The fast fashion industry may allow consumers to pay less for clothing, but the production of these garments results in lower quality, perpetuates unethical labour practices and damages the environment, experts say.
Countries such as Bangladesh have hosted fast fashion factories for two decades. The industry is also underpinned by online sites such as SHEIN and Temu and chain stores such as Gap and H&M. According to Earthday.org, about 60 million people work in the industry.
Unlike food and housing, clothing is getting cheaper, according to a Capital Current analysis of data used by Statistics Canada to track consumer prices. In October, the price has continued to below the general inflation rate, a trend dating back to 2002. Experts say a key part of the decrease is the influence of fast fashion.
“Increase in competition from online retailers and fast fashion, within the context of lower costs associated with not having brick and mortar operations, led to lower prices for consumers,” Mohammed Kadiri, a consulting analyst with Statistics Canada, wrote in an email.
“Online fast fashion companies, such as Shein, Zaful, and Fashion Nova, have been on the rise since the early to mid-2000s and have grown exponentially in tandem with the COVID-19 pandemic,” the Journal for Global Business & Community reports. “Fast fashion allows lower income individuals and families to purchase more items of clothing that are modern and trendy.”
Canada’s Oct. 2025 Consumer Price Index shows that clothing has seen a 2.1 per cent drop in cost compared to all items, the only category to see such a decrease since 2002 and the only category that has not increased because of inflation.
Although Canadians are able to get cheaper clothing, fast fashion does have negatives such as poor quality, difficult working conditions and a large carbon footprint, according to freelance journalist Itrat Anwar.
After earning a master’s degree in business administration in 2012, Anwar has written about working in fashion factories in Bangladesh where he saw how poorly employees were treated.
Anwar said that many big brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Gap and H&M get their clothing from factories with little to no labour laws.
He said the factory workers face long shifts with no time off. He said he saw that shift workers also did not get protective gear when handling harsh chemicals.
“Workers often work 14 to 16 hours a day with little time for breaks just to meet impossible production targets set by big brands,” said Anwar. “What really struck me was how unsafe it was.”
Fast fashion workers in Bangladesh often receive 30 to 50 cents per hour when working, compared to the Ontario minimum wage $17.60 an hour.
“The true cost of cheap clothing isn’t just the low price we pay at the store. It’s more about the sufferings of the workers, the unsafe conditions, long hours and low pay. Many people don’t realize it, or don’t even want to talk or think about it. It’s a truth we need to face,” said Anwar.
The fast fashion industry has brought light to not only labour issues, but also environmental issues. Jennifer Good, an environmental communications professor at Brock University, discussed the negative impacts that fast fashion has on the environment.
Good said since fast fashion companies can mass collect materials and mass-produce, the industry can sell clothing so cheaply due to a lack of laws and, at times, even a lack of taxes on production. The low price of production and materials has also contributed to the climate crisis.
Good said fast fashion’s environmental impact comes from the full life cycle of a garment, beginning with the “raw materials … being taken from the earth” and continuing through factory production, transportation and, eventually, disposal. She noted that every stage of this process contributes to a garment’s carbon footprint because, “everything that’s been human made has some kind of a carbon footprint.”
For Good, there isn’t an answer for solving the fast fashion crisis, and making ethical clothing affordable. She says the answer to buying ethical clothing is buying Canadian-made, because of the production laws in place. But because of these laws, that makes the clothing is more expensive.
“[Fast fashion contributes to] an economic system that’s based on endless growth, and that has fostered us arriving at this point of a climate crisis and inequality. It is an economic system that needs fundamental reworking,” said Good.
