Burberry Burns $36M In Clothing Each Year – H&M, Louis Vuitton and 2 Other Top Brands Who Get Rid of Products in Horrible Way
Despite for us, normal people, it sounds crazy, but many luxury brands claim the practice of destroying unsold stock, and even rolls of unused fabric, is commonplace.
Nexter.org found out what other top labels get rid of their unsold products and how they do it.
Burberry
Source: Instagram/@burberry
The high-end fashion brand burns an eye-watering amount of clothing every year to ensure it doesn’t fall into the hands of the “wrong people”. Burberry claims the unusual practice has been put in place to stop their items ending up on the ‘grey market’ – where expensive clothing is sold at discount rates.
The thinking behind it is essentially down to the brand reputation, fearing that clothes being sold at knock down prices could de-value the brand.
As a result, it’s estimated that Burberry have burned around £90 ($117) million worth of clothing in the last five years.
While it may seem extremely unnecessary to have such a process, the brand claims that the burning is designed specially to harness the energy produced.
H&M
Source: Getty Images
London – Swedish fashion retailer H&M stands accused of burning 12 tonnes of unsold garments per year in spite of its ongoing sustainability efforts to close the loop in fashion.
The fashion giant is said to have incinerated approximately 60 tonnes of usable, unsold clothing over the past few years, according to research from Danish tv-programme Operation X from TV2. H&M firmly denies these claims.
Further investigations found that the waste disposal firm had incinerated 60 tonnes of new apparel from H&M since 2013. Else Skjold, a professor of sustainable design at the Kolding Design School in Denmark stated that H&M is destroying clothing as a result of overproduction.
Louis Vuitton
Source: Louis Vuitton
Did you know that every year, Louis Vuitton burns all its unsold bags? Well, apparently, LV doesn’t want to put their bags on a lower price. So, to maintain its exclusivity and avoid selling them on a lower price, they set it on fire!
Industry insiders say that before destroying their discontinued bags, LV organizes a sale for its employees.
Nike
Source: Ryan D. Matzner/The New York Times
In January, The New York Times reported that a Nike store in Soho threw out several bags of unworn shoes, all of which had been slashed with box cutters so no one could wear them.
Richemont
Source: Getty Images
Richemont, who own brands including Cartier and Montblanc, also hit the headlines in May for taking back £437 million ($572 million) of watches for destruction in the last two years to avoid markdown prices.
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