68 garments?

The average American buys about 68 garments every year, which is up from just 20 garments per year in 1999.

68?

Honestly 20 sounds like a lot, but if we add socks and underwear to the mix, I might exceed 20 garments in a year, but 68?

That’s one item of clothing every 5 days in the calendar year.

This seems like a lot.

This seems like a hell of a lot.

I could see someone occasionally buying 68 garments in a year. Maybe you’re beginning a new career that demands an unfortunate level of professionalism, so you need to purchase suits, neckties, and pocket squares. Perhaps you’ve decided to transform yourself into an outdoors person or an Antarctic explorer and need a wardrobe to match. Maybe you’re moving from Juneau, Alaska and Miami, Florida and need to shift your wardrobe entirely.

But 68 garments every single year. Do people really do this?

I did some digging into the numbers but could not determine if 68 is the mean number of garments that Americans are purchasing every year or the average, which might explain these numbers a bit.

Perhaps there are lunatics who are purchasing thousands of garments a year, and they are skewing the average.

I’d also like to see a breakdown of garments purchased by age. It takes some people a surprisingly long time to realize that no one is paying any attention you, so unless you have a Confederate flag on your shirt or you’re wearing a bra as a top, almost no one cares what you are wearing and almost no one will remember what you are wearing. Perhaps younger people who don’t know these facts of life are purchasing more clothing in fear of not appearing on trend.

I also wonder if these numbers include small children, who grow out of their clothing so quickly that 68 garments per year actually seems reasonable.

Or perhaps I’m wrong. Maybe I purchase 68 garments every year without even realizing it.

I doubt it, of course, but it’s worth finding out. So starting tomorrow, July 12, 2020, I’ll keep track of every garment that I purchase, and one year from now, I’ll add them up.

I’ve already set a reminder on my calendar for July 12, 2021.

If you’d like to do the same, we can compare numbers 365 days from now.