The numbers are in and it’s no surprise: people using weight-loss drugs are buying new clothes and shoes — and more.
As of last fall, nearly a quarter of U.S. households were using GLP-1s, more than the year before, and a vast majority say they’ll probably need new clothing because their size will change, according to research earlier this year from Circana. More than half have already gone shopping to address that need.
But the rising use of weight-loss drugs is poised to impact retailers beyond this surge in demand, disrupting their assortment planning and exposing weakness in their processes.
“I do believe GLP-1 weight-loss drugs are meaningfully impacting apparel sales, not just through demand shifts, but by accelerating what I refer to as a ‘body transformation economy,’” Meghann Martindale, director of market intelligence for retail at Avison Young, said. “This isn’t a one-time shopping event; it’s a multiphase wardrobe refresh throughout the transformation process.”
Wellness
The use of weight-loss medications coincides with a wider focus on wellness that is grounded, at least ostensibly, on science. This is changing not only what people wear, but also beauty purchases, grocery shopping and dining out.
Consumers this year are looking for products and activities “that support their wellbeing,” according to a 2026 forecast from advisory firm The Consumer Collective released in January. That includes strength training, protein and firming products to combat side effects and deficits from use of GLP-1 medications.
“It is a whole world that gets affected, and we are seeing that play out with some of the things that we've already talked about, like longevity and wellness,” Jessica Ramírez, co-founder and managing director of The Consumer Collective, said by phone.
This is why the phenomenon hits more than the apparel market — and transcends a demand shift, Ramírez and others say. In fact, retailers thinking purely in terms of demand are risking their relationship with their customers, according to Liza Amlani, principal at Retail Strategy Group.
“You can't just start selling smaller sizes. That's not how we need to think about this,” Amlani said by phone. “We're finding that brands are doing a massive overcorrection in their offerings, where they are planning to eliminate extended sizing, because now everybody's getting smaller. But that's not the case at all.”
The plus conundrum
It seems obvious that plus-size retailers would be most at risk in an era when drugs — which are now coming in easier-to-take and easier-to-afford forms — make it so much easier for people to shed weight.
Indeed, plus-size men’s apparel retailer Destination XL last month said that weight-loss drugs were a bigger problem than they anticipated last year, when sales fell 7% compared to 2024. Torrid executives haven’t discussed how the trend has affected their business; net sales at the women’s plus-apparel retailer last year tumbled more than 9%.
Still, Destination XL executives describe a situation where men aren’t necessarily eschewing the plus retailer for mainstream ones, but, rather, pausing as they ascertain what they need exactly.
“I think right now, we’re in a pattern where they’re losing weight and they’re on a journey, and they’re trying not to buy clothes until they’re done with that journey,” Destination XL CEO Harvey Kanter told analysts.
Retailers selling plus clothing or extended sizes have an opportunity to join customers on this journey, according to Ramírez, especially as some people go off the drugs and gain weight back.
“There is this misleading thought that plus customers would not be interested in wellness, or would not be interested in working out,” she said. “And we are still very much in the early days of understanding, really, what positives or negatives this drug has on people long term.”
‘Fit volatility’
For brands and retailers, the GLP-1 trend is upending assortment planning and exposing flaws in their processes, according to Amlani.
“From the get-go, we should just say that GLP-1s didn't invent body change. What's happening is what I have framed as ‘fit volatility,’” she said. “The same customer is moving across multiple sizes, but the time frame of developing our product assortment and sizing our product is not built for that volatility.”
"Right now, ‘fit’ lives in design and ‘size’ lives in planning, and those functions rarely talk to each other.”
Liza Amlani
Principal, Retail Strategy Group
Planning sizes is done a year in advance, but people’s sizes are now changing more quickly. The current planning systems aren’t set up to handle that level of speed and change, much less when differences among genders and geographies are taken into account, Amlani said.
More consumers will have access to a new weight-loss regimen as more GLP-1 medications are released in more accessible and affordable formulations. Meanwhile others will drop their use of the drugs due to side effects or other reasons.
“That it is going to uncover a lot of outdated processes around how we're creating product and how we are developing our size curves and how we are reacting to size signals,” Amlani said. “We need to actually move into continuous size evaluation and monitor the signals that fit volatility requires. We need to view fit demand across merch, planning, design, digital and in store. Right now, ‘fit’ lives in design and ‘size’ lives in planning, and those functions rarely talk to each other.”
Beyond size
The experience of body changes and attention to wellness are leading many people to refresh not just the sizes in their wardrobe but also the styles in it.
“What’s also emerging, and still underappreciated in my opinion, is how this extends beyond apparel,” Martindale said. “I’m already seeing cosmetics and beauty brands marketing directly to skin concerns tied to weight loss (firming, plumping, etc.), which is a clear signal that this is a multicategory shift, not a single-sector trend.”
But people also feel more stylish, so their choices — of garments, beauty products and more — are going to be different, Amlani said.
“So as men and women lose weight dramatically, they are shifting into buying more lingerie, more form-fitting and body-conscious clothing,” she said. “His or her body may be changing, and the wardrobe may not fit. But how she's presenting herself is also in flux. The more confidence you have, the more you're going to look at aesthetics versus function.”
These consumers are paying more attention to accessories, footwear and beauty, and shopping more in stores rather than buying multiple sizes online, according to Amlani. It’s not clear that retailers are ready for all that, she said.
“The customer is always in motion. It's the principle of — the customer is not standing still,” she said. “And the retail system was built for the customer to stand still.”
