There isn't a pink tax at Abercrombie and Fitch.

There isn't a pink tax at Abercrombie and Fitch. You guys just don't know how the women's clothing industry works. Don't freak out! I'm on your side! I am not defending Abercrombie and Fitch. I wanna explain so that you can be a more informed consumer. So first of all, the pink tax is what we talk about when we're talking about two of the exact same product. Like two razors in the store. One's blue, one's pink. The pink one costs more. Two deodorants made by the same company. One's for men, one's for women, and it costs more. The original video that I saw comparing sweaters are comparing apples and oranges. The men's sweater that this creator pulled up was part of their signature collection. Details 100% Merino Wool 3-Button Collared Sweater Part of our A&F Signature Collection— timeless staples crafted from our signature fibers and seasonal fabrics. Knitted from soft merino wool, this sweater features a classic collar, 3-button placket and banded hem and cuffs. Imported. BODY: 100% MERINO WOOL ONLY NON-CHLORINE BLEACH LOW IRON IF NEEDED RESHAPE AND LAY FLAT TO DRY DO NOT DRY CLEAN HAND WASH COLD Store Item: 120-488-00816-300 Web Item: 718242/120-6276-00816-300 And the women's sweater was a highly stylized trend. Being from the Signature Collection means that it's not going to be redesigned season to season. There's no new patterns, there's no new samples, there's no new fittings needed for this. They just pick whatever colour they wanna manufacture and they send it on their way. For this women's sweater, this argyle, first of all, manufacturing with multiple colours already makes it a harder process. Second of all, *train horn* excuse you??? Silencing a woman??? The sweater is clearly on trend for this season right now. And so that requires research, development, samples, fittings, on top of finding a new manufacturing process to make this sweater. Abercrombie is a mid-market consumer brand and they know that their customer is only going to spend somewhere between like 80 and 120 dollars on a sweater. If they have all of these costs going into the development of a new design, they're going to cut cost somewhere and it's going to come at the price of the material. You're not paying a pink tax, you're paying a tax on the trend. The price of that is getting synthetic materials. The other part of this conversation that I think is misguided is the conflation between wool and quality. 100% wool doesn't mean that it's high quality wool. Details Wool-Blend Easy Funnel Neck Sweater Easy-fitting sweater in our wool-blend fabric. Features an argyle pattern and ribbed trims along the funnel neckline, hem and cuffs. Pairs perfectly with your favorite skirt. This product contains RWS certified wool certified by Control Union cert 893802. Learn more here: https://corporate.abercrombie.com/sustainability/produ ct-sustainability/materials/ The Responsible Wool Standard (RWS) describes and independently certifies animal welfare and land management practices in wool fiber production and tracks the material from farm to final product. BODY: 50% WOOL, 25% POLYESTER, 25% NYLON, 6% NYLON LOW IRON IF NEEDED RESHAPE AND LAY FLAT TO DRY DO NOT DRY CLEAN HAND WASH COLD Jumping in at editing I realised that the women's sweater has RWS certified wool. So it is literally higher quality wool in the women's sweater than the men's sweater. 100% synthetic doesn't mean that it's not a quality material. It just depends on how it's being used. Different materials with different compositions give different properties to the finished garment. It is very clear that a lot of the women's sweaters have synthetic material in them. But the women's sweaters are also fitted drapy, have properties that are not possible to achieve with 100% wool. I understand wanting to wear natural fibre garments. That's why I don't shop at Abercrombie and make my own clothes. I'm not judging you for doing so. I want you to know that the reason that you're not getting quality materials from Abercrombie on their trendy items is because they're trendy items. Wanting better materials is not the problem. Here, the problem is that this issue is not going to be fixed at Abercrombie. And it's not going to be fixed if you're continuing to buy trending items. The solution to this is understanding manufacturing processes, quality materials, where your clothes are coming from. If you want that, you really can't shop at Abercrombie because their supply chain is not very transparent. Or learning to hand knit like I did. For instance, this sweater is a complete rip off from Paloma Wool. I knit it myself because I said I'm not buying that shit. Anyways, I love discussing this kind of stuff. If you want two more, let me know. Mwah!