Welcome to The Pick

Hello and welcome to The Pick, hosted by WEFT. The Pick is a space where we will explore the physical and emotional durability of individual clothing items. We will be looking closely at what makes garments last and the reasons why people choose to keep, wear, or discard them. Why The Pick you may ask? Hopefully, a few of you may have picked up on the link to WEFT (sorry for the pun). In weaving, picks and ends are terms used to describe the individual yarns within the weft and the warp of a fabric. So essentially a single weft yarn is also known as a pick. Beyond being synonymous with WEFT, The Pick also refers to being selective. We plan to use this space to unpick complex industry concepts and share practical insights on how garments can be truly built to last.

If this is the first time you have come across WEFT, we are a leading data-driven company in the global fashion and textiles industry. We work to inspire, inform and quickly implement fair, high-impact textiles Extended Producer Responsibility (tEPR) charge systems for clothing, fashion and textiles.

Our role is to bring together real product data, policy insight, industry experience and practical modelling so that future tEPR systems are fair, transparent and effective. We help brands, retailers, manufacturers, policymakers, trade associations and sector partners understand what tEPR could mean in practice, how variable charges could work and how better data can support better decisions. We also work hard to share what can be complex information in a clear and easy to understand way and as much as possible our data is open source (such as our UK consumer research where we asked what charge level they would tolerate in a tEPR system).

So, why do we think we can comment on this topic?

That's my cue to introduce myself, my name is Dr Kate Baker, I am a garment durability expert, sustainability specialist and the tEPR Technical Manager here at WEFT. Having recently finished my PhD at the University of Leeds, titled ‘Assessing garment durability; physical, emotional and sustainability factors to facilitate circular fashion’ I joined WEFT to get involved in solution based thinking and using garment durability to drive change through policy. This is me:

Before embarking on my PhD I was a fabric technologist in the Outdoor clothing sector. Having spent a few years in industry working for a brand and then a three year project working with brands, it's safe to say I have a pretty good grasp of the subject matter. The outdoor sector is still one very close to my heart and I am still very much involved in this community.

Only recently, I spoke at the European Outdoor Group’s annual Outdoor Impact Summit in Riva del Garda. Here is another photo of me soaked through after a very rainy hike at this event. After all, the best way of testing the durability of our clothes is using them in the environments they have been designed for.

I have a number of papers published on garment durability, for example an exploration of t-shirt durability, which came from the work conducted through my PhD but there is still a wealth of research and ideas that I would love to share in a slightly more informal format than an academic paper. The idea of The Pick is not to be a list of data points but instead to discuss my findings in a friendly, practical, accessible and hopefully useful way.

We want this to become a resource that can be used by industry professionals and everyday people. I purposefully use the word people here. I’ve been in many conversations of late that challenge the use of the word consumer as a generic label for people. It is argued that we have not just been placed on this planet to consume, a word that is now very much associated with the mindless accumulation of too many things.

These concepts are ones I would like to explore further. In the coming weeks, not only will I discuss physical durability and how the metrics to measure this must differ across products e.g. a t-shirt versus a pair of jeans, but also the psychology behind consumer behaviour (there's that word again) linked to emotional durability. Why do we form deep bonds with some garments while letting others sit unworn? This concept is only just getting mainstream traction despite being something we actively participate in, often subconsciously, everyday.

Both sides of durability are equally as important and I’m really excited to dive into my work and hear others thoughts on the matter. In a world where garment longevity is becoming a prominent topic in government and policy, this is the perfect time to shed some light on what a durable garment looks like.

The next post is going to explore the different terminology used. We will discuss common buzzwords and break down industry jargon. After we’ve laid the foundation, the following posts will move on to investigating different product types, my findings on mode of failure and how to measure physical durability.

New posts on The Pick will drop every few weeks. Don't miss a single post! Subscribe below to get the latest insights on garment durability delivered straight to your inbox.

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