Tracking the cost per wear of every article of clothing for several months sounds like a great way to understand if you are spending wisely and getting value. Most things I own have been around in my closet for a very long time. They speak to a significant evolution in my taste and also how I view age-appropriate attire. The clothes that are a good two decades old were great for that time in my life but they do not make sense now. Even if they fit me physically, they bear no relationship to the person I am now and if I put them on, I appear to be wearing clothes that were loaned to me by someone who I have little in common with.
With shoes, the situation is much worse because I don't wear anything that is remotely uncomfortable. Most of the older shoes that look as good as new are more fashionable than sensible - that phase of my life is long gone. The are a couple of shoes I have worn only three or four times so there is a long way to go before I achieve single-digit cost per wear numbers. But the concept has motivated me to work through my closet to get to the point of the number being so low that giving the item way is the only logical next step - I got more than enough value out if it. Like the author, I too can gain clarity on what I really use and should buy versus what I imagine I will but don't really
One immediate impact from this analysis was that I came into Christmas 2021 prepared. I had some easy answers to the questions of what I wanted. More medium t-shirts and long sleeve shirts from Everlane and Buck Mason as well as some additions to my sweatpants collection. Knowing how often I wore them made me feel better about buying higher quality items that I normally would never buy. I am now the proud owner of 3 pairs of Vuori sweatpants/athletic pants/joggers.
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