Stitch Fix, apparel retailers may benefit

Michelle Suter has worn mostly big and baggy clothing for years. The 63-year-old retiree who lives in a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri gave away her favorite sundresses and other form-fitting outfits, thinking she’d never be those smaller sizes again.

Now, after losing about 28 pounds while taking GLP-1 drug Wegovy, she said she has started to dream of her new wardrobe.

“That’s part of the excitement — to wear things that are new and fit rather than old clothes that you can tie the drawstring tighter,” she said.

As more U.S. consumers take weight loss and diabetes drugs and shed significant pounds, fashion brands and retailers could have a fresh opportunity — selling to shoppers like Suter who plan to refresh their closets.

Sales of bigger bra sizes have fallen, market research firm Circana said, referring to that as a leading indicator that will likely carry over to other clothing categories. Some retailers, including personal styling service Stitch Fix, have already noticed a jump in the number of customers mentioning weight loss as a reason why they’re shopping for new outfits.

Some of the key barriers to the medications have begun to fade: the drugs are available in pill form, and prices have fallen for people without insurance coverage for them. This week, Eli Lilly‘s GLP-1 pill, Foundayo, started shipping from the company’s direct-to-consumer platform, and it will soon be available at pharmacies and on some telehealth services. Novo Nordisk launched its Wegovy pill in January, and more than 600,000 prescriptions were written for it by February.

As the drugs become more accessible, some analysts and market researchers anticipate demand for clothing will grow — though there are still questions about how many of those on GLP-1s will take them long-term.

“We can debate the magnitude of it, but what is clear is that there is going to be a tailwind to apparel spending in the U.S as a result of the uptake of these drugs,” said Aneesha Sherman, lead analyst covering U.S. apparel and specialty retail for equity research firm Bernstein. “Up until now, it was really small, and now is where we start to see an inflection.”

About one in every eight U.S. adults, or nearly 13%, is currently taking a GLP-1 drug like Ozempic or Zepbound, according to the KFF Health Tracking Poll conducted from Oct. 27 to Nov. 2. About 18% of respondents said they have taken a GLP-1 medication at some point.

Some estimates are even higher. GLP-1 adoption in the U.S. grew from 11% in November 2024 to 16% in November 2025, according to Bernstein’s annual survey of shoppers. Those surveys were both taken before pills hit the market.

By 2030, more than 30 million Americans could be on a GLP-1 treatment, up from 10 million in 2026, based on JPMorgan estimates.

More people losing weight could fuel a shopping spree. About 80% of GLP-1 users said they anticipate needing new clothing due to size changes, according to a survey in January by Circana. It found that 55% of active GLP-1 users have purchased new clothing or footwear, driven primarily by changing sizes, while about 25% updated their wardrobes to refresh their appearance.

If GLP-1 users each drop roughly three sizes and each person buys five to eight items per size they drop this year, that would translate to between 150 million and 700 million apparel items purchased, or a roughly 1% to 4% boost to the total unit volume of clothing sold in the U.S. per year, Bernstein estimated in a report in late March.

That could mean as much as $13 billion in additional apparel spending per year, the equity research firm found. It based its math on the average selling price of apparel items in the U.S., which is about $18, according to market researcher Euromonitor.

Yet that could be a conservative estimate, Bernstein said, since GLP-1 users have tended to skew higher income than the rest of the population and may opt for more expensive items or brands.

GLP-1 drugs slow digestion and suppress appetite, which can help people lose weight along with addressing health conditions including obesity, diabetes and heart attack risk. Already, food and beverage brands and restaurants have taken note of the growing number of people taking the treatments and tried to get ahead of diet changes by emphasizing or adding ingredients like protein and fiber. For example, Starbucks debuted a protein cold foam.

Some beauty retailers have also added or promoted products that can help address potential side effects of the drugs, such as sagging skin. For example, L’Oreal-owned La Roche-Posay introduced a cream and serum, which it tested with GLP-1 users, to help skin look firmer.

But for apparel retailers, the GLP-1 impact on shopping is in the early innings.

So far, the intimate apparel category has seen sizing shifts, according to Circana. In bras, those band sizes of 42+ and cup sizes of D are losing market share, while mid‑range and smaller sizes including band size 40 and B and C cups are gaining share, the company found.

“Up until this point, we haven’t seen so big of a shift because there are a lot of categories where you can get away with going down a few sizes and not having to shift,” said Kristen Classi-Zummo, an apparel industry advisor for Circana. “Bras have to fit.”

Victoria’s Secret has seen similar trends, according to CEO Hillary Super. She said the intimates and pajama retailer has seen about a 3% swing downward in the bra band sizes and underwear sizes that are selling, which she attributed to GLP-1s in an interview with Fortune in February.

Over the last three months, there’s fresh evidence that sizing changes are spilling into other categories, Classi-Zummo said. Plus-sized clothing for women is losing market share to women’s apparel that’s around size 12 and under, a change from the prior months when plus-sized was growing faster, based on Circana data.

Classi-Zummo said she expects apparel demand from GLP-1 users to accelerate over the next six months.

Destination XL, a specialty retailer of big and tall men’s apparel, has seen “a lot of volatility” because of GLP-1s, too. On the company’s earnings call in mid-March, CEO Harvey Kanter estimated that as much as 25% of its customers are using the medications. He said GLP-1s are impacting the business more than expected.

Customers are shopping, but are “more needs-driven,” he said. For example, he said, some are buying shirts from its private label brand, Harbor Bay, that cost about $20 instead of shirts from Ralph Lauren that cost about $120 as they continue to lose weight. Others are sizing out of the items it sells. And still others have lost weight on the drugs, but have gone back up in size because they stopped treatment.

“Typically, weight loss of any kind — up or down — is a friend of ours,” he said on the earnings call. “But I think right now, we’re in a pattern where they’re losing weight and they’re on a journey and they’re trying to not to buy clothes until they’re done with that journey.”

Stitch Fix has seen perhaps the most noticeable impact of any apparel retailer so far. CEO Matt Baer said the company recognized the opportunity of weight loss drugs early. Since September 2024, it has run specific marketing campaigns, working with influencers who take the medications and creating a dedicated landing page on its website.

Baer said the company’s business model, which hand-picks items and styles for customers, can help shoppers going through a major life change. Customers pay $20 for a personal stylist to select clothing and accessories based on their sizes, tastes and price ranges, which is called a “Fix.” Then, consumers keep and pay for the items that they like and send back the rest.

“As people are experiencing a rapid physical transformation, they need support,” he said. “They’re looking for support when it comes to looking and feeling their best as their bodies change, and we’re uniquely positioned to meet them at this moment.”

Client mentions of weight loss in their Fix request notes has tripled over the last two years and shot up by 75% year over year in the most recent fiscal quarter, he said.

Plus, the company has noticed a pronounced shift in both customers adjusting the sizes listed in their online profiles and requesting smaller sizes, Baer added.

Still, he said, “there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to how people navigate their weight loss journey.” Some clients have paused their orders and waited to overhaul their closets until reaching a goal weight, while others have asked for core items to wear at each stage of sizing down.

Online resale company ThredUp has also noticed indicators that customers are looking to sell and buy clothing because of weight changes. Denim has been the top category for GLP-1 users, according to the company’s data, with the rate of users buying smaller waist sizes of jeans accelerating since early 2025.

On the other hand, the use of GLP-1s has increased ThredUp’s inventory and sales of plus-sized clothing as more people on the drugs put their old wardrobes up for sale. Purchase volume for large, extra large and plus-sized apparel combined grew by 6% in March 2026 compared to the year-ago period, even as the purchase volume of small-and medium-sized items dropped by 6% over the same time period.

CEO James Reinhart told CNBC that the resale platform tends to draw people at moments of transition, and GLP-1 users are “squarely in that camp.”

“It’s an opportunity for us to be successful both on the buy side and on the sell side, as people are rotating out of wardrobes that they no longer fit in,” he said. “We have opportunities to capture some share there.”

For retailers, the nudge for some customers to buy new outfits comes at a helpful time.

Sales in the apparel industry in the U.S. are projected to grow only modestly this year, with an expected increase of 0.4% year over year, driven by a 1% increase in average selling price, according to Circana. That’s better than the prior year, when apparel sales were roughly flat.

That slowdown has come from U.S. consumers watching their budgets, as they buy lower-priced items from discounters and prioritize categories with innovation, such as beauty, Circana’s Classi-Zummo said.

A wide swath of retailers could benefit from GLP-1 users shopping for clothing, Bernstein’s Sherman said. She said she expects the biggest winners to fall into several major categories. Off-price retailers like TJX-owned T.J. Maxx and Marshalls and big-box retailers including Walmart and Target could benefit as people losing weight look for value while dropping multiple sizes.

Athletic apparel brands, such as Nike, Adidas and Lululemon, may sell more clothing because their stretchier leggings and tops tend to be more adaptable to changing bodies and because weight loss may spark GLP-1 users to become more active than before. And bespoke clothing services, including Stitch Fix and rental services like Rent the Runway and Urban Outfitters-owned Nuuly, could gain customers seeking styling advice or outfits they can wear during a period of change.

Big-box retailers and warehouse clubs that include pharmacies, such as Costco, Target and Walmart, could benefit for another reason, too. Customers may toss an item of clothing in their basket while picking up their medication, Sherman said.

To attract shoppers, brands and retailers “need to think about both the physical change and the emotional transformation that consumers are going through” and speak to them directly about how they can help, Circana’s Classi-Zummo said. For example, a secondhand retailer could emphasize the value of buying well-known brands for less while changing sizes or a store could offer help finding the right fit as people’s measurements change.

Suter said she’s about halfway toward her goal of losing nearly 60 pounds. Yet she said she already feels happier and dresses differently. She dusted off old pairs of jeans from her closet and bought a few smaller T-shirts on Amazon to tide her over as her weight continues to drop.

She bought a pair of Hoka sneakers to wear as she had the energy and stamina for longer neighborhood walks with her two dogs, Odie and Bentley.

When she hits her goal weight, she said she’ll splurge on fresh outfits to wear to her upcoming high school reunion. She said she will spring for some swimsuits, too.

“It’s going to be hard not to strut,” she said, with a laugh.