Nina Jobst
Research expert covering South Korea
Apparel and footwear consumer behavior in the United States - statistics & facts
Beyond its practical purposes, clothing is a statement about the wearer’s identity. Therefore, people pay a lot of attention to what clothes they wear, where they buy them, and how they buy them. Clothing is an important means of expression for someone’s personality, emotion, and belonging to a social group, among other things. Americans in particular spend a lot on apparel and footwear, making the apparel market in the United States the largest in the world in 2024.
As the U.S. apparel and footwear markets continue to develop and grow, the everyday American consumer has begun to make small but meaningful changes in the way they shop, mainly out of environmental concerns. A substantial share of U.S. shoppers stated in a recent survey that they would prefer to own fewer items, as long as they were of high quality and made to last.
How much do Americans spend on clothes?
Women make up a larger share of this spending than men, spending more than men on the majority of clothing categories in 2023. The clothing category women spent the most money on was tops, with an average annual expenditure of 159.31 U.S. dollars in 2023. Accessories followed behind, at 115.72 dollars. For men, the top category was also shirts, sweaters, and vests, spending 120 U.S. dollars on average. Men actually spent more on footwear than they did any type of clothing, at almost 150 U.S. dollars in 2023.The average American’s favorite brand
Consumers choose the brands they spend their money on for several reasons, the style, the cost, the functionality, to name a few. The brands that the American public generally had the most positive opinion of were Levi’s, Hanes, and Adidas. In fact, the Americas were Levi’s most profitable region, with net sales reaching over 3.2 billion U.S. dollars. Particularly popular brands among U.S. teenagers were those of the likes of Nike, American Eagle, and lululemon.As the U.S. apparel and footwear markets continue to develop and grow, the everyday American consumer has begun to make small but meaningful changes in the way they shop, mainly out of environmental concerns. A substantial share of U.S. shoppers stated in a recent survey that they would prefer to own fewer items, as long as they were of high quality and made to last.
