by mathilde.bogen -

15 | Mind Map & Discussion 2

In this blogpost I discuss the last two main areas of my mind map and some of the main problems within the areas.

INDUSTRY

One of the main problems when it comes to the industry aspect is greenwashing. With the growing awareness around sustainability in the world it is more important than ever for brands to have a sustainable image, but how genuine they are can vary greatly. Some brands might come off as being environmentally friendly by for example using recycled materials or vegan leather, but then they don’t share the fact that they use a lot of toxic chemicals in the production. Brands choose wisely what information they want to share and only shares what they will benefit from, so there is still a big lack of openness in the industry. It is therefore extremely difficult for consumers to navigate this market, where true intentions vary widely.

Room for improvement: Make it easier for consumers to identify which brands are truly environmentally friendly and not just greenwashing.

CONSUMER HABITS

Consumer habits is a very broad area and is very similar, if not the same as consumption, so those two areas could have been just one. There are many problems regarding consumer habits, and they are tightly connected. One of the biggest problems is overconsumption. 23 billion pairs of shoes are made every year and 22 billion are thrown into landfill (Dennis, 2022). Trends and fast fashion drive us to buy more shoes than we need and we buy new shoes even though we often have shoes that are in perfectly good condition. Another issue might be that many of us don’t know how to properly care for our shoes once they show signs of wear. There is a lack of knowledge when it comes to what parts of a shoe that can be repaired, and that problem might be connected to the fact that cobblers are not visible in todays society. Somehow, cobblers seem to belong in the past. While there are many DIY repair kits available, they are usually limited in what they can fix.

Room for improvement: Make people get a stronger relationship to their shoes so that they care more for them, don’t want to replace them and want to repair them when needed.

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REFERENCES

by mathilde.bogen -

05 | Consumer habits

This weeks focus has been to research consumer habits when it comes to footwear. My research is mostly based of a research paper written by Alena Pospisilova who wrote the paper as a part of her study program BA (Hons) European Business at University of Huddersfield. The article explored gender and generational differences in consumer habits in the UK. It is important to have in mind that the paper was written in 2012/13 and Pospisilova writes about other articles from 2003. Both the article and the sources used in the article are a bit outdated, but the paper is still useful to gain a better understanding of the habits of different consumers and some aspects might be similar today.

THE PERCEPTION OF FOOTWEAR

The perception of footwear has gone through considerable changes. The footwear’s original purpose is to protect the feet. In the past, footwear has amounted different roles in peoples lives, while footwear is now representing fashion style, power and richness. It is a way to show social status. People are influenced by the people they surround: friends, family, co-workers or classmates. The shoes people buy can reflect the peoples inner feelings and how they want to express themselves to others.

GEOGRAPHICAL MARKETS

The footwear market can be split into different geographical markets. The different fashion trends in different cultures leads to different needs. However, due to mass media the differences are not that big and the world could also be seen as one big market (Pospisilova, 2013). Some might think that there will be different needs for people living where there are rough winters compared to where there are no snow, but it is not always like that. The shoes that UGG originally produced were for surfers. However, today, you can find these shoes globally, used not only by surfers on the beach but also by people in Nordic regions during the coldest winter days.

GENDER

To understand the differences in consumer behaviour, women’s and men’s purchasing habits must be distinguished. Women’s shopping tendencies often mirror their relations to others, while men typically emphasize personality and functional benefits (Pospisilova, 2013). A woman pays in general more attention to her appearance, investing more extensively in apparel and footwear compared to men.

GENERATIONS

Another important factor to take into consideration when it comes to consumer habits are the different generations. The teenagers are the most powerful people that strongly control the world market. Teenagers‘ minds and preferences are changing all the time, and it is therefore difficult to understand their wants and needs (Pospisilova, 2013). People belonging to generation X make rational decisions and purchase goods, which are practical rather than good looking. When it comes to the mature consumers, the most important factors for them is recommendations from friends and family, as well as sales and special offers.

HABITS

It is difficult to find any noticable tendencies in habits because there are a lot of differences in different studies. Some studies show that there is a strong predominance of female shoe shoppers, while others show that men shop equally often as women do. Mintel (2012) examined motivators for shoe shopping. The most commonly mentioned motivator was to replace a worn out shoe or find something comfortable, but many people also reported that they bought shoes to reward themselves. Other commonly mentioned reasons was reduced price and change of season.

RESULTS FROM SURVEY

Pospisilova made a survey with questions about consumer habits. There were 81 responses, and the result from the survey mainly disproves the information from other researchers, but this may be caused by a quite low response rate.

Key findings from survey

  • Most people shoe shop from practical reasons
  • More than half of the men own less than five pairs of shoes
  • Women own in average more than 10 pairs. Keep in mind that this is not representative, because there were some extreme cases, showing women with more than 50 pairs
  • Most women shoe shop every three months
  • 51% of the men shoe shop every six months

It is difficult to draw any conclusion due to several factors, such as old and conflicting research findings and research from another geographical area und culture. I will in the upcoming week try to gather more relevant information about the topic and create a survey to gain a better understanding of todays‘ consumer habits.

🩴 🥿 👠 👡 👢 👞 👟 🥾 🩴 🥿 👠 👡 👢 👞 👟 🥾 🩴 🥿 👠 👡 👢 👞 👟 🥾 🩴 🥿 👠 👡 👢 👞

REFERENCES

  • Mintel (2012) Footwear Retailing – UK. Minteloxygen reports platform. [online] Available at: http://academic.mintel.com. (Accessed 9th December 2023)
by mathilde.bogen -

01 | Sustainability in the footwear industry

The footwear industry, a multi-billion U.S. dollar market, accounts for 1.4% of global emissions. This percentage equates to 700 million tons of CO2 (Smith, 2023).

I care about the environment and I try to live a sustainable life. I don’t eat meat, I recycle and I try to get most of my clothes from second hand stores. The awareness of sustainable fashion is growing in our society, but what about shoes? I personally don’t know what to do with my worn out shoes? I just assume that it is not possible to recycle them, so I throw them in the garbage. Every time I do that I feel guilty.

Only 5% of shoes get recycled and the rest end up in landfills. Most shoes are made out of several different materials which makes them difficult to recycle. 23 billion pairs of shoes are made every year and 22 billion are thrown into landfill (Dennis, 2022). How can there be an end to the overconsumption of shoes? How can there be a change in consumer behavior? And how can the life of shoes be extended?

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT

More than 60% of the emissions from the industry comes from the manufacturing and the raw material extraction (Quantis, 2023). Finding alternative and more sustainable materials that can be recycled could be ways of improving the industry.

A report from FDRA (Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America) takes a look at the inside examining the footwear industry’s progress toward sustainability. It is based on a survey of footwear professionals across the industry in America. They were asked what they thought was the biggest problem regarding sustainability in the industry. Many of the contestants meant that the biggest challenge was the lack of framework to follow. They said that they don’t work together as an industry to solve the problem. They talk a lot about sustainability, but there is no action and concrete examples on how the industry can become more sustainable.

APPROACHES

The two main approaches to this topic are to either focus on the industry or the consumer.

The industry – design for industry change

  • Most shoes are not recyclable and it could therefore be interesting to look into different materials and their opportunities. Most shoe brands have one collection of sustainable shoes that are recyclable. Sustainability is trendy, and it is for that reason important to create a sustainable image, but why do they not make sustainability a higher priority?
  • There is clearly a lack of framework in the industry. Creating a realistic framework that applies to the whole industry could be a way of making it easier for the companies to become more sustainable.

The consumer – design for behavior change

  • The cobbler is an old profession and can in some ways seem like it is stuck in the past. However, by rebranding and modernizing the shoe repair business, it could become more trendy to have shoes repaired. This approach would extend the lifespan of shoes and reduce the number of new shoes purchased.
  • An awareness campaign can inform people about the footprint of the footwear industry and encourage people to make more sustainable choices.

THE ROAD AHEAD

In the upcoming phase I intend to continue focusing on both the production of shoes and consumer behavior. I will look into:

  • The different materials shoes are made of and see if there are any possibilities there
  • Recyclable shoes. What makes them recyclable and why do they not make more of them? 
  • The shoe repair business. Are many people using this service? How can it be modernized? Rebranding?
  • Consumer habits. Why do people buy shoes? 
  • Shoes and identity

I want to talk to a shoe repairer to get to know that business, but there might be a challenge to find someone that is willing to speak with me. I would also like to make a survey to get a better understanding of the consumer behaviors, but there might be a challenge to get enough responses to see any tendencies. Another challenge that I have already faced is finding the right articles online and finding the ones that are free.

🩴 🥿 👠 👡 👢 👞 👟 🥾 🩴 🥿 👠 👡 👢 👞 👟 🥾 🩴 🥿 👠 👡 👢 👞 👟 🥾 🩴 🥿 👠 👡 👢 👞

REFERENCES

  • Smith, P. (n.d.). Global footwear market. Statista. (2023, August 31) https://www.statista.com/topics/4571/global-footwear-market/#editorsPicks 
  • Measuring fashion: Insights from the environmental impact of the global apparel and Footwear Industries. Quantis. (2023, September 27). https://quantis.com/report/measuring-fashion-report/ 
  • Dennis, P. (2022, December 30). Shoe waste: How consumption became culture. Circular Online. https://www.circularonline.co.uk/features/circular-trainers-how-consumption-became-culture/