'Merching for a cause' perpetuates many of the problems it claims to help.

If you're feeling distressed about an environmental disaster, such as the wildfires in Australia or deforestation in the Amazon, make a donation directly to a charity that can help. Please do not buy a T-shirt from a fashion company that says it will donate a portion of profits to helping the problem, while adding another piece of cheap clothing to your closet.

This trend of "merching for a cause" is ridiculous for a number of reasons. First, it assumes that the buyer does not understand the connection between the fashion industry (particularly fast fashion) and the climate crisis. It's believed to be the second most polluting industry globally after oil and gas, due to the huge amount of water and chemicals required to grow textile crops and manufacture clothing, the problem of plastic microfibres shedding when synthetic fabrics are washed, and the methane released when clothes break down in landfills.

As Sara Radin wrote for Fashionista on this topic,