Fast fashion is new term to me, and the first time I read about it was in an article about the environment. It's not easy to discourage a market which produces products in demand, but it's good to consider why the demand exists in the first place.
This article is not about fast fashion, but the inverse of it: why it's often best to pay more for quality.
But why does fast fashion exist in the first place? In my opinion there are two drivers: discretionary income and boredom.
Would you be willing to wear the same shoes for 20 years if they lasted?
Now that is an interesting question. I have bought expensive shoes and cheap shoes. I do have a pair which has lasted two decades, although I had to resole them twice. But the uppers look about the same as when I bought them.
So in our discussion of managing our money well, is it worth it to pay extra for quality? I would say it depends.
This morning I drove to work in a car that is 20 years old and has over 200,000 miles - but it looks and drives like new. The quality of the car is related to a few factors: highway miles (long commute to work) and being parked in a garage most of the time. But also there is the factor of quality. It's just made well even in the small details. Was that a good investment? Of course. Did I pay a lot over the years for repairs? Sometimes yes.
But here is a good exercise. Put your maintenance costs in a spreadsheet and spread them out over 12 months. Then compare those costs to the cost of leasing or buying a new car.
Oftentimes we want a new car because we want one. Advertisers know this. Commercials for new cars almost always appeal to the emotions rather than the math. That's because it works.
But you can be different.
It takes a willingness to stand alone sometimes in the face of overwhelming societal pressure to get the newest and best. Some people can afford it, but most cannot.
So you have to decide to trade the false comfort of the new car smell with the long-term less exciting benefit of lowered expenses. Each situation and each person are different, but overall if you stop to consider these principles, you may see they apply more often than you think.
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