Haul Culture and Overconsumption

The "haul" video — a creator unboxing and trying on a large batch of recent purchases — has become one of the most popular and enduring formats in online fashion content. It's entertaining, often genuinely well-produced, and almost entirely built around a volume of consumption that's difficult to reconcile with any serious sustainability goal.

Why Haul Content Is So Effective (and So Persuasive)

Haul videos work because they combine two powerful psychological triggers: social proof (seeing someone else enjoy a purchase makes it feel more appealing) and normalized volume (watching ten or twenty items unboxed in a row makes buying that many items feel unremarkable). Neither trigger has much to do with whether the viewer actually needs, or will wear, anything shown.

The Return Rate Problem Hiding Behind Haul Content

A large share of items featured in haul-style content are never intended to be kept — many are ordered specifically to be tried on for content and then returned, a pattern that compounds the environmental cost of returns far beyond what a single purchase decision would suggest.

What Gets Normalized in the Process

Beyond the individual purchases, haul culture normalizes a pace of consumption — new items constantly, worn briefly if at all — that stands in direct opposition to the buy-less, wear-longer principle at the centre of sustainable fashion. It's not that any single haul is uniquely harmful; it's the cumulative effect of a format built entirely around volume as entertainment.

The "De-Influencing" Counter-Trend

In response, a counter-movement sometimes referred to as "de-influencing" has grown online — content explicitly discouraging unnecessary purchases, or recommending fewer, better alternatives instead of another haul. It's a useful signal that even within the same platforms driving overconsumption, there's a growing appetite for the opposite message.

A More Sustainable Alternative to the Haul Format

Rather than a "get ready with 15 new pieces" video, consider what a "how I've worn this five ways" post might look like instead — content that celebrates getting genuine, repeated value from fewer items, rather than volume for its own sake. This is closer to the spirit of our own capsule wardrobe and cost per wear content.

Why This Matters Beyond Any Single Purchase

None of this is about judging anyone for a single purchase, or even a single haul video. It's about recognising the broader pattern that format encourages, and making a conscious choice — as a viewer, and as a shopper — to prioritise pieces that earn a place in your wardrobe over volume that simply fills it.

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