The maths that changes how you think about buying clothes — and why it strongly favours buying better.
Cost-per-wear is the most useful framework for thinking about clothing purchases and one of the most systematically ignored ones. Here's the full argument.
The formula
Cost-per-wear = purchase price ÷ number of times worn before discarding or replacing.
A ₹400 t-shirt worn 20 times costs ₹20 per wear. A ₹1,200 t-shirt worn 200 times costs ₹6 per wear. The ₹1,200 tee is dramatically cheaper by this metric — the only metric that actually captures the value you receive from a garment over its life.
The developer case
- A ₹400 budget tee that lasts 6 months: ~96 wears, ₹4.16/wear
- A ₹400 budget tee that looks reasonable for only 3 months: ~48 quality wears, ₹8.33/wear
- A ₹1,200 quality heavyweight tee that lasts 2.5 years: ~480 wears, ₹2.50/wear
The hidden costs of cheap basics
- Replacement purchasing time. Every time a cheap tee wears out, you spend time finding and buying a replacement.
- The "it'll do" tax. The months you spend wearing a tee that's pilling and slightly misshapen but not quite bad enough to replace yet.
- Environmental cost. Cheap basics are fast fashion. Buying quality and wearing it longer is the lowest-effort way to reduce clothing waste.
Where to apply this
Cost-per-wear logic applies most strongly to things you wear frequently. For a developer, that's the daily black tee above everything else. A ₹1,200–₹1,500 tee from CaretGoods, worn four times a week for two to three years, costs less per wear than almost anything else in your wardrobe.
Tags: cost per wear t-shirt, why cheap basics are expensive, quality vs cheap clothing, wardrobe investment India
Run the numbers.
₹1,200 ÷ 400+ wears = ₹3 per wear. That's what a CaretGoods tee costs when you actually count it.
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