Embracing a new era of clothing consumption

Abstract: Clothes play an important role in our lives; not only providing protection, but also offering a way to express ourselves and who we are to the world around us. However, the purchasing of clothing has escalated into unsustainable volumes whereas the utilization of clothing, on the other hand, has decreased. It thus becomes clear that the way we consume clothes is placing an enormous strain on our environment and proving unsustainable in the long-run. This study will therefore explore how consumers to a greater extent can be inspired to engage in new and more sustainable clothing consumption alternatives. More specifically, this will be done by investigating how consumer perceptions differ between consumption of a second-hand clothing item that has been redistributed for a new cycle of ownership versus a rental clothing item that is utility-based. To achieve this, a qualitative study was carried out consisting of 24 semi-structured interviews with Swedish consumers from urban cities. Findings show that consumers indeed do have environmental concern, but that this is not the sole driving motivator for how they consume clothing. Participants of this study are well-acquainted with the concept of redistributed ownership, however, they find it difficult to extend beyond more than simply a complementary activity to traditional clothing consumption, in part due to the stigma surrounding it. As for utility-based nonownership, participants perceive it to be a novel and at times strange concept. The high degree of innovativeness results in several perceived risks including personal sacrifices in terms of money, time and effort, as well as an uncertainty of its positive environmental impact. A high degree of service-provider formality as well as transparency prove to be key findings important to note by practitioners when designing a service offering that can win support from consumers and gain traction in the market.