The rise of modest and sustainable fashion with the Generation Z
As a Syndicate, we will focus much more of our attention, time and money to the generation Z in the medium term.
Gen Z (7-22 years old) is the first native generation, and will represent 40% of global consumer power by 2020.
The Gen Z is 100% different vs. the millennial generation. On the consumer side, they are ultra focus on sustainability and responsibility. According to a McKinsey research, 90% of Gen Z consumers believe that companies have a responsibility to address environmental and social issues.
The inclusion of the latter is a departure from the views of the previous generation of millennials, which had a greener focus. The change is reflected in the higher profile of social issues and in campaigns such as #metoo, #blacklivesmatter, and #timesup, all of which have entered the mainstream lexicon over the past couple of years.
Big brands smelled the marketing opportunities and as expected they suddenly become champions of social issues. For example:
Nike supporting Colin Kaepernick, the face of the NFL’s “anthem protests”;
Levi’s fronting a campaign against gun violence;
Gucci has also supported that cause, supporting a student-led march calling for more gun control;
ASOS has taken a different approach to support refugees, launching an exclusive lingerie line in partnership with designer Katharine Hamnett and Help Refugees, a nongovernmental organization that will receive all profits from the initiative.
On paper, there are all great initiatives but I don’t believe for 1 second that the management team act honesty. They are just following a trend in order to do not be left out from the trend and the Gen Z consumers.
I believe that just new and emerging brands, could be sincere in creating a better world.
Sustainability should be in your DNA, in your culture, in your mission.
I believe that in the next 10 years we will witness of an explosion of real sustainable business in the fashion industry that will be able to tell to their customers a real story, without the legacy of pollution, child labour, lack of Health and Safety standard of the existing brands.
This trend is already happening in the consumer space, mainly driven by emerging F&B brands.
$17bn in consumer sales shifted away from large companies to smaller players since 2013.
But its just the beginning….