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TikTok is revving up the speed of fast fashion, which is in turn increasing the load on landfills. Brands can play a key role in changing the status quo and gen Z consumers are demanding it. Here's what marketers need to do.

Shopping is more accessible than ever; all it takes is a touch of the finger. And social media apps, specifically TikTok, have encouraged shoppers to keep spending their money. With over 1 billion users as of September 2021 (according to data from Hootsuite), TikTok is reaching vast sums of people all over the world. Influencers often advertise - sometimes, but not always, through a paid partnership - specific clothing products to their followers.

TikTokers, such as @wisdm8 (8 million followers) and @the.navarose (5.7 million followers), have become the new face of fashion. They could even be considered social media's role models when it comes to style. Their videos are clearly working: 39% of gen Zers are directly influenced to purchase an item after seeing it on TikTok, per Marketing Charts. Many buyers no longer look at stores and magazines to figure out what to wear - they look to their phones. And who can blame them? Online shopping makes our lives easier, in part by eliminating the hassle of going to an outdated mall.

As social media makes it easier to expand your wardrobe, it's also speeding up the life cycle of fashion trends. TikTok especially causes trends to constantly change, as influencers post about new items every day. This results in a continuous buying cycle - who doesn't want to have the newest, most stylish thing? But that also introduces a problem: as buyers constantly pursue the next best thing, they're simultaneously leaving last week's trends in the dust. They're unable to stick to one type of style - one day it's Y2K with Juicy Couture tracksuits, the next it's the 70s with bell bottom jeans. Since we're endlessly absorbing fashion through social media, I can't help but wonder if our generation will actually have a signature style.

An inability to commit to just one type of fashion doesn't only hurt pockets - it's also detrimental to the environment. In 2018, a staggering 11.3m tons of textiles ended up in landfills, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Clothing products rarely last. More often, they die out after a few months and end up in the waste. A green knitted dress with water print swirls from the UK shop House of Sunny gained mass popularity on TikTok during the beginning of summer 2021, but was soon considered to be uncool. One can imagine that it ended up with the other millions of tons rotting in a dump and polluting our planet.

TikTok is making fast fashion faster

What can clothing companies do to lessen the impact of this growing problem? For one thing, they should look to the origin of the problem: social media. Many influencers take on a side hustle by sharing their used clothing via online secondhand marketplaces, such as Poshmark and Depop. Companies could potentially partner with these apps in order to sell previously owned clothing from their brand at a discounted price. This would reduce the amount of new clothing being produced and could prevent unwanted clothing from being thrown out. In addition to helping the environment, that could also save companies money on production costs. And where would brands advertise this new collaboration? TikTok, of course.

Brands could also take in used clothes and either donate or reuse them; H&M is currently doing this with its Garment Collecting program. They could also possibly integrate secondhand clothing into new items if they could find a way to reuse the fabric. Could a shirt be refashioned as a skirt? Jeans into a bag?

Clothing companies should take responsibility for the environmental impacts of their industry. And though TikTok is currently driving the problem of trend-hopping, it can also be a solution - if brands commit to slowing down the speed of fast fashion.
Sofia Baracskai is a senior at Notre Dame School in Manhattan. She aspires to graduate from college with a degree in marketing. For more, sign up for The Drum's daily US newsletter here.

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Letter from gen Z: TikTok has a fast fashion problem

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TikTok is revving up the speed of fast fashion, which is in turn increasing the load on landfills. Brands can play a key role in changing the status quo and gen Z consumers are demanding it. Here's what marketers need to do.

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Prior to the revolution, artisans and seamstresses were responsible for making clothing and selling them. This was a timely process when the clothing was being stitched by hand. The industrial revolution was a major turning point for the country with new machinery and factories to mass produce products. The creation of the sewing machine was a big step towards producing clothing at a faster rate. At this rate, manufactured products were cheaper and able to make multiple of the same design. This point in history marks the start of mass production which is an environmental issue we now face.

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Post World War II, the economy spiked with the concept of buy now, pay later. This mentality of his almost careless lifestyle that eventually results in the economic downfall of the Great Depression. This was the first major change in fashion that was considered a bit more “scandalous”. This also meant there needed to be a better standard for clothing production. These mass-produced clothing were much cheaper, allowing people in the middle class to become major consumers.

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This is the initial start of when fast fashion started to appear in the country. Paper dresses were a short lived trend created from the paper company Scott’s new product Dura-Weave. These dresses allowed people to cut and tape the dresses however they wished. This was an easier option than sewing dresses that may not fit right. This trend eventually died out before the end of the decade.

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The Global South is the main source of clothing exporters. It is extremely inexpensive for countries to import products from these countries rather than producing them nationally. The main controversy with this is if it’s worth getting cheaper products if the factories working conditions aren’t ethical. Clothes produced here are cheap for a reason, the quality is usually very poor. As a result, these pieces do not last very long and end up adding to the pollution in the landfills.

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One of the major effects of the pandemic locking everyone in their homes is the increased screen time. Being home with nothing to do meant a lot of people spent time on social media, specifically TikTok. With malls being a health risk, online shopping became incredibly prominent. This was the start of crazy shopping hauls being posted and promoting overconsuming clothing from fast fashion companies. Microtrends were showing up left and right, those that don’t even exist anymore.

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1. Gen Z- The generation of individuals born between the late 1990’s and early 2010’s, who were the first to grow up in the era of widely accessible digital technology. This is important because a large number of TikTok users and fast fashion consumers are a part of Gen Z.

2. Influencers - A person who has become well-known through the use of social media by promoting specific products and brands as a job. Influencers are incredibly important as to the reason why many TikTok users are drawn to buying new products, or mainly clothing that is only a temporary trend.

3. Trend Cycle - The process of something on social media gaining a lot of activity in a short amount of time. These things will go viral, making people buy them rapidly, and then the trend dies down when there is a new one to take its place. This cycle is basically the reason why fashion is constantly changing. TikTok makes these trends incredibly widespread to individuals, only for them to last for a short amount of time.

4. Refashioned - To fashion again or differently; basically finding a new purpose to a piece of clothing that is no longer “in style” or worn. The idea of giving clothing a second chance whether it be buying second hand or making modifications to that piece is such an important way of helping reduce the impact of fast fashion.

5. TikTok - The primary social media platform that promotes fashion trends for Gen Z. TikTok is the most used social media platform this generation uses because of how short the videos are. Many influencers promote products for viewers, who tend to just online shop without much thinking.

6. Fast Fashion - Inexpensive clothing that is rapidly produced by mass-market retailers in response to a trend. The production of cheap products when there is a new trend is a primary reason why people find hopping on a trend is so easy.

7. Overconsumption - Consuming at an excess. With how cheap fast fashion is, people tend to want to buy more of it rather than a few items at a higher price point. Overconsumption of these fashion trends is an issue because these clothing pieces are usually poorly made and do not last very long in quality, so they just end up in landfills.

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Baracskai, Sofia. “Letter from Gen Z: TikTok Has a Fast Fashion Problem.” The Drum, The Drum, 13 June 2022, www.thedrum.com/opinion/2022/06/10/letter-gen-z-tiktok-has-fast-fashion-problem.

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Replying to @Not Sydney im a sucker for sheintok🫣 #sheinhaul #shein #sheinsummer #sheinhauls #haul #clothinghaul #glowmode #sheinworkoutclothes #sheinsummerclothes #clothing #clothinghaul #summerclotheshaul #fastfashion 

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@estellelebourgeois_
Replying to @Not Sydney im a sucker for sheintok🫣 #sheinhaul #shein #sheinsummer #sheinhauls #haul #clothinghaul #glowmode #sheinworkoutclothes #sheinsummerclothes #clothing #clothinghaul #summerclotheshaul #fastfashion
♬ original sound - Estelle Lebourgeois

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How does the increased use of TikTok by Gen Z reflect on the amount of fast fashion building up in landfills?

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Why are the microtrends being promoted not more long term?

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How can buying second hand clothing influence fast fashion?

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The article talks about the impact of fast fashion trends promoted to Gen Z on TikTok. It talks about how content posted by influencers contributes to the unsustainable consumption in fast fashion and how brands prioritize making money over ethical or environmental issues. As a solution to this issue of over consuming from fast fashion companies, it suggests the use of second hand clothing apps to purchase or sell clothing from.

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The largest temptations of buying from mass marketing brands such as Shein, H&M, or even the TikTok shop are how affordable and convenient it is. Fast fashion is cheaper to produce therefore cheaper to purchase. This targets those in the lower and middle class to be able to keep up with the latest trends. It is often convenient to purchase from these companies as well because of how easy it is. By shopping online you can expect a package at your doorstep about a week later. It is fast and avoids going into a store physically. Now TikTok is a great platform for promoting a point to a specific audience. Short videos keep viewers attention span longer than it would on YouTube videos. It's great to discover new things and create content with passion behind it, specifically great for Gen Z to advocate and promote topics that are equally important to a majority of the generation. With the constant changing micro-trends, a platform like TikTok is great to promote it to a large and targeted audience. And once a style is no longer preferred by an individual, selling it second hand is a great way to avoid disposing them.

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There are many negatives from over consuming these fast fashion products. The most impactful is the environmental detriments it brings. These clothing pieces are cheap to purchase, meaning it is made of a low quality material that lacks durability. The poor quality means it will have a shorter usage time and end up as disposable fashion. These fabrics cannot break down, so they therefore end up in landfills that pollute chemical dyes into the water, as well as increasing carbon emissions during the production process. Environmental effects aside, there are many ethical concerns with fast fashion. These companies are focused extremely on making profits. Rather than making their own designs, they hop on the latest trends and steal the designs of other brands. During the actual production process, workers are making these orders in poor working conditions. They are exploited, paid extremely low wages, and some companies even have allegations of child labor. The micro-trends ultimately have a larger impact on why fast fashion is so prominent. Ideas are constantly getting disposed, resulting in an extremely short life span of that trend which makes it difficult to sell these pieces on a second-hand clothing platform. Many times, when a person is over a certain style of clothing it means the trend has died down. In this case there will be no one to buy those clothing and they would end up being disposed anyway.

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At this point, there is not much to do about the damage that has already been done. Gen Z has become what I like to call "screenagers". We are constantly drowning ourselves in a rabbit hole of videos for hours on end. We have seen products we like and want to buy them. There is no way to control everyone's opinions on purchasing an immense amount of cheap clothing when they believe in retail therapy. Over consuming clothing brings some of these people joy. The concept of selling clothing second hand is great and all, if the quality of the clothes is durable. As someone who enjoys a good thrifting moment, I would not willingly buy something from Shein at a place like Goodwill. The quality is usually extremely poor and is not worth even trying to sell. The only real way to stop fast fashion from ending up in landfills is not just something Gen Z can do on their own. The companies that are so focused on making a profit will keep producing unless they have a reason not to.