Michelle Suter has worn largely massive and saggy clothes for years. The 63-year-old retiree who lives in a suburb of St. Louis gave away her favourite sundresses and different form-fitting outfits, considering she’d by no means be these smaller sizes once more.
Now, after dropping about 28 kilos whereas taking GLP-1 drug Wegovy, she mentioned she has began to dream of her new wardrobe.
“That is a part of the joy — to put on issues which might be new and match relatively than previous garments that you could tie the drawstring tighter,” she mentioned.
Michelle Suter, a retiree who lives close to St. Louis, has been taking a GLP-1 drug and is midway in the direction of her weight reduction aim. But already she mentioned she has purchased some smaller T-shirts and a pair of Hoka sneakers as her measurement dropped and she or he went on longer walks together with her two canines.
As extra U.S. customers take weight reduction and diabetes medication and shed vital kilos, vogue manufacturers and retailers may have a recent alternative — promoting to consumers like Suter who plan to refresh their closets.
Gross sales of larger bra sizes have fallen, market analysis agency Circana mentioned, referring to that as a number one indicator that can probably carry over to different clothes classes. Some retailers, together with private styling service Sew Repair, have already seen a soar within the variety of prospects mentioning weight reduction as a cause why they’re looking for new outfits.
A number of the key obstacles to the medicines have begun to fade: the medication can be found in tablet type, and costs have fallen for individuals with out insurance coverage protection for them. This week, Eli Lilly‘s GLP-1 tablet, Foundayo, began transport from the corporate’s direct-to-consumer platform, and it’ll quickly be out there at pharmacies and on some telehealth companies. Novo Nordisk launched its Wegovy tablet in January, and greater than 600,000 prescriptions have been written for it by February.
Because the medication grow to be extra accessible, some analysts and market researchers anticipate demand for clothes will develop — although there are nonetheless questions on what number of of these on GLP-1s will take them long run.
“We will debate the magnitude of it, however what is obvious is that there’s going to be a tail wind to attire spending in the usas a results of the uptake of those medication,” mentioned Aneesha Sherman, lead analyst protecting U.S. attire and specialty retail for fairness analysis agency Bernstein. “Up till now, it was actually small, and now’s the place we begin to see an inflection.”
About 1 in each 8 U.S. adults, or practically 13%, are at present taking a GLP-1 drug like Ozempic or Zepbound, in line with the KFF Well being Monitoring Ballot carried out from Oct. 27 to Nov. 2. About 18% of respondents mentioned they’ve taken a GLP-1 medicine sooner or later.
Some estimates are even larger. GLP-1 adoption within the U.S. grew from 11% in November 2024 to 16% in November 2025, in line with Bernstein’s annual survey of consumers. These surveys have been each taken earlier than tablets hit the market.
By 2030, greater than 30 million Individuals might be on a GLP-1 remedy, up from 10 million in 2026, based mostly on JPMorgan estimates.
A pharmacist shows a field of Wegovy tablets at a pharmacy in Provo, Utah, Jan. 15, 2026.
George Frey | Bloomberg | Getty Photos
Extra individuals reducing weight may gasoline a buying spree. About 80% of GLP-1 customers mentioned they anticipate needing new clothes as a result of measurement modifications, in line with a survey in January by Circana. It discovered that 55% of energetic GLP-1 customers have bought new clothes or footwear, pushed primarily by altering sizes, whereas about 25% up to date their wardrobes to refresh their look.
If GLP-1 customers every drop roughly three sizes and every particular person buys 5 to eight gadgets per measurement they drop this yr, that may translate to between 150 million and 700 million attire gadgets bought, or a roughly 1% to 4% increase to the whole unit quantity of clothes offered within the U.S. per yr, Bernstein estimated in a report in late March.
That might imply as a lot as $13 billion in further attire spending per yr, the fairness analysis agency discovered. It based mostly its math on the typical promoting value of attire gadgets within the U.S., which is about $18, in line with market researcher Euromonitor.
But that might be a conservative estimate, Bernstein mentioned, since GLP-1 customers have tended to skew larger earnings than the remainder of the inhabitants and should go for dearer gadgets or manufacturers.
Bras on the market at a Victoria’s Secret retailer on Fifth Avenue in New York, US, on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025.
Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty Photos
Early indicators of clothes refreshes
GLP-1 medication sluggish digestion and suppress urge for food, which may help individuals shed pounds together with addressing well being circumstances together with weight problems, diabetes and coronary heart assault danger. Already, meals and beverage manufacturers and eating places have taken be aware of the rising variety of individuals taking the remedies and tried to get forward of food regimen modifications by emphasizing or including substances like protein and fiber. For instance, Starbucks debuted a protein chilly foam.
Some magnificence retailers have additionally added or promoted merchandise that may assist deal with potential unintended effects of the medication, similar to sagging pores and skin. For instance, L’Oreal-owned La Roche-Posay launched a cream and serum, which it examined with GLP-1 customers, to assist pores and skin look firmer.
However for attire retailers, the GLP-1 influence on buying is within the early innings.
Thus far, the intimate attire class has seen sizing shifts, in line with Circana. In bras, these band sizes of 42+ and cup sizes of D are dropping market share, whereas midrange and smaller sizes together with band measurement 40 and B and C cups are gaining share, the corporate discovered.
“Up till this level, we have not seen so massive of a shift as a result of there are a number of classes the place you will get away with taking place a couple of sizes and never having to shift,” mentioned Kristen Classi-Zummo, an attire business advisor for Circana. “Bras have to suit.”
Victoria’s Secret has seen comparable traits, in line with CEO Hillary Tremendous. She mentioned the intimates and pajama retailer has seen a couple of 3% swing downward within the bra band sizes and underwear sizes which might be promoting, which she attributed to GLP-1s in an interview with Fortune in February.
During the last three months, there’s recent proof that sizing modifications are spilling into different classes, Classi-Zummo mentioned. Plus-sized clothes for girls is dropping market share to girls’s attire that is round measurement 12 and below, a change from the prior months when plus-sized was rising sooner, based mostly on Circana information.
Classi-Zummo mentioned she expects attire demand from GLP-1 customers to speed up over the subsequent six months.
Vacation spot XL, a specialty retailer of massive and tall males’s attire, has seen “a number of volatility” due to GLP-1s, too. On the corporate’s earnings name in mid-March, CEO Harvey Kanter estimated that as a lot as 25% of its prospects are utilizing the medicines. He mentioned GLP-1s are impacting the enterprise greater than anticipated.
Clients are buying, however are “extra needs-driven,” he mentioned. For instance, he mentioned, some are shopping for shirts from its private-label model, Harbor Bay, that price about $20 as an alternative of shirts from Ralph Lauren that price about $120 as they proceed to shed pounds. Others are sizing out of the gadgets it sells. And nonetheless others have misplaced weight on the medication, however have gone again up in measurement as a result of they stopped remedy.
“Sometimes, weight loss of any variety — up or down — is a good friend of ours,” he mentioned on the earnings name. “However I feel proper now, we’re in a sample the place they’re reducing weight and so they’re on a journey and so they’re making an attempt to to not purchase garments till they’re performed with that journey.”
Sew Repair was early to acknowledge the chance of GLP-1 medication. The corporate has a devoted touchdown web page for people who find themselves on the load loss medicines.
Courtesy: Sew Repair
A flip to Sew Repair
Sew Repair has seen maybe probably the most noticeable influence of any attire retailer to date. CEO Matt Baer mentioned the corporate acknowledged the chance of weight reduction medication early. Since September 2024, it has run particular advertising campaigns, working with influencers who take the medicines and making a devoted touchdown web page on its web site.
Baer mentioned the corporate’s enterprise mannequin, which handpicks gadgets and kinds for purchasers, may help consumers going by a serious life change. Clients pay $20 for a private stylist to pick out clothes and accessories based mostly on their sizes, tastes and value ranges, which is known as a “Repair.” Then, customers hold and pay for the gadgets that they like and ship again the remainder.
“As individuals are experiencing a fast bodily transformation, they want help,” he mentioned. “They’re searching for help relating to feeling and looking their greatest as their our bodies change, and we’re uniquely positioned to fulfill them at this second.”
Shopper mentions of weight reduction of their Repair request notes has tripled over the past two years and shot up by 75% yr over yr in the newest fiscal quarter, he mentioned.
Plus, the corporate has seen a pronounced shift in each prospects adjusting the sizes listed of their on-line profiles and requesting smaller sizes, Baer added.
Nonetheless, he mentioned, “there is not any one-size-fits-all method to how individuals navigate their weight reduction journey.” Some purchasers have paused their orders and waited to overtake their closets till reaching a aim weight, whereas others have requested for core gadgets to put on at every stage of sizing down.
On-line resale firm ThredUp has additionally seen indicators that prospects want to promote and purchase clothes due to weight modifications. Denim has been the highest class for GLP-1 customers, in line with the corporate’s information, with the speed of customers shopping for smaller waist sizes of denims accelerating since early 2025.
However, using GLP-1s has elevated ThredUp’s stock and gross sales of plus-sized clothes as extra individuals on the medication put their previous wardrobes up on the market. Buy quantity for big, additional massive and plus-sized attire mixed grew by 6% in March 2026 in contrast with the year-ago interval, at the same time as the acquisition quantity of small-and medium-sized gadgets dropped by 6% over the identical time interval.
CEO James Reinhart instructed CNBC that the resale platform tends to attract individuals at moments of transition, and GLP-1 customers are “squarely in that camp.”
“It is a possibility for us to achieve success each on the purchase aspect and on the promote aspect, as individuals are rotating out of wardrobes that they not slot in,” he mentioned. “We now have alternatives to seize some share there.”
A large swath of shops may benefit from GLP-1 customers looking for clothes, together with off-price retailers like T.J. Maxx and athletic attire manufacturers like Lululemon, mentioned Aneesha Sherman, an attire and specialty retail analyst at Bernstein.
Lechatnoir | E+ | Getty Photos
The retailers that would profit most
For retailers, the nudge for some prospects to purchase new outfits comes at a useful time.
Gross sales within the attire business within the U.S. are projected to develop solely modestly this yr, with an anticipated enhance of 0.4% yr over yr, pushed by a 1% rise in common promoting value, in line with Circana. That is higher than the prior yr, when attire gross sales have been roughly flat.
That slowdown has come from U.S. customers watching their budgets, as they purchase lower-priced gadgets from discounters and prioritize classes with innovation, similar to magnificence, Circana’s Classi-Zummo mentioned.
A large swath of shops may benefit from GLP-1 customers looking for clothes, Bernstein’s Sherman mentioned. She mentioned she expects the largest winners to fall into a number of main classes. Off-price retailers like TJX-owned T.J. Maxx and Marshalls and big-box retailers together with Walmart and Goal may benefit as individuals reducing weight search for worth whereas dropping a number of sizes.
Athletic attire manufacturers, similar to Nike, Adidas and Lululemon, might promote extra clothes as a result of their stretchier leggings and tops are usually extra adaptable to altering our bodies and since weight reduction might spark GLP-1 customers to grow to be extra energetic than earlier than. And bespoke clothes companies, together with Sew Repair and rental companies like Hire the Runway and City Outfitters-owned Nuuly, may acquire prospects in search of styling recommendation or outfits they’ll put on throughout a interval of change.
Large-box retailers and warehouse golf equipment that embrace pharmacies, similar to Costco, Goal and Walmart, may benefit for one more cause, too. Clients might toss an merchandise of clothes of their basket whereas selecting up their medicine, Sherman mentioned.
As extra individuals take GLP-1 medication, retailers may see a lift within the variety of prospects who’re looking for smaller sizes.
Yurii Klymko | Istock | Getty Photos
To draw consumers, manufacturers and retailers “want to consider each the bodily change and the emotional transformation that customers are going by” and communicate to them straight about how they may help, Circana’s Classi-Zummo mentioned. For instance, a secondhand retailer may emphasize the worth of shopping for well-known manufacturers for much less whereas altering sizes or a retailer may provide assist discovering the precise match as individuals’s measurements change.
Suter mentioned she’s about midway towards her aim of dropping practically 60 kilos. But she mentioned she already feels happier and clothes in another way. She dusted off previous pairs of denims from her closet and acquired a couple of smaller T-shirts on Amazon to tide her over as her weight continues to drop.
She purchased a pair of Hoka sneakers to put on as she had the vitality and stamina for longer neighborhood walks together with her two canines, Odie and Bentley.
When Suter hits her aim weight, she mentioned she’ll splurge on recent outfits to put on to her upcoming highschool reunion. She mentioned she’s going to spring for some swimsuits, too.
“It is going to be arduous to not strut,” she mentioned, with fun.
