18 Dec 18th December Men, start swapping your clothes!
Half of the population are being left out of clothes swapping because men aren’t sharing clothes, but why?
For some reason, the concept of walking into your mate’s room and grabbing a top for a night out completely baffles some men. Even though most of the guys I know are fashionable, environmentally aware and budget conscious, the male half of the University population is yet to catch on to clothes swapping. Swapping clothes can benefit everyone, not just those that most swap shops seem to un unintentionally cater for. After taking part in several clothes swaps within Universities, which were all inclusive for all sexes, no men turned up to swap clothes, but lots of men came up and asked about what it was!
Let’s get EVERYONE involved!
Men, women and non-binary people all wear a set number of clothes, leaving many items unworn for years. A study found that men only wear 13 items1regularly from their wardrobe, so like women, they have a surplus amount of unworn clothes which can be donated into a swap shop. In return they can hopefully find that 14thitem that they will start to wear all the time…
Men are just as likely to shop in vintage stores, charity shops and are conscious about the impacts of fast fashion, but before I started this project, the majority of my male acquaintances had never even heard of a swap shop. Now, after annoying everyone I know with questions like “would you ever swap clothes with your friends?” and “do you know what a swap shop is?” I hopefully have caused them to entertain the idea of swapping clothes with one another.
The growth in menswear sales has increased faster than womenswear sales (though womenswear are still winning overall) which suggests that more and more men are buying more clothes than they used too2. This is even more reason to why men should attend these clothes swaps to constantly renew their wardrobe.
Hopefully this has given you some food for thought, whether you personally are going to make an effort to swap clothes with some of you mates, or if you’re are going to persuade your partner to get involved in a swap shop soon.
Disclaimer: This article is based on the majority of statistics and information about cis men in relation to how to encourage them to get more actively involved in clothes swapping. Dopplle are just using this platform as a way to share information that we believe our readers would find interesting and thought provoking. When the article refers to men it also refers to those who identify as male and those who are non-binary.
2 https://qz.com/1314720/men-not-women-are-fashions-fastest-growing-shoppers/