Critiques on My Peers’ Apps and/or Pitches (Part 4) ​

Closet Share ​

As a peer whose team project is also based on sustainably disposing waste, I am excited that your team is tackling a large source of global waste, clothes. Before my team settled on making an app that would help users find where and how to sustain their waste sustainably, we were considering making a “marketplace” for waste, including but not limited to clothes, and in my research I encountered information I’d like to share.

When researching, I learned about how shopping for clothes at thrift stores can be an effective way to keep clothes in circulation longer and out of landfills, and decrease the creation of new clothes, which pollutes the environment. Closet Share seems like a nice alternative to thrift stores that is sustainable in similar ways. However, Closet Share may share a problem with thrift stores related to which sizes of clothes are available. Apparently, the majority of clothes are made for smaller sizes and little is made for larger sizes, despite 67% of women (and probably a lot of men, too) in the US being considered plus-size (according to this CNN article). As a result, when people donate clothes to places like thrift stores, the stores’ selections consist mostly of small sizes. This excludes people who use large sizes, which make up a significant portion of the population, from participating in this sustainable way of obtaining clothes. I could imagine this being the case for Closet Share, too. Sustainable practices are most effective when employed by as many as possible, so being able to include large-sized individuals into the experience would empower this significant portion of the population to contribute to a healthier environment as well. It would probably also result in happier users, who’d have less reasons to feel upset about their bodies if they can’t find their size. Since this seems to be an issue with the clothing industry itself, it may be hard to address with the scope of your app, but I believe it’s worth considering based on all the possible benefits.

I hope Closet Share turns out to be a successful app that pushes our world closer to a greener future! Hope my thoughts were useful!