, we don’t need gender specific SKUs for that.“

-Monxi Garza, CEO of SUAVS

I told you, I suddenly felt unneeded. But hey, there’s always room for improvement right? So first things first, let’s see what the direct and indirect competitors are doing.

Competitive Evaluation

• When asked if they found 2 identical shoes, one being from a sustainable brand and the other not, 66% of respondents said they would decide which to buy depending on the price. 21% said they would buy the sustainable brand and 13% said their decision would depend on something else. 

  For the respondents who said they’d buy the ethical brand, we asked them if they still would if it cost more and 89% still said yes.

• When asked about the most they would pay for a sustainable item, answered varied and the consensus was that it would most likely be proportional to the normal price of the item.

  “What is the highest amount more you would pay for a sustainably made item” respondents answered:

  • 9% said $0-$9

  • 29% said $10-$19

  • 20% said $20-$29

  • 9% said $30-$39

  • 3% said $40-$49

  • 14% said $50+

  • 5% said they wouldn’t pay more 

  • 11% said it would depend (8 of these 10 people said it would be percentage based so it’s hard to assign a dollar amount)

• 72% of respondents said they participate in trends. When asked how long they thought trends lasted, 80% responded a year or less.

  • This is another item I want to follow up on with future research. I want to know how people would answer when asked what they do with the trend clothing after the trend is over.

• 58% of respondents answered incorrectly when asked how much waste the fashion industry produced each year.

  • 42% answered correctly with 1-999 million tons

  • 31% thought it was in the billion tons

  • 13% thought it was in the thousands of tons

  • 8% thought it was between 1-999 tons 

  • 2% thought it was between 500-1,999 pounds

  • 5% said they didn’t know

• When asked how they would go about finding out if a brand was sustainable or ethical, 37% of respondents said Google and 21% said the brand’s promotions.

• When asked to list sustainable brands they shop with, numerous brands came up that weren’t sustainable and were owned by a Fast Fashion parent company. Madewell was the most consistent example of this.

Lastly, I wanted to include a few telling quote extractions.

When asked how they felt about resale shops, we received the following responses:

“The idea is good, but I have trouble finding clothes that fit me. I have trouble going to a physical store and having the selection I need. Online platforms or social media resale groups that post measurements of the clothing being resold are usually my best bet.”

- Survey Respondent

“I generally think I probably wouldn’t find anything in good condition.”

- Survey Respondent

“I don't appreciate the incredibly small amounts that they pay for materials, but I do appreciate the function they serve of recycling materials back to the community.”

- Survey Respondent

When asked how they felt about eco-friendly brands, we received the following responses:

“I think they're very important, but it's difficult to know how truthful they are.”

- Survey Respondent

“I generally like them, but often get caught up in whether they’re actually eco-friendly or if it’s more of a PR stunt (usually a combination of both).”

- Survey Respondent

“I think they are a great idea. Often ones I've seen are beyond my price point, but I don't know all of the brands that are necessarily considered ethical or eco-friendly.”

- Survey Respondent

“I love the mission behind eco friendly and ethical clothing brands. However, being a new category, the price tag is generally higher than what I'm comfortable spending and so I can only afford to buy limited amounts”

- Survey Respondent

There was general distrust, worry about the price, but enthusiasm for the cause and a desire to shop this way. I see this as a huge opportunity area.

Please contact me if you’d like to see the full report.

What Companies Can Do

The following list consists of a myriad of ways in which your company can improve its sustainability. Go forth and help our planet.

Communications

• Clearly list the materials and resources used in a product and include how using that material is a more sustainable option.

• Implement a filtering system to make it easier for consumers trying to shop ethically and/or sustainably. 

• Make education about the Fast Fashion issue and Slow Fashion solutions easier to digest by pulling out clear numbers and explaining any jargon in a concise way. 

• Illustrate sustainable practices with diagrams and representative iconography. 

• Make videos explaining your sustainable efforts or causes that are readily available and less than 3 minutes (people are more likely to consume bite-sized media). 

• Team up with other sustainable companies like Boxed Water. Every time a post features Boxed Water and the #betterplanet hashtag on Instagram, Boxed Water will plant two trees. https://boxedwaterisbetter.com/blogs/blog/better-for-our-planet-brief

• Look into techniques that help online shoppers envision the product on themselves or the features of it. 

  • Video of how clothing moves on a body helps people visualize how it would drape on themselves immensely more than a picture does. 

  • Use models of different shapes, sizes, ethnicities, etc. 

  • My personal plea to the industry, list out what kind of undergarments are usually required for an item. One step further would be including this as a filter option. Reasoning: for some people, certain undergarments are a no-go. If those people can’t tell whether say a top has a built in bra, they may buy something and end up never wearing it (human behavior). 

  • Leverage augmented reality (AR) so they can see the item portrayed on themselves. 

  • Realize the downfalls of mass sizing. Revolve does a great job with their sizing. They have a feature that translates what one size in a certain brand would be in a brand you are familiar with. For example, if you are a size 8 in a jean brand you are familiar with, you may  be a size 6 in a jean brand that runs large. This cuts down on returns, possible waste, and unnecessary shipping/processing. 

  • Check out MySizeID. A new service you can plug into your ecommerce site. https://www.mysizeid.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwy6T1BRDXARIsAIqCTXpXO7ph3y2w1e6yFnia2r9r1CGSh9ES3uurYeKQE3xkwMuX02aJPJkaAl1xEALw_wcB

  • Make sure the important measurements are listed. For example, inseam and rise on bottoms.

  • Educate your consumers on where to measure themselves with a diagram. 

  • When concerning a shoe, show the shoe on a person. People are notoriously bad at precise visualization (it’s a practiced skill with a high cognitive demand). So with shoes, people have reported difficulty discerning things like where the top of the shoe would be on them.

• Highlight your company’s sustainable efforts in your primary navigation. 

• Break out “cost per wear” if possible. - Mate the Label

• Back up your buzzwords with statistics. 

• Profile the specific fabrics your brand uses if possible. What they are made of, where they come from, how they are colored, etc.

Materials & Packaging 

• If you want to use cotton, use Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certified organic cotton.

• If you want to use paper goods, use Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper goods. –   https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/what-is-fsc-certification-and-why-you-should-look-for-it.html

• Use bluesign® certified suppliers, manufacturers, and textiles. A bluesign® certification means that the supplier, manufacturer, or resource meets certain ecological and traceability standards (concerning things like wastewater and carbon emissions) – https://www.bluesign.com/en

• Research and implement more sustainable packaging solutions. Stay away from foam peanuts, plastic, and use less paper resources. 

• Look at ways to improve your sample process. Creating fewer full samples results in less materials being used and less shipping required. 

• If possible, find a way to use recycled materials for anything from the paper for packing slips to the tag on a garment. 

• Find a donation or up-cycle solution for damaged or returned goods. The following list is sourced directly from https://trashisfortossers.com/how-to-recycle-old-clothing/.  – 

  • https://www.planetaid.org/find-a-bin

  • Wearable Collections: NYC-based clothing recycling pick up service.

  • Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles: An online platform that will help you find the nearest textile recycling outlets near you.

  • H&M, Don’t Let Fashion Go To Waste – You can drop off your textiles from any brand, in any  condition, at any H&M store globally and they’ll recycle it for you. I recommend calling ahead though to your local H&M before to double check and make sure store employees know you’re coming by.

  • Donation Town: A site that helps you find a local clothing donation pick-up service in your area.

  • Nike, Reuse-A-Shoe: Nike collects old athletic shoes from any brand that they grind up and use to create courts, fields, tracks and playgrounds.

  • Patagonia, Common Threads – Bring back your unwanted Patagonia clothing and accessories to any Patagonia store and they’ll recycle it and give you store credit!

  • The North Face, Clothes the Loop – Recycling clothing and shoes from any brand at North Face stores.

Certifications & Accountability Partners 

• Team up with the Fair Trade Program to ensure your company employs ethical social and environmental resources – https://www.fairtradecertified.org/business

• Become a certified B Corporation. A B Corporation certification requires your company to meet “the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.” – https://bcorporation.net/certification/meet-the-requirements

• Partner with the Fair Labor Association to promote and support social responsibility. – https://www.fairlabor.org/

Corporate Governance 

• Establish an internal sustainability advisory board to keep a pulse on your company’s sustainability and initiate improvements. 

• Have yearly audits of your progress. 

• Publish those reports for transparency and as a way to hold you and your company accountable. People understand companies aren’t perfect, but showing initiative and trying to be better goes a long way in building customer support/relationships. 

• Communicate your sustainable goals publicly.

• Hold more than your factories and warehouses accountable. Monitor the waste and resources used at your office and any retail locations and then work to be greener.  

Supply Chain Traceability

• Automate your production process as much as possible to limit the resources  required, including energy. – https://classic.qz.com/perfect-company-2/1145012/a-german-company-built-a-speedfactory-to-produce-sneakers-in-the-most-efficient-way/

• If possible, manufacture locally. Put money back into the communities you are profiting from.

Product Environmental Footprint 

• Monitor technological advances for ways to improve your production cycle. 

• Leverage digital printing with sustainable filaments.  

• Use digital knitting to create less textile waste. 

• Employ micro-sizes to ensure a better fit for your customers and therefore a lower likelihood of waste/returns.  

• Trace and log all chemicals used in your production process. Find sustainable alternatives.  

• Use natural dyeing processes. – https://www.researchgate.net/search.Search.html?type=publication&query=natural%20dyes%20textiles 

• Use sustainable printing processes. 

• Require transparency from your factory partners and only partner with those who are working towards sustainability. If possible, supply them with the tools and training to leverage more sustainable methods (this may make sense for some companies and not others). 

Climate Action 

• Become a carbon neutral company. Or even better, become a zero carbon emissions company

• Use solar panels where applicable. 

• Find areas where you can reduce transportation (shipping, team travel, storage centers, etc.). 

• Use ingredients for anything your company produces that aren’t harmful to produce, use, or dispose of. 

Community & Giving 

• Join 1% for the Planet. – 1% for the Planet consists of both businesses and individuals who donate 1% of their annual proceeds to environmental nonprofits (chosen and regulated by the organization)  – https://www.onepercentfortheplanet.org

• Support and advocate for other businesses trying to make a sustainable difference. An example of the opposite: Nike sued Adidas for releasing their first digitally knitted shoe on the heels of Nike’s. https://www.fastcompany.com/3027386/the-race-to-create-knitted-shoes-that-cut-the-wastefulness-of-our-footwear

What You Can Do

The following list consists of Some ways you as a consumer can help sustainability in fashion too. And for your convenience, I have included a shop-able list for specific essential items. Enjoy and let me know if you have any questions.

• Buy less. Shop in your closet first. You’ll be surprised what a good tailor can work with. 

• Shop second hand. Not a fan of your local second-hand shops? Then check out more premium services like Poshmark and The Real Real. 

• Help change the stigma of purchasing and wearing used clothing. – You know that great feeling you get when someone asks where you got what you’re wearing? Well what would be better than spreading the word that you brought a recycled piece back up to its current compliment-worthy glory?

• Bring your own bags when you go shopping and don’t take the store hangers or a receipt if offered.

• Set up an Arcadia account to see what clean energy options are available in your area (with this you get a Reformation gift card). – https://www.arcadia.com/

• Pay attention to the packaging brands you purchase from use. It’s usually a good indicator of who cares about sustainability. 

• If ordering online, see if you can request limited packaging.

• Here is a recycling breakdown courtesy of Goop. – https://goop.com/wellness/environmental-health-civics/the-ultimate-recycling-chart/

• Look for the above listed certifications on a brands website or promotional material.

• Stop asking influencers for “hauls”. – This supports the culture of Fast Fashion, period. 

• Figure out local ways to donate and the most convenient method of textile recycling your tattered clothing (see list with links under the company section).

• Hold brands accountable. – It starts with the consumer. At the base level, Fast Fashion developed to get a current trend in your hands faster. If society only buys from sustainable brands, I promised you your favorite labels will quickly change their wasteful ways. We can already see a shift in the fashion industry compared to five years ago due to consumers being more eco-conscious (mostly because of noticing the signs of climate change).

Looking for new clothes but don’t know where to go for sustainable options? I’m here for you. See my sustainable shopping menu below: 

Let me be your personal shopper.

I have always believed in quality over labels. However my first introduction to sustainable clothing was a shirt that could not stay de-wrinkled despite my best efforts. I was worried that that was what sustainable meant, better for the planet but not better than it’s unsustainable competition.

Thankfully the slow fashion initiatives in the industry have elevated what it means to be sustainable. Now I build my wardrobe with long-lasting beautiful creations from the following brands.

What SUAVS Can Do

Business Wise

• Put faces to your factories. Humanizing the companies you work with abroad reaffirms that your partners employ ethical labor. 

• Partner up with organizations like the 1% for the Planet. It can bring traffic to your site and it’s bettering the environment. 

• Look into how to get certified as a B Corporation. Most likely this will take a couple of years but you will know what to do to work towards it.

• Create the shoe return program. 

• Donate unwearable shoes to a textile recycling factory. 

• Possibly partner with a textile recycling factory that can breakdown shoes. Then incentivize consumers to send their old shoes there for a discount on your site. 

• I would test out skipping the tissue paper in your packaging (unless it is vital/serves a purpose). It will elevate both the presentation and the sustainable message. 

• Find a way to track and offset any carbon emissions caused by distribution. 

On Product Details Pages

• Break out the cost per wear for each style. (Mate the Label image in carousel above)

• If you can, show the resources either used or saved per pair on the product details page. Reformation does a great job of this on their product details pages (images in carousel above).  https://www.thereformation.com/products/amethyst-dress?color=White&via=Z2lkOi8vcmVmb3JtYXRpb24td2VibGluYy9Xb3JrYXJlYTo6Q2F0YWxvZzo6Q2F0ZWdvcnkvNWE2YWRmZDJmOTJlYTExNmNmMDRlOWM2.  

• Show shoes on someone. This helps lessen returns. 

• Show a video on the product details page of someone walking or doing 3 activities in the shoes to really hit home your versatility message.  

• Incentivize consumers to leave reviews with pictures. Out of the people I polled, 96% said pictures in reviews help them make purchasing decisions. 

• Breakdown the other parts of the shoe, aside from the upper, if sustainable as well on the product details page (Nothing New image in carousel above). 

• Include a one or two line description above the colors. Right now the positioning is easy to overlook. Include sustainability in that message if applicable. 

• Change the background of the publication quotes on the product details page to better break up the informative sections. 

• Use a bulleted list and icons for the fitting. An example would be using a sliding scale to show fit and true to size would be the middle of that scale. It’s quicker to digest. People generally won’t read more than two lines. 

• The stars on your reviews are grey right now so it takes a bit of time and brain power to work out that those are active-state stars. I would suggest making them orange or blue. People are trained that a grey star means that star wasn’t selected. 

Good Example Brands

• Look at the AG Jeans – A Good Karma web pages and be sure to click “view more”. They did a great job diversifying their efforts, showing  the evolution over time, and giving summaries in ways that are engaging and shareable. https://www.agjeans.com/agoodkarma.html#the-journey 

• Mate the Label does a great job of showcasing the textiles they use. SUAVS consists of a smaller quantity of styles so this could be a great addition to differentiate styles or maybe gain feedback on what textiles people are responding to. https://matethelabel.com/pages/fabrics

• Nothing New does a good job of including bite-sized statistics to get their point across. Check out their site because some of the statistics apply to SUAVS as well (validate data independently though). 
  https://nothingnew.com/pages/statistics

The End – Thank you for your time!