Getting lots of products without actually needing them: Subscription is a form of recurring purchase and carries the risk of rampant consumption – even as new players claim to offer more sustainable subscription models.
“It’s not pushing me to buy, it’s forcing me!” Elisa, 24, thought she was getting a good deal when she enlisted Fabletics’ “VIP” service. The brand’s monthly subscription allows her to buy gym clothes to buy at a special price.
The company offers its subscribers the option to pause the monthly subscription each month, but Elisa had forgotten to “pause” the month several times. So she paid 200 euros, which she now has to spend – there is no way to get the money back. “These are things I wouldn’t have bought if I hadn’t been forced to,” she assures.
In a fashion industry already heavily criticized for its environmental impact, companies like Fabletics are “using the subscription to actually do hidden advertising,” says Elisabeth Laville, founder of Utopies consultancy, which specializes in advising companies on sustainability issues specialized in development. “They are encouraged to consume under the pretense of getting a cheap price,” she told AFP. Fabletics could not be reached for AFP’s inquiry.
The consultant Elisabeth Laville is also harsh on another type of subscription: the subscription boxes. A concept born in 2010 that allows customers to receive a package of products, often surprises, each month, according to a specific theme. That means they don’t always get what they need or want. Laville says, “This is completely contrary to what we want to encourage, which is to make better choices, to make sensible and conscious choices.”
Still, there are companies trying to use subscriptions as a vehicle for more sustainable consumption. Subscriptions for shared cars, rented household appliances or even a pair of shoes. The company then owns the product and tries to promote its use.
“The company knows that it has to act in the long term. So it needs the best possible products and thereby counteracts the model of planned obsolescence,” argues Michael Mansard, director of business model transformation at Zuora. D Software service provider helps companies manage their subscription offerings.
Is it more environmentally friendly to rent clothes?
In recent years, companies have sprung up that offer cloakrooms for hire. Many were inspired by the model of the American company Rent the Runway, which offers its customers to rent clothes every month and only buy the ones they still like at the end of the month. The motto behind this model is “wear more, buy less”. At first glance, the idea seems to lead to more responsible consumption: the clothes are used by several people instead of lying dormant in a closet.
“I was looking for a solution to be more eco-friendly. I felt guilty because I have all these clothes in my closet, even though I always wear the same ones,” says the 27-year-old Sixtine, who joined Le Closet, a French start-up company that pioneered the concept, almost a year ago acquired from Rent the Runway.
However, this shared wardrobe idea has some limitations. In a sector as competitive as textiles, where fashion is changing rapidly, there is a risk that “consumers will put pressure on you to change choices regularly,” warns Alma Dufour, campaigns director at environmental organization Friends of the Earth. “This would ultimately lead to an increase in stocks and therefore a high consumption of clothing,” she told AFP.
There also remains the issue of the environmental impact of transporting the garments sent back and forth between customers and the company – particularly for washing – as well as the issue of their end of life once damaged.
In July last year, a study by researchers at LUT University in Lahti, southern Finland, looking at the issue was published in the journal Environmental Research Letters. The study argues that renting clothes, if done on a large scale rather than at a local level, has a greater impact on climate change than simply buying clothes that end up throwing them in the trash at the end of their lives. (AFP)
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