Yes, Fabletics is a fast fashion brand.
Fabletics is an American fashion retailer of activewear and athleisure clothing. It is owned by TechStyle Fashion Group, and is the sister brand to FabKids, JustFab, ShoeDazzle, and Savage X Fenty.
TechStyle Fashion Group was co-founded in 2010 by Adam Goldenberg and Don Ressler. Together, they joined forces with Kate Hudson (worth $80 million) and Ginger Ressler. As of 2019, the group makes an estimated $800 million in revenue each year, and as of 2020, has reportedly generated over $8 billion in sales.
Fabletics is a fast fashion brand due to the speed it produces its clothes, the huge scale of clothing styles that it offers, and the sheer number of clothes that it sells.
Fashion Revolution Transparency Rating: N/A
Good On You Sustainability Rating: 1/5
Remake Fashion Accountability Report Rating: N/A
Additional Reasons Why Fabletics Is A Fast Fashion Brand
- Fabletics sells its clothes on a membership model, with new collections launched on a weekly basis for women, and on a monthly basis for men. Nobody needs new clothes on a monthly basis, let alone a weekly basis, and the frequency at which it sells its clothes shows that it is a fast fashion brand.
- When checking the Fabletics UK website, I found clothing being sold for as little as £6. It is not possible to make clothing for this price without some form of exploitation of people and planet – at the very least, it’s made at a quality so low it will not last.
- According to Good On You, “Fabletics is “Very Poor” when it comes to labour conditions. As a bare minimum, the brand has a Code of Conduct that covers all of the ILO Four Fundamental Freedoms principles. Beyond that? No evidence of worker empowerment initiatives, no info on where its final stage of production occurs, and no proof it is paying a living wage at any stage.”
- In 2021, an investigation by Time Magazine found that workers at one of Fabletics’ partner factories – Hippo Knitting – received reports from 38 workers alleging sexual and physical abuse from management. To remedy this, Fabletics stopped production at Hippo Knitting on 3rd May 2021, and then quietly resumed production in August 2021 while “Production at Hippo Knitting stopped on May 3, 2021. After a three-month pause, Fabletics resumed production in August 2021 while “taking steps to improve workers’ rights, including a new anti-intimidation policy, a new grievance procedure and other initiatives.”
- On their corporate site, TechStyle Fashion Group provides no insight into Fabletics supply chain, policies, Code of Conduct, or anything more than a simple paragraph summarising the brand’s approach.
Sustainable Alternatives To Fabletics
If you’re looking to stop shopping at Fabletics, I recommend checking out activewear brands with similar styles and better ethical and sustainable credentials in my guide to sustainable activewear.
You could also check out my guide to 150+ sustainable fashion brands to find more, or consider searching for second-hand Fabletics garments on my favourite second-hand fashion sites.
This post is part of a larger guide to UK fast fashion brands, which goes into more detail about the issues with fast fashion, why it will never be sustainable, and how to make your wardrobe more sustainable.
Data for this review is taken from the brand’s website, corporate website, Wikipedia, and sites linked throughout. All information is assumed correct at date of publication. Last updated: January 2023.