Selling Sustainability

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the qualities required for sustainable clothing brands to succeed in an industry dominated by "fast fashion," an environmentally unfriendly manufacturing and distribution process. A number of cross-industry case studies were conducted, focusing on companies with sustainability built into their business models from several verticals. Our analysis found that the main reason for these businesses’ commercial success was not the fact that they were sustainable, but that they brought an innovative and marketable product that helped consumers. Their sustainability was not a selling point; instead, their products' benefits were, and we believe that sustainable businesses fail to do so. By marketing "coolness," the health benefits, luxury appeal, and clothing quality of Whole Foods Market, Tesla, and Patagonia allowed these brands to build extremely successful businesses, with sustainability benefits tacked on as a very positive externality. Generalizing, we claim that a sustainable fashion brand must be inexpensive, marketable, innovative, and profitable to find success in the fashion industry. We concluded that fashion companies should use advanced technology such as blockchain technology and biomimicry to create sustainable products that are appealing to the masses, mirroring the case studies above by providing outsized environmental benefits.