Introduction and Ethical Question:
The increasingly competitive and fast-moving fashion industry has evolved from designing and manufacturing clothes for biannual cycles to four to six collections a year. While many iconic brands continue to increase sales and profits for years, there has been a growth of issues regarding its lack of sustainability on the environment and severe mistreatment of workers in its supply chain. To that end we propose this ethical question, “to what extent should the consumer care about how the product was manufactured (encompassing the whole supply chain) and what are their responsibilities to it?”
The increasingly competitive and fast-moving fashion industry has evolved from designing and manufacturing clothes for biannual cycles to four to six collections a year. While many iconic brands continue to increase sales and profits for years, there has been a growth of issues regarding its lack of sustainability on the environment and severe mistreatment of workers in its supply chain. To that end we propose this ethical question, “to what extent should the consumer care about how the product was manufactured (encompassing the whole supply chain) and what are their responsibilities to it?”
Information and Ethical Concepts:
In order to answer the ethical question, consumers will need the
Fashion retailers to be both transparent and honest about how their
clothes are produced and consumers must be honest with themselves.
Information including profit margins, worker conditions, workers safety
and outcomes (death, injury etc.), worker regulations, supply chain
costs, levels of corruption in supply countries and a general
understanding of how products are made should be given to the customer
in order to make a informed ethical decision. Companies should be
forthright about how their garments are produced and not be part of the
pain and suffering of individuals in their supply chain, ignoring their
rights just to decrease the costs of their products. Consumers should
be able to relate to the people who are producing their products, acting
out of concern for their working conditions and understand what they
endure. Consumers should not just be blissfully ignorant of the matter
and go beyond what is obligatory to improve the lives of others.
Assumptions and Point of View:
We can make the following assumptions because of how the industry
players contribute to this dilemma. Fashion retailers are fully aware of
how these clothes are produced and provide the minimum amount of care
in order to maximize profit. Shareholders of fashion retailers are
largely return-driven and do not care how their companies are operating
to generate the profit they receive. We can assume local regulators are
complicit in allowing these manufacturers to operate dangerously because
of the economic benefit. Finally, regarding consumers we can assume
that they continue to remain largely ignorant of the matter since
clothing retailers continue to grow both in sales and profits
year-over-year. In order to begin to answer this ethical question
consumers will need to demonstrate that they sincerely care about the workers in the supply chain for their goods. As well, applying a justice ethics lens, consumers should think about a supply chain they would feel comfortable working in, prior to purchasing products.
Conclusion and Next Steps:
We believe that consumers at the end of the day should sincerely care
about the workers in the supply chain. If they are consistently made
aware of the plights of workers and the environmental damage caused by
the very clothes they wear, then they will start to demand change in the
industry. Consumers ultimately hold the power over manufacturers /
retailers and can demand such actions such as mandatory supply chain
disclosures (education). Consumers can unify to request that tags on
clothes provide more information regarding the suppliers working
conditions, describing how the item was made. Companies can look to new
technologies like the blockchain to provide consumers with a way to
track how the clothes were produced from beginning to end. With
consumers demanding change and more transparency, regulators will have
to pass laws to enforce the information to be made available publicly
which will eventually enforce manufacturers and companies to provide to
the end-consumer. We believe this will then allow consumers to take more
informed responsibility of the clothes they purchase and to demand more
care for the workers and environment.
There’s an emphasis on what consumers “should” do but this describes the ideal consumer and doesn’t necessarily reflect the profile of actual fast fashion shoppers. The ideal consumer would be up to date with the general state of global affairs and be concerned about social issues. They would also be willing to pay premium prices for ethically sourced goods. This is the ideal consumer, but what if the typical fast fashion consumer is the exact opposite? If fast fashion consumers are immature, cash strapped, not well informed, and not concerned with issues outside of their social networks, then it’s hard to believe that they would go through the trouble of researching the source of the products they consume or change their purchasing preferences and behaviors. We agree that consumers “should” care but don’t believe this is a realistic outlook in the short run as evidenced by the rapid growth of the fast fashion market despite widespread media attention on the injustices in the industry. We agree with the approach that repeated exposure to the issues is a key strategy to change the hearts and minds of consumers and industry players. More exposure to industry conditions and making the mandate for ethical industry practice a pillar of the mainstream marketing message will change the perceptions of consumers over time.
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