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Article

Explore U.S. Retailers’ Sourcing Strategies for Clothing Made from Recycled Textile Materials

by
Sheng Lu
Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA
Sustainability 2023, 15(1), 38; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15010038
Submission received: 15 November 2022 / Revised: 16 December 2022 / Accepted: 19 December 2022 / Published: 20 December 2022
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Materials and Management in Fashion Industry)
Versions Notes

Abstract

:
This study explored U.S. retailers’ sourcing patterns for clothing made from recycled textile materials. Based on a statistical analysis of over 3000 such clothing items for sale in the U.S. retail market from January 2019 to August 2022 at the Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) level, the study found that U.S. retailers adopted a diverse sourcing base for clothing made from recycled textile materials, covering developed and developing economies worldwide. Additionally, an exporting country’s economic development level and geographic location had statistically significant impacts on U.S. retailers’ sourcing patterns for clothing made from recycled textile materials regarding assortment diversity, product sophistication, market segments, and pricing. The study’s findings revealed the broad supply base for clothing made from recycled textile materials and suggested promising sourcing opportunities for such products. The findings also indicated that sourcing clothing made from recycled textile materials may help U.S. retailers achieve business benefits beyond the positive environmental impacts.

1. Introduction

With consumers’ growing interest in fashion sustainability and reducing the environmental impact of textile waste, retailers increasingly carry clothing made from recycled textile materials [1,2]. Industry sources indicate that the recycled clothing market could grow into a USD 7.6 billion annual business globally by 2027, even exceeding the sales of regular new clothing using virgin fibers (In this paper, “clothing using virgin fiber” is also referred to as “regular new clothing.”) [3].
Numerous studies have attempted to understand the production and consumption of clothing made from recycled textile materials. For example, some studies examined recycling techniques for various textile fiber types or the design process for recycled clothing [4,5]. Others investigated consumers’ purchasing behavior for clothing using recycled fibers or retailers’ product assortment and pricing strategies for such products [6,7,8]. However, as a critical research gap, where clothing using recycled textile materials is typically made, and what their supply chains look like remain a “black box”.
This study explored U.S. retailers’ sourcing strategies for clothing made from recycled textile materials. Specifically, the study identified U.S. retailers’ most-utilized sourcing base for clothing using recycled textile materials and the key factors affecting the sourcing patterns. The study’s findings created critical new knowledge that contributed to our understanding of the supply chain of clothing made from recycled textile materials, which turned out to be quite different from regular clothing using virgin fibers. The findings also provided valuable input for fashion companies interested in sourcing and selling clothing using recycled textile materials. Additionally, the study’s findings could inspire policymakers regarding effective policies supporting more production and trading of clothing using recycled or other sustainable textile materials.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Clothing Production and Trade Patterns

Two factors generally affect clothing production and trade patterns worldwide. One is a country’s economic development level. For example, the comparative advantage and factor proportion trade theories suggest that a country would enjoy advantages in making and exporting the products intensively using the production factor (e.g., labor or capital) it is affluent with [9]. Thus, as clothing manufacturing (e.g., cutting and sewing fabrics into a garment) remains highly labor-intensive, developing countries with relatively abundant cheap labor still dominate the world’s clothing production and exports today, led by China, Vietnam, and Bangladesh [10]. In comparison, as labor is a scarce production factor in a developed country, labor-intensive clothing manufacturing in most developed economies generally is small in scale, limited in production capacity and product variety, and targets a specialized niche market [11,12].
The other factor is a country’s geographic location, as clothing production often needs to be close to where textile materials are available [13]. Notably, unlike apparel production, textile manufacturing, which includes spinning yarns, weaving, or knitting fabrics, is a highly capital and technology-intensive process mainly carried out by machines in the 21st century [14]. Thus, most developing clothing-producing countries rely heavily on imported textile materials, primarily from more advanced economies in the same region [15]. For example, measured by value, over 80% of Asian countries’ textile imports came from Asia in 2021, and a similar pattern applied to EU countries (about 40%) and those in America (In this paper, “America” refers to North, South, and Central America, or known as the Western Hemisphere) (about 30%) [10]. Through lowered trade barriers, regional free trade agreements also financially encouraged garment producers, particularly in Asia, Europe (EU), and America, to use textile materials locally or regionally made instead of those made outside the region [16,17].

2.2. U.S. Retailers’ Sourcing Factors for Clothing

U.S. retailers source clothing from diverse countries to balance their complex sourcing criteria and needs. For example, based on a survey of 34 leading U.S. clothing brands and retailers, Lu [18] found that these companies’ core sourcing criteria went beyond costs and included various non-economic factors ranging from speed to market and flexibility to supply chain risks. Similarly, studies showed that U.S. companies’ selection of clothing-sourcing destinations increasingly emphasized geographical diversification and supply chain risk mitigation during the pandemic and rising geopolitical tensions [19,20]. Further, the statistical analysis by Wagner et al. [21] and Irfan et al. [22] suggested that sourcing from diverse countries improved importers’ financial performance and resilience in a turbulent market environment.
In addition, studies revealed that with growing pressure from consumers and other stakeholders, clothing retailers increasingly treated sustainability as another critical factor in their sourcing decisions [23,24]. Whereas companies’ specific scopes and priorities for “sourcing sustainability” varied, goals commonly pursued included using eco-friendly textile raw materials, reducing carbon emissions in logistics, achieving supply chain transparency, and protecting workers’ rights [25,26]. Adding sustainability to retailers’ sourcing criteria was considered conducive to expanding clothing imports from developed countries, which were perceived to protect the environment and workers better than most developing countries and could shorten the shipping distance to the end market [14,15]. However, studies showed that when trying to achieve more sustainable apparel sourcing, retailers often struggled with bottlenecks ranging from the undersupply of eco-friendly textile raw materials and insufficient policy guidelines to higher production costs [24,27].

2.3. Supply and Demand for Clothing Made from Recycled Textile Materials

Existing studies reported that the supply and demand for clothing made from recycled textile materials have several distinct features that could affect retailers’ sourcing strategies.
First, the supply chain of making clothing using recycled textile materials is relatively diverse, potentially allowing countries of various kinds to participate. For example, many developing countries, especially the poorest ones, are the leading importers of used clothing [10]. Studies showed that sorting used clothing, breaking them into pieces, and creating new garments from shredded fibers can be labor-intensive [28]. Thus, developing countries, such as those in Africa and Asia, were potential destinations for making clothing using recycled textiles based on their available raw materials for recycling and relatively abundant cheap labor [29].
Meanwhile, developed countries, such as the United States and EU members, were also actively engaged in making clothing using recycled textile materials [30]. Notably, as critical apparel consumption markets, most developed countries have plenty of textile waste for recycling [31]. Developed countries also adopted more and more advanced machinery to automate textile recycling or produce recycled textiles using non-textile waste such as plastic bottles [32,33]. Nevertheless, cutting and sewing recycled yarns and fabrics into a finished garment could remain labor intensive, with no significant difference from making regular new clothing, even in developed countries [34].
Second, restrained by the available technology, the supply of clothing using recycled textile materials is relatively small in scale and limited in variety. For example, Botwinick & Lu [8] found that the availability of clothing using recycled textile materials was far less than regular new clothing regarding color, style, and category choices in the U.S. retail market from 2018 to 2021. Likewise, Juanga-Labayen et al. [31] revealed that most fashion companies treated clothing using recycled materials as a niche product, accounting for a tiny portion of their total product assortment. Additionally, expanding the supply of clothing made from recycled textile materials still faces critical challenges with no quick solutions, such as the low efficiency of textile waste collection and the lack of mature technology to recycle commonly used fibers such as cotton [35,36].
Third, the demand for clothing using recycled textile materials comes from diverse market segments, but retailers often face downward pricing pressure. On the one hand, numerous studies indicated that no matter whether fast fashion retailers or those in the luxury market carry clothing using recycled textile materials, suggesting a broad customer base for such products [37,38]. On the other hand, consumers’ perceived value of a clothing item positively affects how much they are willing to pay [39]. However, clothing using recycled materials was often treated as inferior in quality and less durable and functional than regular new clothing [7]. Likewise, even though consumers regarded clothing made from recycled materials as more eco-friendly, no clear evidence showed they were willing to pay a premium price given the products’ salient functional or aesthetic shortcomings [1,40]. Instead, researchers found that U.S. retailers often had to intentionally price clothing using recycled textile materials lower than regular new clothing to promote sales [8]. The downward pricing pressure for clothing made from recycled textile materials imply that retailers may have to consider the cost factor when deciding where to source such products.

2.4. U.S. Retailers’ Sourcing Strategies for Clothing Made from Recycled Textile Materials

Based on a review of the existing literature, the following hypotheses were proposed regarding U.S. retailers’ sourcing strategies for clothing made from recycled textile materials.
Hypothesis 1:
U.S. retailers would source clothing made from recycled textile materials from diverse countries.
As countries of different kinds could supply clothing made from recycled textile materials, U.S. retailers would have many sourcing options rather than “put all eggs in one basket” [28]. Meanwhile, restrained by the limitation of recycling technology, no particular country seems to be a “perfect” sourcing base for clothing made from recycled textile materials and can dominate the supply [41]. Instead, sourcing from diverse countries could allow U.S. retailers to have broader choices and more likely meet consumers’ demands. Further, sourcing from diverse countries would also help U.S. retailers balance complex sourcing needs, ranging from costs and production capacity to mitigating various supply chain risks [18,23].
Hypothesis 2:
U.S. retailers would set differentiated assortments for products imported from developed and developing countries when sourcing clothing made from recycled textile materials.
U.S. retailers would likely use lower-wage developing countries as the primary sourcing base for items targeting the mass and value markets, where consumers are relatively price-sensitive, meaning more sourcing cost pressure [40]. As making clothing using recycled textile materials could be labor intensive, developing countries affluent with cheap labor theoretically would enjoy the cost advantage of making such products more than developed countries [42]. In contrast, U.S. retailers would likely source higher-priced luxury items from developed countries, where producing clothing using recycled textiles could be more costly as the input includes expensive machines or high-wage labor [43].
Hypothesis 3:
U.S. retailers would set differentiated assortments for products imported from different world regions when sourcing clothing made from recycled textile materials.
Specifically, Asia and Europe (EU) have the world’s largest apparel production capacity, supported by extensive production facilities and a relatively sufficient skilled labor force [44]. Both regions also include large-size consumer markets that can supply adequate textile waste for recycling (e.g., Japan, China, and South Korea in Asia and Western EU countries) [31,45]. Thus, U.S. retailers theoretically would likely source clothing made from recycled textile materials in relatively sophisticated categories (e.g., outwear and suits) or with a broad assortment (e.g., with many sizing or color choices) from Asian or EU countries. In comparison, America and Africa overall had relatively small and limited garment manufacturing capacity (i.e., cutting and sewing fabrics into a garment) and mainly exported regular new clothing in simple categories, such as T-shirts and shirts [46]. This suggests that American and African countries’ production capacity for clothing made from recycled textile materials, including product variety and production scale and flexibility, could also be generally limited despite their availability of textile waste for recycling [15]. Thus, U.S. retailers theoretically would likely source items in relatively simple categories (e.g., T-shirts) or with a comparatively narrow assortment (e.g., few sizing or color options) from America and Africa.

3. Methods and Data

3.1. Data Collection

The study’s data were collected from EDITED, one of the leading big data tools focusing on the fashion apparel industry [47]. Unlike trade statistics which mainly provide aggregated industry-level data, EDITED allows researchers to obtain detailed product features, assortment, and pricing information on clothing items in the retail market at the Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) level. Based on the latest data available, 3500 SKUs of clothing items made from recycled textile materials for sale in the U.S. retail market between January 2019 and August 2022 were randomly selected (i.e., the item was 100% made from recycled textile materials according to its product description). Random sampling could ensure the selected samples approximate the population and allow statistical inference [48]. The selected 3.5-year period was also long enough to reveal relatively stable sourcing patterns.
For the study, the following information regarding each clothing item’s product assortment, pricing, and country of origin was drawn from EDITED’s raw data:
  • Assortment diversity: the number of SKUs available for the clothing item (e.g., Assortment diversity = 5 means a clothing item has five different sizes or colors). When a clothing item includes more SKUs (e.g., having more sizing or color options), its assortment is more diversified [49].
  • Product sophistication: the technical sophistication of making the clothing item. Based on EDITED’s categorization, Product sophistication used a 3-point rating scale: simple products = 1 (i.e., T-shirts, shirts, swimwear, and hosiery); medium sophisticated products = 2 (i.e., bottoms and tops other than T-shirts and shirts); sophisticated products = 3 (i.e., outwear, dresses, and suits).
  • Market segment: the market segment of the clothing item. Based on EDITED’s classification, Market segment used a 4-point rating scale: if a clothing item targeted the value market = 1; mass market = 2; premium market = 3; luxury market = 4.
  • Retail price: a clothing item’s listed original retail price according to EDITED.
  • Development: according to information from the product label, if the clothing was made by a developed country = 1 and if it was made by a developing country = 0. The country grouping was based on the United Nations [50] classification.
  • Region: the origin of where the clothing item was made, such as Asia, Europe, America, and Africa [50].

3.2. Methods

Given the research objectives and nature of the data collected, the multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) technique was adopted for the data analysis. MANOVA is commonly used to compare the mean value of observation vectors and see whether they are sufficiently different between groups. Compared with Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), MANOVA also has the advantage of dealing with multiple dependent variables in the model without inflating Type I errors [48].
Specifically, in this study, MANOVA could evaluate whether U.S. retailers set differentiated assortments for products imported from different country groups or regions when sourcing clothing made from recycled textile materials. Four dependent variables measuring the product assortment were included in the analysis, i.e., Assortment diversity, Product sophistication, Market segment, and Retail price. Additionally, corresponding to the hypotheses, Development and Region were used as the two independent variables in the model.

4. Results and Discussion

4.1. Descriptive Analysis

Altogether, 3307 clothing items made from recycled textile materials and provided their country of origin information were included in the analysis. As summarized in Table 1 and Table 2.
Firstly, consistent with Hypothesis 1's prediction, U.S. retailers sourced clothing made from recycled textile materials from diverse countries. Specifically, Table 1 shows that the 3307 sampled clothing items came from as many as 36 countries, including developed and developing economies in Asia, America, the EU, and Africa. However, reflecting the unique supply chain composition of clothing made from recycled textile materials, U.S. retailers’ sourcing patterns for such products turned out to be quite different from regular new clothing. For example, whereas the vast majority (i.e., over 90%) of U.S. regular new clothing came from developing countries as of 2022 [10], as many as 43% of the sampled clothing items made from recycled textile materials (n = 1408) were sourced from developed countries. Likewise, U.S. retailers seemed to be less dependent on Asia when sourcing clothing made from recycled materials (41.9%, n = 1387) and instead used near-sourcing from America (30.1%, n = 994) more often, particularly domestic sourcing from the United States (14.8%, n = 490).
Second, consistent with Hypothesis 2, U.S. retailers appeared to set differentiated assortments for products imported from developed and developing countries when sourcing clothing made from recycled textile materials. Table 2 indicates that among the sampled clothing items made from recycled textile materials, those imported from developing countries, on average, included a broader assortment (Assortment diversity = 5.10) than developed economies (Assortment diversity = 4.07). Likewise, imports from developing countries also concentrated on products relatively more complex to make (Product sophistication = 1.99) as opposed to developed countries (Product sophistication = 1.78). Developing countries’ more extensive clothing production capability, including the available production facilities and skilled labor force, than developed economies could have contributed to the pattern [46].
On the other hand, likely caused by developed countries’ overall higher production costs, the average retail price of sampled clothing items sourced from developed countries (Retail price = USD 312.47) was notably higher than those from developing ones (Retail price = USD 179.95). However, the value of the variable Market segment suggested no clear evidence that U.S. retailers used developed countries primarily as the sourcing bases for luxury or premium items and used developing countries only for items targeting the mass or value market.
Third, consistent with Hypothesis 3, U.S. retailers appeared to set differentiated assortments for products imported from different world regions when sourcing clothing made from recycled textile materials. Specifically, the results showed that U.S. retailers sourced clothing made from recycled textile materials with a more diverse assortment and in more complex categories from Asia (i.e., Assortment diversity = 5.2 and Product sophistication = 2.1) as opposed to other regions. In comparison, clothing items imported from America (i.e., Assortment diversity = 4.4 and Product sophistication = 1.6) and Africa (i.e., Assortment diversity = 1.1 and Product sophistication = 1.1) had limited assortment choices or focused on relatively simple products (i.e., T-shirts, and hosiery) only. Based on the results, a country or region’s production capacity for regular new clothing seems to affect its product offer for clothing made from recycled textile materials, given that many production procedures and technical requirements of the two were similar [34,35].
Meanwhile, the results revealed that U.S. retailers’ imports from the EU and Africa generally concentrated on the premium or luxury market segment (i.e., Market segment = 3.09 and 3.76, respectively). In contrast, Asia and American-made products generally targeted the mass and value market (i.e., Market segment = 2.79 and 2.56, respectively). Correspondingly, variable Retail price shows that, on average, U.S. retailers also priced items imported from the EU and Africa notably higher than those from Asia and America. The above pattern somewhat mirrors U.S. retailers’ sourcing of regular new clothing from the EU and Africa. Notably, the EU has been the world’s leading production hub for luxury apparel for decades [24]. It also became increasingly common for fashion brands to source luxury clothing from Africa by leveraging local folk art and craftwork [51].

4.2. MANOVA Analysis

First, MANOVA’s main effect test was undertaken to evaluate whether U.S. retailers set differentiated assortments for imports from different country groups (i.e., variable Development) and world regions (i.e., variable Region) when sourcing clothing made from recycled textile materials. The Box’s test of equality of covariance result suggested that at the 99% confidence level (p-value < 0.01), the study’s collected samples did not strictly meet the equality of covariance assumption, a common issue for a large-size dataset [52]. Thus, Pillai’s trace test was used for the MANOVA procedure to generate more robust statistical results [53] (pp. 74–81). Table 3 indicates that MANOVA’s main effect was statistically significant at the 99% confidence level for variables Development and Region (p-value < 0.01) based on Pillai’s trace test. The results supported Hypothesis 2 and 3 and suggested that an exporting country’s economic development level and its geographic location statistically impacted the type of clothing products made from recycled textile materials that U.S. retailers sourced from there.
Second, the between-subjects test was conducted to explore which of the four dependent variables measuring U.S. retailers’ product assortment contributed substantially to the statistically significant MANOVA main effect [54] (pp. 151–157). The F-test results rejected the null hypothesis that the values of Assortment diversity and Retail price were equal at the 99% confidence level (p-value < 0.01) for countries at different development stages (i.e., variable Development). Specifically, Table 2 shows that U.S. retailers imported products with a more diverse assortment (e.g., sizing or color options) from developing countries over developed ones. Instead, clothing made from recycled textile materials sourced from developed countries statistically was priced higher than those from developing countries in the U.S. retail market, possibly due to developed countries’ overall higher production and sourcing costs [18,35]. However, no evidence showed that the sophistication of clothing made from recycled textile materials (i.e., variable Product sophistication) imported from developed and developing countries was statistically different at the 99% confidence level (p-value > 0.01).
Additionally, the F-test results in Table 4 rejected the null hypothesis that the values of Assortment diversity, Product assortment, Market segment, and Retail price were equal at the 99% confidence level (p-value < 0.01) for products sourced from different world regions (i.e., variable Region). Thus, the post hoc test was conducted further to explore whether U.S. retailers set unique product assortments for products imported from each world region [54] (pp. 184–187). As Table 5 shows:
  • Regarding Assortment diversity, the results suggested that imports from Asia had a more diverse assortment (e.g., sizing or color options) than those from other regions statistically at the 99% confidence level (p-value < 0.01). In comparison, imports from Africa were with the least assortment diversity statistically (p-value < 0.01). Further, the assortment diversity of imports from America and the EU was in the middle (i.e., less diverse than Asia but more diverse than Africa) and statistically similar at the 99% confidence level (p-value > 0.01).
  • Regarding Product sophistication, the results suggested that U.S. retailers’ imports from Asia included more complex product categories (e.g., outwear) than other world regions statistically at the 99% confidence level (p-value < 0.01). In comparison, imports from America and Africa included more simple product categories (e.g., T-shirt or swim shorts) than other world regions statistically (p-value < 0.01). Additionally, the imports from the EU, on average, included less sophisticated categories than Asia but more sophisticated categories than America and Africa statistically at the 99% confidence level (p-value < 0.01).
  • Regarding Market segment and Retail price, the results suggested that U.S. retailers’ imports from Asia and America tended to focus on relatively lower-priced items targeting the mass and value market segments statistically at the 99% confidence level (p-value < 0.01). In comparison, those imports from the EU and Africa included more higher-priced items targeting the luxury and premium market segment statistically at the 99% confidence level (p-value < 0.01).

5. Conclusions and Future Research Agendas

This study explored U.S. retailers’ sourcing strategies for clothing made from recycled textile materials. Based on a statistical analysis of over 3000 such clothing items for sale in the U.S. retail market between January 2019 and August 2022 at the detailed Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) level, the study found that:
First, U.S. retailers adopted a diverse sourcing base for clothing made from recycled textile materials, covering developed and developing economies from Asia, America, and the EU to Africa.
Second, an exporting country’s economic development level was a statistically significant factor affecting U.S. retailers’ sourcing pattern for clothing made from recycled textile materials. Statistically, U.S. retailers’ imports from developing countries were more diverse in assortment (e.g., sizing options) but priced lower than those from developed countries.
Third, an exporting country’s geographic location was another statistically significant factor affecting U.S. retailers’ sourcing pattern for clothing made from recycled textile materials. Specifically, imports from Asia had the most diverse product assortment (e.g., sizing options) and focused on complex product categories (e.g., outwear) that targeted mass and value markets. Imports from America concentrated on simple product categories (e.g., T-shirts and hosiery) with moderate assortment diversity and mainly targeted the mass and value market. In comparison, imports from the EU were mainly higher-priced luxury items in medium-sophisticated or sophisticated product categories with diverse assortment. Additionally, imports from Africa concentrated on relatively higher-priced premium or luxury items in simple product categories (i.e., swim shorts) with a limited assortment diversity.
The study’s findings demystified the country of origin of clothing made from recycled textile materials hidden behind macro trade statistics. The findings also created critical new knowledge that contributed to our understanding of the supply chain of clothing made from recycled textile materials and U.S. retailers’ distinct sourcing patterns and affecting factors for such products. The findings have several other important implications:
First, the study’s findings revealed the broad supply base for clothing made from recycled textile materials and suggested promising sourcing opportunities for such products. Whereas existing studies illustrated consumers’ increasing interest in shopping for clothing made from recycled textile materials, the study’s results indicated that the “enthusiasm” also applied to the supply side, with many countries already engaged in making and exporting such products [39]. Meanwhile, the results showed that U.S. retailers sourced clothing made from recycled textile materials in different product categories with a broad price range targeting various market segments to meet consumers’ varying demands. Moreover, as textile recycling techniques continue to advance, potentially enriching the product offer of clothing made from recycled textile materials, U.S. retailers’ sourcing needs and supply base for such products could expand further [8,27].
Second, the study’s findings suggest that sourcing clothing made from recycled textile materials may help U.S. retailers achieve business benefits beyond the positive environmental impacts. For example, given the unique supply chain composition and production requirements, China appeared to play a less dominant role as a supplier of clothing made from recycled textile materials for U.S. retailers (Table 1). Instead, a substantial portion of such products was “Made in the USA” or came from emerging sourcing destinations in America (e.g., El Salvador, Nicaragua) and Africa (e.g., Tunisia and Morocco). In other words, sourcing clothing made from recycled textile materials could help U.S. retailers with several goals they have been trying to achieve, such as reducing dependence on sourcing from China, expanding near sourcing, and diversifying their sourcing base [18,19].
Additionally, the study’s findings call for strengthening U.S. domestic apparel manufacturing capability to better serve retailers’ sourcing needs for clothing made from recycled textile materials. On the one hand, the results demonstrated U.S. retailers’ strong interest in sourcing clothing made from recycled textile materials that were “Made in the USA” (Table 1). Additionally, the United States may enjoy certain competitive advantages in making such products, ranging from the abundant supply of recycled textile waste and the affordability of expensive modern recycling machinery to the advanced research and product development capability [55]. On the other hand, the results showed that U.S. retailers primarily sourced simple product categories (e.g., T-shirts and hosiery), targeting the value and mass markets from the U.S. and other American countries (Table 2). This pattern somewhat mirrored the production and sourcing pattern for regular new clothing, for which apparel “Made in the USA” also lacked product variety and focused on basic fashion items compared with Asian and EU suppliers [14,18]. Thus, strengthening the U.S. domestic apparel production capacity, especially for those complex product categories (e.g., outwear and suits), could encourage more sourcing of “Made in the USA” apparel using recycled textile materials and support production and job creation in the U.S. apparel manufacturing sector.
Despite the interesting and meaningful findings, future studies can be conducted further in several aspects. First, limited by the available data, this study only examined U.S. retailers’ sourcing patterns for finished garments made from recycled textile materials. With data availability, future studies can dig deeper into the supply chain of clothing made from recycled textile materials, covering tier 2 (i.e., fabric manufacturers) or even tier 3 suppliers (i.e., yarn producers). Second, when more detailed product information is available, future studies could examine the production and sourcing patterns of clothing using a particular type of recycled textile materials. For example, the techniques and processes of making clothing using recycled polyester and recycled cotton are pretty different, implying the product availability and retailers’ sourcing patterns for the two could also differ [36,56]. Furthermore, while this study only looked at U.S. retailers, future studies could explore fashion companies’ sourcing strategies for clothing made from recycled textile materials in other key markets, such as the EU and Asia [57]. The results would offer a more holistic picture helping us understand the global production and sourcing patterns of clothing made from recycled textile materials.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

Not applicable.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Table
Table 1. Sources of apparel made from recycled textile materials (n = 3307).
Table 1. Sources of apparel made from recycled textile materials (n = 3307).
ExportersDevelopmentRegionNumber of ObservationsPercent
USADevelopedAmerica49014.8%
VietnamDevelopingAsia38011.5%
Sri LankaDevelopingAsia35010.6%
ChinaDevelopingAsia3299.9%
ItalyDevelopedEurope2186.6%
UKDevelopedEurope1965.9%
PortugalDevelopedEurope1665.0%
BulgariaDevelopingEurope1444.4%
MexicoDevelopingAmerica1414.3%
CanadaDevelopedAmerica1374.1%
El SalvadorDevelopingAmerica882.7%
JapanDevelopedAsia772.3%
BangladeshDevelopingAsia732.2%
IndiaDevelopingAsia662.0%
NicaraguaDevelopingAmerica561.7%
IndonesiaDevelopingAsia511.5%
ThailandDevelopingAsia401.2%
TunisiaDevelopingAfrica361.1%
TurkeyDevelopingEurope341.0%
LithuaniaDevelopedEurope321.0%
MoroccoDevelopingAfrica310.9%
ColombiaDevelopingAmerica300.9%
EuropeDevelopedEurope220.7%
SpainDevelopedEurope220.7%
SwitzerlandDevelopedEurope200.6%
CambodiaDevelopingAsia180.5%
HungaryDevelopedEurope110.3%
RomaniaDevelopingEurope110.3%
GreeceDevelopedEurope90.3%
JordanDevelopingAfrica90.3%
FranceDevelopedEurope70.2%
SerbiaDevelopingEurope50.2%
PolandDevelopingEurope30.1%
MoldovaDevelopingEurope20.1%
PhilippinesDevelopingAsia20.1%
South KoreaDevelopedAsia1<0.1%
Table
Table 2. Descriptive analysis.
Table 2. Descriptive analysis.
IndicatorsDeveloping Countries
(n = 1899)		Developed Countries
(n = 1408)		Asia
(n = 1387)		America
(n = 994)		Europe
(n = 900)		Africa
(n = 76)
Assortment diversity5.104.075.24.44.41.1
Product sophistication1.991.782.11.62.01.1
Market segment2.962.652.792.563.093.76
Retail priceUSD 179.95USD 312.47USD 174.0USD 131.7USD 440.8USD 253.2
Note: “Developing countries” refer to Development = 0, “Developed countries” refer to Development = 1.
Table
Table 3. Results of the MANOVA main effect test.
Table 3. Results of the MANOVA main effect test.
Statistics/VariablesDevelopmentRegion
Pillai’s trace0.115
(0.001) **		0.198
(0.001) **
Wilks’ lambda0.885
(0.001) **		0.811
(0.001) **
Hotelling–Lawly trace0.130
(0.001) **		0.223
(0.001) **
Roy’s greatest root0.130
(0.001) **		0.165
(0.001) **
Note: Number in the bracket is p-value; * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01.
Table
Table 4. Results of between-subjects test F-value.
Table 4. Results of between-subjects test F-value.
VariablesDevelopmentRegion
Assortment diversity119.09
(0.001) **		106.90
(0.001) **
Product sophistication0.38
(0.845)		34.49
(0.001) **
Market segment193.33
(0.001) **		105.31
(0.001) **
Retail price21.75
(0.001) **		48.38
(0.001) **
Note: Number in the bracket is p-value; * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01.
Table
Table 5. Results of post hoc comparisons (Tukey’s HSD test).
Table 5. Results of post hoc comparisons (Tukey’s HSD test).
ComparisonAssortment
Diversity		Product
Sophistication		Market SegmentRetail Price
Asia vs. America0.77
(0.000) **		0.56
(0.000) **		0.23
(0.001) **		42.31
(0.060)
Asia vs. Europe0.73
(0.000) **		0.16
(0.000) **		−0.30
(0.000) **		−255.81
(0.000) **
Asia vs. Africa4.05
(0.000) **		1.02
(0.000) **		−0.98
(0.000) **		−79.15
(0.336)
America vs. Europe−0.04
(0.997)		−0.40
(0.000) **		−0.53
(0.000) **		−309.13
(0.000) **
America vs. Africa3.29
(0.000) **		0.46
(0.000) **		−1.20
(0.000) **		−121.46
(0.054)
Europe vs. Africa3.33
(0.000) **		0.86
(0.000) **		−0.68
(0.000) **		187.67
(0.001) **
Note: Number in the bracket is p-value; * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01.
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Lu, S. Explore U.S. Retailers’ Sourcing Strategies for Clothing Made from Recycled Textile Materials. Sustainability 2023, 15, 38. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15010038

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