Jennifer Johnson, founder of True Fashionistas, Florida’s largest clothing reseller, started noticing something unusual about a year ago. Suddenly, once difficult-to-find larger sizes were becoming more common in the batches of clothing arriving for resale. Since then, the trickle has become a torrent.
Johnson said that historically, her store has been overloaded with extra smalls and smalls.
“We always wanted the larger sizes because they were popular — the minute you got them in, they would sell immediately,” Johnson said. “Now it has completely flip-flopped. Now our extra small area is smaller than our extra large,” she added.
Johnson says that she watches her resale numbers closely, and the store, located in Naples, Florida, is reset according to the inventory that comes in. With more and more people ditching larger sizes, the store has had to be reset multiple times.
Across the country, Johnson says, entrepreneurs in the resale business are seeing this, and they are calling it the “Ozempic effect.”
In Kansas City, Janet Curran, who owns a store called Do Good Co., which benefits two charities in the city, said her resale business is booming because of the Ozempic effect. “We’ve seen a real shift in our donation patterns and customer needs since more people started using weight loss medications. There’s been increased demand for smaller sizes and more frequent turnover as customers transition through different stages,” Curran said.
A Rand survey released earlier this year found that 11.8% of U.S. adults reported having used GLP-1 drugs, with another 14% expressing interest in using them. So far, however, evidence that retailers or clothing manufacturers are scaling back production of larger sizes is hard to come by. Apparel makers and sellers, meanwhile, aren’t saying anything. Walmart and Levi Strauss declined to comment.
GLP-1 drugs are shifting the larger size range within retail
Avneet Singh, the founder of men’s clothing line Regent Row, which caters to big and tall men and is sold online at retailers like Nordstrom and Macy’s, says changes are taking place.
“Retailers are putting fewer extended sizes on the rack. You’ll see tighter size runs in store and more ‘online-only’ tags once you hit 2XL and up,” according to Singh.
But he added that while GLP-1 popularity is causing a size shift, most of the shift is still within the larger size range — at least so far. Regent Row only makes XL and larger sizes.
“With GLP-1s, we’re seeing the size curve move left — guys who were 5–6XL shifting into 3–4XL,” Singh said, adding that this doesn’t erase the demand for inclusive sizing. “It just changes where the demand sits,” he added.
He also points out that while GLP-1s reduce weight, it doesn’t reduce height. “Tall remains critical even as waists come down. If you ignore Tall, you’re telling a big chunk of customers they’re an afterthought,” he said.
Singh, before founding his clothing brand, worked as a buyer for Walmart and Zappos, and he says…
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