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 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.
Michelle Suter, a retiree who lives near St. Louis, has been taking a GLP-1 drug and is halfway towards her weight loss goal. Yet already she said she has bought some smaller T-shirts and a pair of Hoka sneakers as her size dropped and she went on longer walks with her two dogs.
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 tail wind 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 1 in every 8 U.S. adults, or nearly 13%, are 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…
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