Why Clothing Subscription Boxes Are Mostly Meaningless

One problem that almost every adult faces is buying clothes. It comes in different forms. Some people are very fashion conscious but struggle with their clothing budget ; others developed a personal style during their four drunken years in high school and have no idea how to actually dress as an adult. But whatever your specific clothing problem is, there is a subscription box that claims to solve it. The only problem? They don’t really work for many people.

Pros of Clothing Subscription Boxes

From Trunk Club to Stitch Fix , Wantable to Trendy Butler , these services all work in the same way: you answer a detailed questionnaire regarding your taste, size and style you want, provide a few social media links if applicable, and a personal shopper and/or the stylist selects a few pieces each month to send you, along with some notes on how to wear or pair them with other items.

Simple! And in theory, this is a great idea: not everyone can afford the time to go shopping or the expense of a personal stylist. For a monthly fee and some initial effort, you get carefully selected clothing, tailored just for you. Sometimes there is a fee for stylist work that is applied to your purchases if you keep things and confiscated if you don’t, and the service usually claims there is a programmed discount on the clothes that ensures you get a deal. . You always have the option to send everything back along with feedback meant to improve the selection next time.

Cons of clothing subscription boxes

Clothing subscription boxes may be suitable for some people. They are most effective for people who already have a keen sense of fashion and a developed personal style, because these are the people who will be able to give the company very specific and helpful feedback that will help them choose items for their box. If you’re the kind of person who gets completely lost when it comes to choosing outfits and isn’t sure what their personal style is, the chances of you constantly sending everything back in the box (and losing those stylist fees, if any) will decrease. Be high.

Even a professional personal shopper like Alison Gary struggled to get the subscription box to work—she got it for a year, offering detailed feedback each time, and considered the whole experience a failure . If someone who makes a living from this can’t get these boxes to work, the rest of us are doomed to be disappointed.

The potential problems are pretty obvious when you think about it:

• Expenses. Obviously, these services cost more than just buying clothes, despite claims of discounts and deals. That’s because you’re paying extra fees — stylist’s fees and a subscription fee — on top of paying for the clothes. And you usually have a deadline to return these clothes, and if you miss it, you will have to pay for it. And the markups can be astonishing – Gary got one blouse for $70, she was sure she could find it somewhere else for less than $20. There’s also a time cost, because if you don’t keep everything that’s been sent to you, there’s going to be a waste of time packing everything up and arranging for it to be shipped back, not to mention more time spent filling out contact forms and setting up your profile ( hopefully ) improve the selection next time.
• Impersonal touch. While there may be real people who pick your clothes for you on a monthly basis, increasingly it is the work of algorithms and artificial intelligence , with humans providing support and oversight (perhaps). However, choosing clothes is more than just massaging data points with an algorithm, and these services provide clothes that should work for you more often than clothes that fit you. Also, subscription boxes only work with a limited number of brands and partners, so you’ll only see a limited range of products.
• Excessive shopping. Not only do subscription boxes pop up month after month whether you need clothes or not, they also don’t necessarily offer you what you need . Even if you like the things you keep from them, you can buy even more to have your wardrobe essentials. These boxes are addictive because you don’t know what’s in them until they’re delivered – this ” reward uncertainty ” is similar to the dopamine surge players experience.
• No training. One often overlooked downside of using a subscription box to make you look stylish? You won’t learn anything from experience. If you have no idea why a faceless algorithm chose this coat or sweater for you based on the answers you answered, you are not progressing towards knowing your own style and being able to shop for yourself in the same way as if you were doing the work yourself. . be education.
• Negative emotions. Clothing subscription boxes can rob you of confidence and make you feel guilty. Sometimes it’s guilt because you turned down every item offered, sometimes guilt because you kept something that you later decided to hate, or guilt because you spent more than you planned.

Some, of course, like clothes subscriptions, but they are not for everyone. If you don’t already have a strong sense of style, clothing subscriptions aren’t a one-click solution for transforming your wardrobe—and they have a lot of downsides.