The Fashion Industry Added Thousands of New Products Today

What happens when the pursuit of growth collides with the idea of making fewer, better things?

If you’ve seen the news recently, you might be wondering the same thing as we are...

How does a company grow, but also remain ‘slow’ fashion?

At some point, every independent fashion brand faces a choice between growth and intention.

While growth often demands more products, more launches and more reasons to buy, intention demands asking whether those things should exist in the first place.

The interesting question is what gets sacrificed when growth becomes the primary objective.

Every day, thousands of new products are being added to websites, shops and warehouses, with one leading fast fashion giant reportedly adding between 2,000 and 10,000 new items to its platform every day.*

As an independent fashion brand who's released a total of 8 new products this year, those numbers are difficult to comprehend. But from a business and growth perspective, they make sense.

More products create more opportunities to sell. More launches create more reasons to visit a website. More choice creates more chances that you'll find something to buy. And this is what makes the tension between growth and intention so interesting.

Because we know from our own experience that every new product represents a decision. That someone, somewhere, has decided this piece deserves to exist and deserves a place in your wardrobe.

Since January, we’ve released eight genuinely new products (not including new colour variants of existing designs), simply because those products were the only ones that felt worth making.

There were other ideas that didn't make it through development, because the designs weren't quite right, or they looked good on paper but didn't feel like they’d benefit you in a meaningful way.

Perhaps that's one of the less obvious consequences of an industry built around constant newness. When products are created faster and in greater numbers, there’s often less time to ask whether they're solving a problem, filling a gap, or adding something meaningful to your wardrobe.

And surely a piece of clothing that’s been thought about for months, will be of much more benefit to you than one that’s been churned out quickly to make a profit?

While the pursuit of growth asks, "What else can be launched, and how quickly?"

The pursuit of intention asks, "Is this worth making in the first place?"

* Source: McKinsey & Business of Fashion - The State of Fashion 2024