If a t-shirt is cheap or too expensive, there is a reason
One of the first things consumers say is that the sustainable fashion "It costs too much", money is scarce and you have to fall back on cheap products.
Most of the sustainable brands that have been emerging in recent years have very low production levels, often artisanal, and this affects the cost a lot. Using ecological materials further increases the final price.
More and more brands are choosing not to sell to stores (B2B), so as to show a most competitive list price with the low cost fashion we are used to. There are several reasons that push new fashion startups in this direction, first of all, they believe that stores "do not pay anymore". It is clear that many of these are not doing well, especially lately.
Retail stores must have a 90/120% margin, which means that if a shop buys a t-shirt for 10 €, should sell it for 19/22 €.
On the other hand, a brand should have a profit margin of between 10/20% by selling t-shirts to the store. So assuming the brand has a 12% profit margin, the t-shirt cost him € 8. Selling directly to consumers (B2C) it could have a list price between € 15 and € 18.
It sounds like a nice benefit for the final consumer, but are we sure it is?
This reasoning is really broad, it could touch on political, economic, social, environmental issues, so we will open a short parenthesis without touching matters that do not belong to us:
- Selling only online would greatly increase the environmental impact, just think that in 2019 in Italy alone 318 million parcels were shipped;
- Online shopping has largely contributed to the closure of thousands of stores, both in fashion and in other sectors;
- The closure of shops in historic centers and suburbs wears down local economies.
Case study of a € 29 t-shirt
A this case study of the Clean Clothes Campaign let's see how it is distributed the cost of a 29 € t-shirt. You know well that a t-shirt makes many trips before entering our closet, starting from a cotton staple, from time to time it is processed, packaged, shipped, and then exhibited in a shop.
As you can see from this infographic, the greatest revenue is attributable to retail, that is to the shop that sells the t-shirt for € 29, but let's not be fooled: seen in this way it would seem that the shops are thieves, or rich, while we know that most some of these are closing the shutters.
It is true that shops have most of the markup, but according to Confcommercio 61,8% of Italians buy only on sale (2019), while according to the Observatory of the Milan Polytechnic 59% prefer to buy online, and 76% of these do it at least once a month (1). These online purchases are hardly made on the e-commerce sites of the shops, much more likely they come from the BIG of the web (amazon, wish, alibaba, aliexpress, etc.) and from large distribution chains such as Zara, H&M, Zalando, Asos, etc.
This data is useful for understanding that stores are not rich at all, despite having the largest profit margin.
Closed this brief parenthesis we highlight the most important data, the purpose for which this study was made: demonstrate that workers in the clothing sector are still perpetually exploited today.
“We want everyone who works in the clothing industry to be given a salary to live on. The UN recognizes a living wage as a human right, but current reality shows that millions of textile workers are systematically exploited as a source of cheap labor. Since the birth of the textile industry, garment workers all over the world have been forced to live in poverty, to the detriment not only of their own well-being, but also of their communities and economies " “Wages of Poverty” Campaign - Clean Clothes Campaign
In fact, let's see how only 0.6% of the cost of the t-shirt is attributed to those who made it. A ridiculous figure, which opens the door to a much broader discussion and that we often face in our articles: buying products of dubious origin is bad for the system.
We cry out for the traceability of a product, as everyone knows that it is quite simple to label a made in Italy t-shirt, even if it has only undergone a couple of steps in the country. Make mapping of traceability of a t-shirt, like other garments, it could help consumers make more ethical choices, but also help activists understand which brands continue to exploit cheap labor.
This example of t-shirt for € 29, given the cost of the same, it cannot even be considered low cost fashion. So imagine what happens when we buy a t-shirt for € 9.90: if the percentage of earnings of workers remained unchanged at 0.6%, the earnings of the same would be "well" 0.06 euro cents.
There is not only this "negative social impact", but also the environmental impact of a low-cost t-shirt it is not to be underestimated. To find out more about this topic, we recommend reading our article: LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS OF A COTTON T-SHIRT (LCA)
“The 2 euro t-shirt” the social experiment
This is one of the reasons why today I would like to bring to the fore an extremely interesting social experiment that was carried out by Fashion Revolution in Germany: The 2 euro t-shirt.
Alexanderplatz in Berlin (a real iconic place of the beautiful German city), in addition to having seen Tsar Alexander pass at the beginning of the 800th century, it was also the theater of a social experiment which should be analyzed and understood in its details.
A distributor with captivating and attractive shapes had been installed right in the wonderful square and, introducing 2 euros, it was possible receive in exchange a pure white cotton t-shirt. And who wouldn't have taken advantage of the sensational offer?
Hence, many have approached the vending machine and introduced the "heavy" currency that Brussels has provided us with.
But at this point? Yep, at this point, whoever stood in front of the car and thought that in seconds he would have his t-shirt in his hands, he found himself in front of a video in which it was explained that that piece of cloth had been made by a person who had worked for sixteen hours a day, with a salary of 13 cents an hour, in hallucinating social and health conditions.
The fateful question was: "Do you still want to buy the t-shirt or do you prefer to donate your two euros to our association?"
Well, the result was easy to understand: 9 out of 10 ten people decided to donate.
At that point, after making the choice (right, I add), a message appeared that said: "When people are informed, they care".
The fulcrum of leverage is precisely this: to let the largest number of people know which world is hidden behind a price, and this is what we have been doing since 2016 with Vesti la natura.
The goal must be to free consumers' ability to make adequate and truly conscious choices.
All this is education and information. Education for sustainable living and ethical behavior should be included in educational programs from the earliest primary grades.
The press and social media must play a propulsive and always active role in dissemination and training / education. Effective and continuous communication.
We must know the harsh reality in order to be able to select, to be able to understand.
As long as we think that sustainability is a beautiful fairy tale, as long as we are reflected in our eco-sustainable products, as long as our level of sustainable education and knowledge of reality remains the current one, sustainability will remain written on the advertising billboards of clothing brands and will risk to remain a deception.
Let's stop buying cheap t-shirts
While being that ofethics a common problem, both in the large distribution chains of the fast fashion that in luxury fashion, by purchasing products that cost "too little", we do nothing but encourage brands to continue along this path.
Stop buying cheap t-shirts, like other similar products, it's like sending an ultimatum message. We consumers move the market, but we often underestimate this strength. If companies notice changes in demand, they will be alert and ready to change direction.
If we really can't help but buy cheap t-shirts, let's try to make a little effort, perhaps using the Fashion Checker, a tool that allows us to evaluate the brand that made that t-shirt. It would be the first step, an important step.
If, on the other hand, you think you can buy ethical and sustainable t-shirts, perhaps buying less during the year, download our ecoFASHION app and find sustainable fashion online or in your city.
