GLP-1’s Impact on Apparel Demand, Inventory, and Margins
The apparel industry has navigated plenty of advancements and disruptions — fast fashion, e-commerce, the COVID-19 pandemic-era athleisure boom. But GIP and GLP-1 medications (collectively, “GLP-1”) represent something categorically different: a biological shift in the American body, happening at scale, faster than the industry’s planning and size-curve systems were designed to accommodate.
For the first time in decades, the obesity rate in the U.S. has declined, dropping from a peak of 39.9% in 2022 to 37% in 2025. Typical weight loss of 10%-20% of body weight equates to one-to-five clothing sizes (Bernstein, 2026). The implication is not a minor recalibration of size curves. It is a structural reset of the demand landscape.
Read the full report.
© Copyright 2026. The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and not necessarily the views of Ankura Consulting Group, LLC, its management, its subsidiaries, its affiliates, or its other professionals. Ankura is not a law firm and cannot provide legal advice.
