Lyst Sees Searches for Biodegradable Sneakers Up 348 Percent, and Other Sustainable Shifts
Consumer shifts toward preorders, deadstock and upcycled clothes — among other trends — are shaping fashion.
That’s according to shopping search platform Lyst, which dropped its conscious fashion report for 2021 Thursday.
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“It was surprising to see how informed and mindful fashion lovers are with their shopping choices,” Nomfundo Mphuthi, strategy director at Lyst, told WWD. “Shoppers have a growing understanding of fashion production practices and materials and they definitely want to use their purchasing power in a conscious way.”
The noted demand for upcycled, vegan and recycled fashion builds on previous trend reports from Lyst. To inform its reports, Lyst combed data insights from the more than 150 million annual shoppers across its proprietary platform, as well as Google, social media and press coverage over the past year.
Alongside the conscious fashion report, Lyst is collaborating with six emerging eco-conscious designers over the next month, sharing their stories through video and written content on Lyst’s social media, app and newsletter.
Chosen for their “fascinating ideas about the future of conscious fashion,” in the words of Mphuthi, the designers include vegan shoe brand Rombaut; upcycling aficionado Lafaille; Come Back As a Flower (known for its hand-dyed, recycled garb); By Megan Crosby (made-to-order, rainbow-dipped fashion); Astara (crystalline restorative footwear), and Simon Goldman (minimalism with a twist). Mphuthi said the hope is to extend this partnership over the long term, with the designers being spotlighted more regularly across Lyst properties.
Noting Rombaut’s boundary-pushing eye for bio-materials, reaching for everything from pineapple leaf to mushroom leather, Mphuthi said the designers “offer a new vision of what sustainable clothing could look like.” (Celebrities aren’t sitting back on contributing to that new vision either, as Billie Eilish’s latest partnership with Nike on a pair of Air Jordan vegan trainers sent page views for vegan sneakers spiking 67 percent, according to Lyst.)
“Fashion lovers are increasingly knowledgeable about the materials that go into the making of their favorite products,” Mphuthi said. “Demand for non-plastic alternatives has grown drastically over the past year: [with searches] up 38 percent for garments made out of mushroom-based materials (e.g. Mylo) and up 348 percent for biodegradable sneakers.”
Other insights include the demand for deadstock fashion seeing 9.5 million views on TikTok, with searches up 117 percent year-over-year on Lyst. Brands that offer clothing repair, including Patagonia, Raeburn, Barbour and Levi’s, also drew increased searches.
Meanwhile, drops are still going strong. Through the power of the preorder, brands like New York-based Telfar, up 363 percent year-over-year in search traffic on Lyst, and London-based House of Sunny, up 144 percent, are seeing communities shaped in real-time. In the case of Telfar, customers eagerly await the latest “drip” of duffels (a more limited form of releases than drops) exclusively on Telfar TV.
The element of spirituality is new to this report, gripping conscious consumers in higher frequency. According to Lyst, spiritually guided brands (like the crystalline vegan shoes from Astara) are attracting new customers who believe intentional living should include fashion choices, too.
Over the past few months, Lyst noted a growing interest for “healing and energetic” materials — especially crystals. Searches for crystal-made jewelry items are up 44 percent while interest for jewelry (lucky charm, talisman and amulets) rose 62 percent.
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