Many fashion brands and retailers are trying to make their apparel sourcing operations more sustainable, from publishing ESG reports to using more recycled textile materials in their products. However, the effectiveness of fashion companies’ sustainability efforts and related communication remain largely unknown, especially among Generation Z, arguably their most important target market, Just Style reported.
Dr Sheng Lu, associate professor of fashion and apparel studies at the University of Delaware quizzed his students about sustainable apparel sourcing to find out whether fashion sourcing managers’ decisions are aligned with what their target market wants.
He says: “Like many other Generation Z, our students already have a good sense of sustainability and recognise the issue’s significance and complexity. They also have high expectations for fashion brands and retailers regarding supply chain transparency, the use of more sustainable textile materials in their products, and genuinely communicating sustainability efforts instead of treating sustainability as a marketing issue.”
He highlights that his Generation Z students are the fashion industry’s future professionals and they are not afraid to make changes — from shifting away from ‘fast fashion’ culture, to calling for more sustainable sourcing-related regulations and embracing the idea of zero-waste design and circularity.
What sustainable apparel sourcing means to Gen Z
One of Lu’s students, Emilie Delaye, argues it’s difficult to define sustainable apparel sourcing today because the definition of the word sustainable is constantly evolving. She says that for her generation it is a phenomenon that is much larger than environmental issues with Gen Z consumers, including herself becoming more concerned with the “who” and “where” questions when it comes to sourcing.