For the last three decades, the advent of “fast fashion” has disrupted the traditional fashion cycles by capitalizing on retailers’ and consumers’ responsiveness to the novelty of new fashion trends. Some fast fashion retailers go as far as delivering new apparel designs every two weeks—about 26 times per year, or 13 times more than traditional fashion.

A study just published in the Journal of Sustainable Marketing (2023) by Yunzhijun Yu (PhD SFU 2022), Claudia Lizzette Gómez Bórquez (SFU visiting PhD 2021), and Judith Lynne Zaichkowsky, Distinguished Professor of Marketing at SFU’s Beedie School of Business, finds that the allure of fast fashion comes at a significant environmental cost and encourages consumers to adopt more sustainable alternatives.