PRICE OF RESPONSIBLE FASHION VS FAST FASHION PRICE
What is the price of responsible fashion and fast fashion? Many simplify the price of a garment to consist only of its manufacture: "How can this garment be so expensive to make? Or "Why do they ask for so much cover for a garment?"
If you're mostly used to buying clothes at fast fashion, you might be shocked. As a result of fast fashion, our perception of the right, ethical, prices of clothing is frankly truly distorted. People have thought of a price for clothes through fast fashion that is really distorted, and which many of us are no longer prepared to pay for, for example, a basic t-shirt that can be bought for even a couple of euros in the best (worst) case scenario. The average Finn could be willing to pay for a t-shirt, but when talking about a responsibly made t-shirt, the average price may be 40-60€.
When a garment is manufactured responsibly and ethically, not at the expense of nature or humans as in China and India, manufacturing is reflected in the price.
THE PRICE OF A RESPONSIBLY MANUFACTURED GARMENT The price of a garment sold to the consumer consists
of many things other than just the manufacture of the garment. Vat is also about a quarter of the sales price, i.e. 24%. In addition, clothing brands also have a lot of other expenses. The manufacture of the garment also consists of several smaller parts of the material, the handling and maintenance of the material, logo and washing marks, as well as the cutting and sewing itself.
If clothes are sold at retailers, the consumer's ovh price includes a dealer's sales commission, which varies between 15% and 50%, depending on the brand and resale location. Resale is a sales job, and the reseller also has fixed costs arising from the sale of the product, such as space rents and advertising, which the reseller seeks to cover with its commission on the sale.
Only after all these expenses will the seller's/brand's own expenses be incurred. The part left to the seller is covered by the brand's own sales and marketing costs, product photography costs, the wages of the entrepreneur and clothing designer, the company's accounting, insurance, membership fees, telephone charges, online fees, logistics fees, storage fees, rents, e-commerce expenses, and so on. Even every product sold does not yet bring direct margin to the brand and does not go directly into the entrepreneur's pocket, but brings in money to cover fixed costs.
The maintenance of the online store also requires continuous work, which causes costs. Careful handling of orders, packaging, mailing, customer returns, chat and so on. Maintaining an online store without any sales also costs money. E-commerce platforms have monthly fees, and in addition, approximately 3-5% commission is levied on each sale. In addition, optimizing, testing, and changes to product sales texts, size tables, and sales images take time. In addition, one of the biggest e-commerce expenses is marketing. No one will find your new online store if it's not advertised. The network is full of competitors, so the competition field is really big. You have to be ready to work and build your own distinctive style and concept to succeed with and look for ways to market.
THE PRICE OF THE SALE OF THE GARMENT
The selling price of the garment, as proven, consists of the sum of many things and even more. Plus, there are taxes. All in all, the price of a garment is a percentage drop, so even a slight change in production costs, the cost of an online store or, for example, the retailer's sales overheads is increased in the sales price of the product. Even a small part of domestic work, such as product design and zoning, is valuable because our wage level is high compared to countries such as Asia, China or India.
What does the price of a garment remind you of? Have you thought about building clothes prices in such depth?
MANUFACTURE OF A RESPONSIBLE GARMENT OR OTHER PRODUCT Responsible
clothing manufacturing is not the same as the country of manufacture. The country of manufacture does not tell half the truth. A made in Finland label alone does not guarantee responsible production. In Finland, too, manufacturing can be unethical and irresponsible. Similarly, made in the EU does not have to mean that production is irresponsible. Yes, it is also possible to act responsibly abroad. The most important thing is to take care of the well-being of the environment and people.
The country in which the garment is made is mainly a matter of human value. Others consider it impert life that some things have been manufactured in Finland, but are the factors behind the production of the product certainly taken into account? Do you really know what a made in entry means?
The production of clothing and other products in countries with lower prices, such as Estonia or Portugal, can be at a very excellent level once the manufacturing sites have been carefully checked and monitored. The problem here is control. If the manufacture of products cannot be controlled, the risk of healthy and safe working conditions may be very far away.
Why did I move my production to Poland? How is responsibility reflected in manufacturing and our operations? It is guaranteed by my Finnish-owned sewing company in the heart of the Polish textile industry. Read and be amazed. Personally, I'm in a good position. Polish I have personally reviewed and continuous work monitoring is carried out by the Owner of a Finnish sewing shop. It's also great to be able to offer so many seamsers a decent job and salary with my own brand.
And would you like to know more about responsible fashion? I wrote my own blog post on the blog.