Brand actions to protect their image

Why do brands burn/waste their stock rather than marking it down:

• Markdowns can affect a brands image of being exclusive and always in high demand.
• Rows of messy sale rails don't infit with the luxury boutique styles that are accustomed to going with the high-end fashion look. 
•  It takes away the idea that purchasing high-end fashion brand clothing is an investment when the value of it can be removed at the end of each season.
• Many high-end brands operate their own outlet stores, where the sale stock that can still represent the brand image is sold at a slightly lower cost. 
• If the stock gets out cheaply enough it could end up in the wrong hands, to be copied, a brands intellectual property is at risk. 

Orsola de Castro, co-founder and creative director of Fashion Revolution, says “there is no such thing as an environmentally friendly way of burning clothes.” Part of this is to do with the materials: “Many of these (pieces of) clothing contain components such as synthetic linings or zips and buttons that are plastic. You can burn plastic, but it doesn't become ash. Harnessing energy is not a really good excuse, because (producing) them in the first place is very energy consuming. It just doesn't make any sense.”

Brands that rework their stock:

There’s offcuts of fabric, defective items, pieces where the dying process didn’t quite take or come out right. Transforming this waste into a product takes time and creativity – Hermès, for example, has petit H, an initiative which sees artisans repurpose scraps left over from manufacturing into new items. But it’s a private, family-owned business that’s based around the idea of luxury as something which takes time – which is to say, it produces far slower and in smaller quantities than fast fashion companies. 

“If we look at the entire supply chain and the waste and surplus that is being disposed of at every stage, I do not think there is a brand that is exempt from this,” explains de Castro. It’s an endemic problem, and certainly bigger than a few big brands. 


Fashion that wastes stock:

• Burberry
• Louis Vuitton
• Nike
• Urban Outfitters
• Micheal Kors
• Victoria Secret
• H&M
• Cartier 
• Mont Blanc