Michelle Suter has worn principally 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, pondering she’d by no means be these smaller sizes once more.
Now, after shedding 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 thrill — to put on issues which are new and match somewhat than previous garments that you would be able to 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 dimension dropped and she or he went on longer walks along with her two canine.
As extra U.S. shoppers take weight reduction and diabetes medication and shed important kilos, trend manufacturers and retailers might have a contemporary alternative — promoting to customers 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 may doubtless carry over to different clothes classes. Some retailers, together with private styling service Sew Repair, have already observed a bounce within the variety of clients mentioning weight reduction as a motive why they’re purchasing for new outfits.
A few of the key limitations to the drugs have begun to fade: the medication can be found in tablet kind, and costs have fallen for folks 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 turn out 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 are able to 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 overlaying 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 almost 13%, are at present taking a GLP-1 drug like Ozempic or Zepbound, in line with the KFF Well being Monitoring Ballot performed from Oct. 27 to Nov. 2. About 18% of respondents mentioned they’ve taken a GLP-1 treatment in some unspecified time in the future.
Some estimates are even greater. 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 customers. These surveys have been each taken earlier than drugs hit the market.
By 2030, greater than 30 million People may very well be on a GLP-1 therapy, up from 10 million in 2026, based mostly on JPMorgan estimates.
A pharmacist shows a field of Wegovy drugs at a pharmacy in Provo, Utah, Jan. 15, 2026.
George Frey | Bloomberg | Getty Pictures
Extra folks shedding pounds might gasoline a buying spree. About 80% of GLP-1 customers mentioned they anticipate needing new clothes attributable to dimension modifications, in line with a survey in January by Circana. It discovered that 55% of lively 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 individual buys 5 to eight gadgets per dimension they drop this 12 months, that might translate to between 150 million and 700 million attire gadgets bought, or a roughly 1% to 4% increase to the entire unit quantity of clothes bought within the U.S. per 12 months, Bernstein estimated in a report in late March.
That would imply as a lot as $13 billion in extra attire spending per 12 months, the fairness analysis agency discovered. It based mostly its math on the typical promoting worth of attire gadgets within the U.S., which is about $18, in line with market researcher Euromonitor.
But that may very well be a conservative estimate, Bernstein mentioned, since GLP-1 customers have tended to skew greater revenue than the remainder of the inhabitants and should go for costlier 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 Pictures
Early indicators of clothes refreshes
GLP-1 medication gradual digestion and suppress urge for food, which might help folks shed weight together with addressing well being situations together with weight problems, diabetes and coronary heart assault danger. Already, meals and beverage manufacturers and eating places have taken word of the rising variety of folks taking the therapies and tried to get forward of weight loss program modifications by emphasizing or including components 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 unwanted side effects of the medication, corresponding 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 impression 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 shedding market share, whereas midrange and smaller sizes together with band dimension 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 number 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 tendencies, 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 are promoting, which she attributed to GLP-1s in an interview with Fortune in February.
Over the past three months, there’s contemporary proof that sizing modifications are spilling into different classes, Classi-Zummo mentioned. Plus-sized clothes for ladies is shedding market share to ladies’s attire that is round dimension 12 and below, a change from the prior months when plus-sized was rising sooner, based mostly on Circana knowledge.
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 huge 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 clients are utilizing the drugs. He mentioned GLP-1s are impacting the enterprise greater than anticipated.
Prospects 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 weight. Others are sizing out of the gadgets it sells. And nonetheless others have misplaced weight on the medication, however have gone again up in dimension as a result of they stopped therapy.
“Sometimes, weight loss of any variety — up or down — is a buddy of ours,” he mentioned on the earnings name. “However I feel proper now, we’re in a sample the place they’re shedding pounds and so they’re on a journey and so they’re making an attempt to to not purchase garments till they’re completed 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 drugs.
Courtesy: Sew Repair
A flip to Sew Repair
Sew Repair has seen maybe essentially the most noticeable impression 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 drugs 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, might help customers going by means of a significant life change. Prospects pay $20 for a private stylist to pick clothes and accessories based mostly on their sizes, tastes and worth ranges, which is named a “Repair.” Then, shoppers maintain and pay for the gadgets that they like and ship again the remaining.
“As persons are experiencing a fast bodily transformation, they want help,” he mentioned. “They’re in search of help on the subject of feeling and looking their finest as their our bodies change, and we’re uniquely positioned to satisfy them at this second.”
Consumer mentions of weight reduction of their Repair request notes has tripled during the last two years and shot up by 75% 12 months over 12 months in the latest fiscal quarter, he mentioned.
Plus, the corporate has observed a pronounced shift in each clients 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 strategy to how folks navigate their weight reduction journey.” Some shoppers 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 observed indicators that clients need 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 knowledge, with the speed of customers shopping for smaller waist sizes of denims accelerating since early 2025.
Alternatively, the usage of GLP-1s has elevated ThredUp’s stock and gross sales of plus-sized clothes as extra folks on the medication put their previous wardrobes up on the market. Buy quantity for giant, further giant and plus-sized attire mixed grew by 6% in March 2026 in contrast with the year-ago interval, whilst the acquisition quantity of small-and medium-sized gadgets dropped by 6% over the identical time interval.
CEO James Reinhart advised CNBC that the resale platform tends to attract folks 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 facet and on the promote facet, as persons are rotating out of wardrobes that they now not slot in,” he mentioned. “We have now alternatives to seize some share there.”
A large swath of outlets may gain advantage from GLP-1 customers purchasing 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 Pictures
The retailers that might profit most
For retailers, the nudge for some clients 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 12 months, with an anticipated enhance of 0.4% 12 months over 12 months, pushed by a 1% rise in common promoting worth, in line with Circana. That is higher than the prior 12 months, when attire gross sales have been roughly flat.
That slowdown has come from U.S. shoppers watching their budgets, as they purchase lower-priced gadgets from discounters and prioritize classes with innovation, corresponding to magnificence, Circana’s Classi-Zummo mentioned.
A large swath of outlets may gain advantage from GLP-1 customers purchasing 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 gain advantage as folks shedding pounds search for worth whereas dropping a number of sizes.
Athletic attire manufacturers, corresponding to Nike, Adidas and Lululemon, could promote extra clothes as a result of their stretchier leggings and tops are typically extra adaptable to altering our bodies and since weight reduction could spark GLP-1 customers to turn out to be extra lively than earlier than. And bespoke clothes companies, together with Sew Repair and rental companies like Lease the Runway and City Outfitters-owned Nuuly, might achieve clients searching for styling recommendation or outfits they’ll put on throughout a interval of change.
Massive-box retailers and warehouse golf equipment that embrace pharmacies, corresponding to Costco, Goal and Walmart, may gain advantage for an additional motive, too. Prospects could toss an merchandise of clothes of their basket whereas selecting up their treatment, Sherman mentioned.
As extra folks take GLP-1 medication, retailers might see a lift within the variety of clients who’re purchasing for smaller sizes.
Yurii Klymko | Istock | Getty Pictures
To draw customers, manufacturers and retailers “want to consider each the bodily change and the emotional transformation that buyers are going by means of” and communicate to them immediately about how they might help, Circana’s Classi-Zummo mentioned. For instance, a secondhand retailer might emphasize the worth of shopping for well-known manufacturers for much less whereas altering sizes or a retailer might supply assist discovering the appropriate match as folks’s measurements change.
Suter mentioned she’s about midway towards her aim of shedding almost 60 kilos. But she mentioned she already feels happier and clothes otherwise. She dusted off previous pairs of denims from her closet and purchased a number 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 along with her two canine, Odie and Bentley.
When Suter hits her aim weight, she mentioned she’ll splurge on contemporary 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 exhausting to not strut,” she mentioned, with fun.