Important Media Cross-Post
Most of us get a thrill from finding cheap clothes. Money is tight for plenty of people these days and spotting that cheap dress or shirt can feel like finding buried treasure but the thrill is all too fleeting. Cheap dress shirts or dresses come with a hidden high price if they aren’t made well, don’t fit, and don’t last. Cheap clothes can come with an environmental cost from wasteful and dirty mass production, and a human cost as well from poor treatment of workers who make them. Taking a broader view, cheap clothes are not always the best value.
Hooked by a low sticker price, it’s easy for us to forget the real value that higher quality clothes provide. A well made custom dress shirt will still be in use years after a cheaply made shirt has lost its buttons and come apart at the seams. The cost of frequent replacement is one clear way that cheap clothes cost more than you think. And a well-made shirt will also look better and feel better to wear, which must be worth something as well.
The environmental cost of low quality is not always obvious, in part because the manufacturing often takes place in far off locations and all we see is the shirt in the package…
You can read more on the hidden price of cheap clothing over at our sister site, Ecopreneurist.
