Greenwashing will kill your brand

A warning for all the marketing people out there

Fashion is all about storytelling — Chanel is Parisian elegance, Supreme is urban cool, Nike is high-performance athleticism, etc. etc. Brands spend a lot of money telling their stories — everything from a flagship’s architecture to the tablecloth at a press dinner has been chosen for its symbolism. Brands need to show the world what they’re about, what their clothes mean — and why you should buy them.

But the world is full of brands, and there’s only so many dollars to go around, so as the industry has become more competitive, marketing has become one of, if not the most important parts of the industry. Activations like runway shows, celebrity campaigns and collaborations aren’t cheap, but without them, a brand is just a bunch of clothes sitting in a shop somewhere.

At the same time, values have become a central part of marketing — brands tell us they’re all about elegance and cool, yes, but also diversity, wellness and sustainability. The thinking is that a brand will have more longevity when consumers feel that they share their values — a commitment to some sort of purpose might not sell more shoes from next week's drop, but it helps to build a longer-term relationship with the customer. 

A recent Business of Fashion report explained that “to survive — let alone thrive — in today’s market, nothing is more important than marketing that shapes a brand’s long-term reputation.” This doesn’t mean that the guys selling you sneakers or handbags are actually fighting for the things you care about, they just want you to feel like they’re on your side (whether or not their actions line up with their supposed values is another story entirely — as I wrote about in my piece on Adidas’s unbelievable relationship with Kanye West).

The problem is that the story fashion tells about sustainability doesn't add up. Peel back the layers of corporate communications, and you’ll see that no major brand has been able to meaningfully reduce its impact on the planet, despite decades of talk on sustainability. The truth is that fashion is built on a fundamentally unsustainable supply chain, and that there’s no incentive for anyone to be the good guy. Nobody makes more money by reducing their carbon footprint, and the few brands that are doing the work don’t get a meaningful advantage from it. 

The industry will only be sustainable when reduced emissions, less waste and responsible chemical management are built into the system — anything less than that won't move things forward (which is why I believe the New York Fashion Act is so important). It’s the system itself that’s the problem, not this or that brand. That’s why all the pledges, green collections and upcycled whatever have added up to…basically nothing. 

The sustainability myth works for now, because most consumers are yet to truly feel the effects of the climate emergency. For the most part, the forest fires, flash floods and droughts are happening far away — it’s not a major concern for the shoppers keeping all these brands in business. But what happens when that changes?