Fast Fashion vs Slow Fashion in Golf

What is Slow Fashion?

Slow fashion is commonly viewed as the counter to fast fashion, with responsibly producing and consuming clothes of natural and environmentally friendly materials being regarded as a green alternative to fast fashion. While this may hold true when it comes to limiting the negative impact of producing synthetic and non-sustainable natural materials, the “natural way” will only have an actual positive impact if interdependent slow fashion factors are added to the equation. If we exploit labour, overproduce and underuse low-environmental impact apparel as is done with fast fashion, we too can be dubbed culprits as contributors to a greater negative impact on the environment through depletion of resources and excessive waste generation. As such, taking a more holistic approach to changing the way we create, use and reuse clothes through their entire lifecycle can benefit the planet and our future. As described by Sojin Jung and Byoungho Jin on the subject, there are five fundamental criteria to slow fashion, and these can be applied to the sports apparel industry as well as the general fashion industry. The five criteria can be categorized as equity, authenticity, longevity or functionality, exclusivity, and localism.

Equity - Access, Fair Trade and Treatment

We have all heard stories about large sports apparel brands and their misuse of child labour and exploitation of factory workers in sweatshops, particularly in South East Asian countries. Equity in the discourse of slow fashion revolves  basically around two things; equal accessibility to the product in question through fair trade and all-inclusive fair treatment of the producers in terms of working conditions and compensation. Slowing down production with a focus on both delivering a better product and providing fair treatment (through offloading work pressure), would then lead to the next slow fashion criterion: authenticity.

Authenticity

I’ll just say it, slow fashion is at first sight not the sexiest of names, but if you give context to the word it will hopefully pop into perspective. This conceptual name was originally derived from its counterpart in the culinary world, slow food, a cooking method that counters fast food by honouring the local cuisine and cooking on low heat over time, thus infusing flavours gradually. In the case of slow food, you achieve gastronomic pleasure by doing something with passion and patience. It’s about showing proper respect for craftsmanship and valuing the result over mass production. In fashion, the example could be a skilled team of passionate people honouring the art of creating wearable beauty for others by taking their good time to design and deliver a handsewn quality piece of clothing, as opposed to having a machine mass-produce copies of another brand’s art. Let that comparison sink in for a second and you might agree that this is where slow fashion and sexiness unify.

When you slow down the process in apparel production because you focus on creating quality output through skilled craftsmanship, you add value to the product in terms of material quality, financial gain, and historic connotation if the clothing is crafted using traditional techniques. This production slowdown coupled with a somewhat artistic personalisation in apparel creation is part of what makes the product authentic.

Functionality & Longevity

The most consumer-focused criterion of the five is where we address the useability and lifecycle of clothes. If authenticity in slow fashion is about quality craftsmanship, functionality & longevity are about getting as much out of the craftsmanship by maximising its use and lifespan. From a design perspective, we can achieve this by creating timeless designs in durable and natural low-impact materials, which have multifunctional uses in terms of environmental settings and versatile wearability. An example is nature’s own merino wool, which because of its natural temperature regulation can be comfortably used in both hot and cold weather. It is lastly about crafting products that can be repaired, re-used, and have an acceptable natural degradability level within a reasonable timeframe. In contrast to fast fashion, where a piece of clothing is on average estimated to be worn 7-10 times before it is discarded, when people buy a high-quality piece its lifespan is extended and versatility expanded.

Localism

Should localism be treated as regional, country-based, or even continental? Localism is a tricky concept, and the definition depends in many cases on your actual whereabouts. If treated as per region or country, many EU countries will face challenges in delivering fully localized apparel products because of the sheer production diversity and lack of local resources, partly due to the strategic structure of the European Union’s (EU) trade policy. On the other hand, the United States or China would face little to no challenges producing locally if we look at the localism concept from a country-based view but in particular the US might well face production issues if we use the regional approach. The point is that in slow fashion localism is a very fluent concept and perhaps geographically producing and importing responsibly from a fair trade and sustainability perspective would be the better fit. This is where global ethical and sustainability standards for apparel production could be applied. 

Exclusivity

It is a given that because of the mass production and homogenized products fast fashion is as far from exclusivity as you can get and expressing your uniqueness is close to impossible. Exclusivity, irrespective of the financial cost, will most likely always be attractive to certain segments of our societies as it is considered a contributor to building one’s identity and showcasing personalisation. Just because an item is exclusive doesn’t make it slow fashion but if you combine it with the other mentioned ingredients, produce it sustainably and it could be a force for good.