Holding Fashion Brands Accountable With The #SpeakVolumes Campaign

The #SpeakVolumes campaign

In this age of information, that is one unanswered question central to the issue of fast fashion. How many clothes are made every year? We don't have an exact number; we have varying estimates. Calculating the number of clothes every brand on Earth produces annually might sound like an arduous task, but how many clothes a brand creates shouldn't be a secret. Still, according to the non-profit movement Fashion Revolution, 89% of the world's largest brands don't share their production volumes with the public.

This lack of transparency hides a reality of overproduction and overconsumption, numbers likely too big for the public not to visualize the sheer amount of waste these companies generate yearly. Transparency on annual production volumes, like transparency as a whole, is a single piece of the puzzle of the complex systemic and structural change in the fashion industry. Yet, data is essential to assessing and tackling the problem of fashion's environmental and social impact. This data gap is precisely what the #SpeakVolumes campaign is trying to rectify.

What is the #Speak Volumes campaign?

The #Speak Volumes campaign is an initiative run by The Or Foundation, a charity that has been working between the United Kingdom and Ghana since 2011. The #SpeakVolumes campaign is their latest active campaign running since 2023 in parallel with their #StopWasteColonialism campaign, and more than 90 fashion industry insiders have endorsed it.

This campaign focuses on transparency and accountability regarding fashion brands' annual production volumes. To do so, the Or Foundation has organized an open call to global industry giants to make transparency on production volumes the new normal in this sector.

The choice to ask brands to publish production volumes is not coincidental. This piece of data is needed not only for the development of adequate policies pushing a shift from a linear economy to a circular one, but production volumes are also something that affects all the actors along the fashion value chain, and it's directly connected to the issue of textile waste. In addition, this is a piece of info that is pretty easy for fashion companies to calculate.

How is the campaign trying to achieve its goals?

The Or Foundation sent their open letter to big fast fashion brands like Nike, Gap, and Primark in August 2024. Artist Jeremy Hutchison also hand-delivered this letter as the "Textile Zombie" in 2023 to the British headquarters of Boohoo, Marks and Spencer, Adidas, George, Primark, New Look, Asos, Puma, and Tu clothing. People can also participate in this initiative by either emailing or delivering the letter in person to the brands nominated in the campaign.

To share the campaign, they organized the 'I Can Count, Why Can't You?' social media challenge that people can participate in by counting the number of garments in their wardrobes. The #SpeakVolumes campaign emphasizes the necessity for brands to #SpeakVolumes by sharing the number of products created in a year, not by weight, as that doesn't communicate in detail enough to put in place appropriate circular economy initiatives. When it comes to sustainable fashion advocacy, knowledge is always power.

About the Author

Roberta Fabbrocino is a journalist specialized in climate change and sustainability-related topics. Her articles have been published in several international eco-publications. Roberta also works as a content writer for sustainable companies.