Fast fashion in the pet industry & why OLLYBYSO want to avoid it!

Fast fashion in the pet industry & why OLLYBYSO want to avoid it!

What is Fast Fashion?

Inexpensive mass produced clothing, often cheap, low quality with a short lifespan. Brands that design items to move quickly from being purchased by you to being out of fashion quickly after, because they have their next mass produced items ready, encouraging you to purchase the 'next best' thing to stay 'up to date'.

Brands that bring new styles to stores more often than necessary and are relatively inexpensive due to low costs and cheap labour, easily accessible materials, short cuts and basic processes to speed up the manufacturing time, to then be promoted with the intention of creating consumer hype and selling out as quickly as possible. And the process repeats.. This leads to over consumption and over production.

Here are just some eye-opening issues fast fashion causes:

  1. The fashion and apparel industry is responsible for approximately one third of all microplastics found in the ocean. (Plastic Soup Foundation)
  2. As much as 12% of fibers are still discarded on factory floors, 25% of fast fashion garments remain unsold, and less than 1% of products are recycled into new garments. (Ellen Macarthur Foundation)
  3. Clothing production produces more emissions than international plane travel and shipping combined (House of Commons Environmental Audit)
  4. Greenhouse Gas Emissions: the production, manufacturing and transporting of millions of clothes each year uses an obscene amount of energy. If the demand for fast fashion continues to grow at the current rate, it is expected that the total Carbon Footprint of fast fashion will reach a massive 26% by 2050. (BBC Guide to Climate Change)

 

How Does Fast Fashion Relate To Pet Products?

It's not difficult to see how fast fashion (mass produced, cheap, low quality and moving quickly product) has been applied directly to the pet industry and accessories for our pets. We see a lot of 'leading' pet brands bringing out a new colour or a new pattern in just one product every week or month. Some even releasing up to 10 new prints/patterns a time. This is mass produced using a cheap process, for the same reason the fast fashion industry do; to create hype and encourage customers to purchase quickly, knowing that this particular colour won't stay around for long but you'll be encouraged to upgrade again to the newest release very soon.

How We Avoid Being Part Of Fast Fashion?

OLLYBYSO place small production runs and sell through 80% of stock before starting a new order, with the aim of the remaining 20% to be cleared before producing new items.

We manufacture the amount that we need, when we need it, and aim for as minimal waste as possible. We have done extensive research into factories and we work with manufactures that suit our ethos.

We do not encourage you to buy frequently and we don't/ will never intend to offer an overwhelming choice. We do encourage unworn, unwanted or outgrown items to be recycled in our Preloved Family Facebook group. 

We made the conscious decision to have a core selection of products and prints and NOT release lots of different colours or prints every so often just to make quick money. We do a lot of planning to ensure our items will last longer than a season and are not designed just fo particular holiday season. Our designs have a much longer life in them!

Lastly, we choose sustainable fabrics or mixed fabrics where we can. High grade fabrics and quality materials are used for our items, with the aim they last longer than cheaper alternative options. We have a changes to make in the future and we have plans in place to do so. We look forward to offering more sustainable and vegan friendly dog wear in the near future.

Those customers that are still wearing our harnesses from December 2020 (when we launched), thank you, we really love this. 

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