Black Friday is just around the corner. Many brands are preparing for a huge devaluation of their goods. People are already on the lookout for the best deals, and signs like “shop until you drop” are everywhere. Right before prices are about to drop low, we would like to share our view on this. And hopefully, inspire you not to let the madness get to you. Here’s why.

Black Friday celebrations

Black Friday is annually ‘celebrated’ the day after Thanksgiving and is the biggest starting signal for sales each year. Where the day before we all counted our blessings, we now excitedly count our achieved discount. Where the day before, we claimed to be grateful for all wealth, we suddenly seem to not have enough. It might not surprise you that Black Friday is not our thing. We want to speak out against the system that arouses dissatisfaction and is not making us happier in the long term.

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The impact of our consumption behaviour

Together, all around the world, we consume 100.000.000.000 pieces of clothing EACH year. This number has doubled in the last 15 years. However, we are wearing our items much less - about 36% less on average and even fewer in Western countries. And we buy new stuff as easily as we throw away our clothes. Our generation is known to toss clothing away twice as likely compared to older generations because we think it’s ‘unfashionable’ or we are just into something new. All in all, a massive amount of clothing is discarded each year. “But we are recycling, right?” is what we hear a lot. It might seem like recycling is becoming the norm, but sadly enough, 73% of all clothes still end up in landfills or are incinerated, and only 13% are repurposed. Only 1% of the discarded clothing is actually recycled into new clothing.

Out of all the materials that are used for fashion production, nearly half of them are cotton, but not even 1% is organic. Using genetically modified cotton in production takes an extensive amount of water and chemicals such as pesticides and insecticides. 20% of worldwide industrial water pollution is due to the textile industry. A fibre even more frequently used is polyester, which takes around 98 000 000 tons of oil each year to produce and therefore has a huge impact on our planet.

The impact down the chain

This upsets us. Because not only the environment is at the expense of our overconsuming. But the lives of the people who make our clothes as well. Most people never consider how much impact it has when a new item goes over the counter. We have gotten disconnected from the people who work day and night to provide us with our endless demand for new garments. Our planet counts around 40 million people that work in the garment industry, 85% being women. Most of them live overseas, and their working conditions are far from what most of us in the West are used to. Their wages are not enough to even serve the basic needs of them and their families, let alone get an education. As long as we are not willing to pay an honest price for our wardrobe, they will take the hit. Coming Friday, prices that are already low will become even lower. And that is nothing but pure tragedy. One of the solutions for you as a customer is starting to buy less, and when you buy new stuff, choose sustainable and vintage items. Are you ready to open your eyes to take in the mess we made? To take in what we are doing to our planet? To take in how we practically steal from the garment workers by accepting and demanding such low prices? Are you ready to let common sense speak, and will you skip Black Friday?

Fast-consuming behaviour has a giant impact on both the environment and the lives of the people who make our clothes.

No sale

So no discounts here. Sorry. We thought about turning kuyichi black for one day, but we chose to skip the madness and focus on doing our thing like we always do. This Friday should not be any different from any other Friday. We want to inspire people to quit the madness and think for themselves.

We believe that it's possible to do good and still make a profit. We would rather sell less but truly sustainable products to loyal customers who we know will come back after a while. Instead of making people buy crappy things they don’t need. We’re here to make the world a better place. Just like our name, we stand for colour and spreading nothing but positivity. Though this article might not seem so cheerful, our motive comes from a deep desire for fair production and happiness in every part of the chain. Let’s make this Friday colourful again and turn it into a day of gratitude.