Why children’s clothes cost more as your child grows up
Doesn’t it seem like you spend more and more on kids’ clothing the older your child gets? Well, there are several reasons why this happens. Maybe you have to buy more clothing for the various activities your child is involved in these days. Perhaps you’ve started shopping for particular brands and those brands simply cost more than others.
Probably the most significant reason that you spend more on clothes is that clothes simply get more expensive as your child grows. The larger the size, the more materials – from fabric and thread to buttons and elastic – are required to make the item. So, the cost to the manufacturer goes up and they pass that increase on to you, the shopper.
A USDA study on expenditures on children looked at how much of a family’s yearly budget is spent on children’s clothing (including clothing, shoes, and diapers). They found that families increase their average spending on children as a child gets older. Specifically, families appear to increase their spending when their child reaches ages 6, 9, 12 and 15 years old. These ages happen to match up with common size brackets for the children’s clothing industry.
What does this all of this mean for you? Basically, that you can expect price bumps any time your child grows into the next child size category, regardless of the clothing’s brand or manufacturer. For example:
- From baby/infant to toddler sizes
- From toddler to little kid sizes
- From little to big kid sizes
- From big kid to junior sizes
- From junior to adult sizes
Prices may also go up if you are looking for specialty sizes that are larger than average for a child’s age. This is sometimes the case when shopping for plus or husky size clothing. It may also be the case for slim clothing – not because more materials are used, but simply because they are a specialty item.
What are the reasons you think you’ve seen increases in your child’s clothing expenses? Change of shopping habits? Need for special clothing? Just growth? Something else?
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