Wear and tear
Wear and tear in the context of product usage refers to the gradual deterioration and damage that occurs to an item over time as a result of its use, consumption, and the habits of its user. It is an inevitable consequence of regular use and reflects the impact of factors such as friction, stress, washing, and environmental conditions on the product’s condition. The knowledge and data gathered from studying wear and tear can provide valuable insights into various aspects of the fashion industry.
Wear and tear data provides valuable insights into product durability, user behavior, and sustainability within the fashion industry. By utilizing this data, companies can enhance product design, inform manufacturing processes, promote responsible usage, and contribute to the transition towards a more sustainable and circular fashion ecosystem.
Product durability and quality
Wear and tear data serves as an indicator of a product’s durability and quality. By examining the extent and nature of wear and tear, manufacturers and designers can gain valuable insights into how well a product withstands everyday use. This information can guide them in selecting higher-quality materials, enhancing construction techniques, and improving product design to ensure longevity and customer satisfaction.
User behavior and habits
Wear and tear data can shed light on the habits and behaviors of the product’s wearer. By analyzing patterns of wear and tear, companies can understand how customers engage with their products. This knowledge helps in tailoring future designs and product features to better align with user preferences, ensuring that fashion items are better suited to withstand the demands of specific lifestyles or usage scenarios.
Sustainability and circular economy
Wear and tear data plays a crucial role in advancing sustainability and circularity within the fashion industry. By assessing the areas of a product most prone to wear and tear, companies can focus on implementing strategies to increase product longevity and reduce waste. This includes using more durable materials, reinforcing high-stress areas, and designing for ease of repair, allowing for extended product use and minimizing the environmental impact associated with premature disposal.
Maintenance and aftercare
Wear and tear data informs recommendations for maintenance and aftercare of fashion items. By understanding the specific areas that are subject to the most wear, companies can provide users with guidance on how to care for and maintain their garments effectively. This may involve instructions for proper washing, storage, and repair techniques, enabling users to proactively address wear-related issues and extend the life of their products.
Digitalization and IoT integration
Wear and tear data can be collected and analyzed through sensors, smart tags, or Internet of Things (IoT) devices embedded in garments. These digitalization efforts enable real-time monitoring of product usage and condition. The data collected can be used to optimize production, track product lifecycles, offer personalized services, and support sustainable practices such as repair, resale, or recycling.
By harnessing knowledge and data about wear and tear, the fashion industry can make more informed decisions, enhance product durability, optimize production processes, promote responsible product use, and facilitate the transition towards circularity, sustainability, and digitization. This holistic approach benefits both the environment and the users by reducing waste, extending product lifespans, and fostering more conscious consumption habits.
Case studies
Patagonia – Worn Wear repair and reuse program
Patagonia’s Worn Wear program collects, repairs, and resells used garments, generating detailed insights into how products age in real conditions. Repair histories and common failure points feed back into design and material choices, extending product lifetimes and anchoring a business model around durability and circularity rather than volume growth.
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Mud Jeans – Lease A Jeans circular denim system
Mud Jeans’ Lease A Jeans model encourages users to lease denim and return it at end-of-use, allowing the brand to inspect wear patterns, repair garments, and recycle fibres. Systematic feedback from leased and returned jeans informs fabric development, seam construction, and design for recyclability, directly linking real-world wear and tear to product and system improvements.
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Levi Strauss & Co. – Care Tag for Our Planet and LCA-guided care
Levi Strauss & Co. combined lifecycle assessment with the “Care Tag for Our Planet” initiative to show how washing, drying, and wearing practices drive environmental impact over a garment’s life. By translating wear and care data into user-facing guidance printed on labels and reports, Levi’s promotes repair, reduced washing, and prolonged use as core strategies for lowering total impact.
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EON Group – CircularID™ product identity and lifecycle data
EON’s CircularID™ protocol assigns digital identities to individual fashion products, allowing brands to log production, use, repair, and resale events over time. Capturing wear and tear data as part of the digital record supports design-for-durability, repair services, and more accurate sorting and routing at end-of-life, enabling scalable circular business models.
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Eileen Fisher – Waste No More remanufacturing from damaged garments
Eileen Fisher’s Waste No More initiative transforms damaged take-back garments into new textile artworks, panels, and products. Close reading of wear, damage, and fabric failures in returned pieces informs both future design decisions and new forms of remanufacturing, demonstrating how visible traces of wear can become a design input rather than a reason for disposal.
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References
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Aakko, M., & Niinimäki, K. (2022). Quality matters: Reviewing the connections between perceived quality and clothing use time. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, 26(1), 107–125. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFMM-04-2021-0070
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Feijs, L., Nachtigall, T., & Tomico, O. (2016). Sole maker: Towards ultra-personalised shoe design using Voronoi diagrams and 3D printing. In Proceedings of SMI 2016 Fabrication and Sculpting Event (FASE) (pp. 31–40). https://doi.org/10.1109/SMI.2016.24
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Klepp, I. G., Laitala, K., & Wiedemann, S. (2020). Clothing lifespans: What should be measured and how. Sustainability, 12(15), 6219. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12156219
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Laitala, K., Klepp, I. G., & Henry, B. (2018). Does use matter? Comparison of environmental impacts of clothing based on fibre type. Sustainability, 10(7), 2524. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10072524
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Niinimäki, K., Peters, G., Rissanen, T., Gwilt, A., Karell, E., & Laitala, K., et al. (2020). The environmental price of fast fashion. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, 1(4), 189–200. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-020-0039-9