Sustainable lifestyle of Generation Z

Master student Astrid Schuelke proposed the title for her Master thesis titled Clothing mending: The role that clothing mending plays in a sustainable lifestyle of Generation Z. She chose this subject because she learned in Dr. Jestratijevic, MDSE 5560 Sustainable Strategies course about the benefits of clothing mending, and she was surprised she hadn’t heard of it before. A loss of school programs that teach sewing to younger generations, has caused a gap in mending skills between generations, Astrid believes. Thus, the purpose of her study is to understand the role that clothes mending plays in a sustainable lifestyle of Generation Z consumers in order to describe clothes mending related attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors among this population. A pilot study was conducted using UNT students convenient sample, and results showed only 50% of participants knew how to mend but only 20% stated they try to mend clothing to extend the life of their clothing. The final thesis research design will be a mixed method survey distributed online for UNT students between the ages of 18 and 22. The expected implications of this study are to motivate consumers to mend clothing in order to preserve clothes they already own, while reducing the amount of clothing waste.