Clothing longevity: the relationship between the number of users, how long and how many times garments are used

Reuse of clothing is a central strategy in circular economy for keeping the resources and materials in the loop longer. This paper studies the correlation between clothing service lifespans measured in years, number of wears and number of users, and whether there is a difference in length of lifespans between new and preowned garments. The analysis is based on an international quantitative wardrobe survey conducted in China, Germany, Japan, the UK and the USA with 53 461 registered garments. Results show that newer garments are used more actively than the older garments. Garments that are less than two years old are used about 30 times per year, while garments that are over 15 years old are only used about 3 times a year. Second-hand garments are worn on average 30% times less by the current user than garments that were acquired as new. Garments that the user anticipates donating or selling are worn 22% times less than garments that are planned to be discarded. The results show that reuse is beneficial for increasing the clothing lifespans, but it does not increase the active wear as much as expected. These findings have theoretical, managerial and political implications on which measures contribute to the longest garment lifespans with the least environmental impact and which kind of measures could help to implement these changes. This should be considered in life cycle assessments where various disposal methods are compared, as well as in policy development where in increasing the lifespan with first user should be focused more on.