So there I was, sitting through two of YouTube’s (painfully long) unskippable ads, when one of them happened to catch my eye. Unfortunately for them, it didn’t catch my eye in the way they had hoped; I wasn’t enticed into buying their product. No, what had interested me about this ad was the fact that this company was promoting size inclusivity with their clothing lines.
This was weird to me because I had been in their stores before, and they didn’t offer much inclusivity in clothing sizes. My spidey-sense was a-tingling, so the next time I was out and about I made a pitstop to one of the retail locations in town. And what did I find? The exact sizes I expected to find, which were not size-inclusive ones.
You’ve probably seen lots of clothing brands advertising like this lately; promoting clothes with the “size inclusive” label seems to be a trend right now. Don’t get me wrong, it’s one of the better trends—there should always be pressure on brands to make clothes for every size. That said, it’s something that not many companies are actually following up on.
Brands can’t outright lie to us. They can’t claim to sell a certain size and subsequently not sell that size. However, they do have sneaky tricks to get around this. The store I visited after seeing the ad about inclusivity didn’t have the sizes they claimed to sell. But you know what they did have? Stickers. Stickers on every change room door and cash register, all saying things like “Can’t find your size? Let us order it for you!” So, yeah, they technically sell what they advertise. But you can’t buy it in stores—you have to order it online.
The bait-and-switch technique is used a lot in marketing, and I get it—it’s an effective strategy. But I hate it when brands cop out and don’t follow through. Seeing clothes in person is completely different from seeing them online. You should be able to physically see and feel clothing in person, no matter what size you wear.
It’s absurd how companies continue to get away with things like this. It honestly baffles and upsets me that not everyone is able to try on clothes at the store because their size isn’t stocked. So, yes, brands can’t outright lie to us, but I’d argue that what they do is worse: they give us false hope.
I want this to change; this has to change. It’s time for brands to stop hiding behind “let us order it for you” stickers and actually stock what they sell.