Cost Per Wear

Cost per wear (CPW for the remainder of the post) is an important concept to keep in mind while shopping and evaluating your closet. It’s very simple: cost (price of item) per (divided by) wear (number of times worn/used). The goal is to have a low cost per wear; the lower the CPW, the more value you’re getting from that piece.

While evaluating your closet, an approximate CPW can help you assess your pieces. A garment with a high CPW might not be worth keeping, or maybe needs some different styling. Anything with a low CPW is either a workhorse in your closet, or is something you’ve gotten good use of and can pass on with satisfaction. Do I frequently calculate the exact cost per wear of pieces in my closet? No, but 

CPW is important to remember while shopping for two reasons. One, you want to try to estimate how often you might wear a piece you’re considering for purchase. The more occasions and outfits you can think of, the more likely that there will be a low CPW, which makes it a worthwhile piece. Two, if it can make items already in your wardrobe more wearable (especially if they’ve been difficult to style or wear), that decreases the CPW of those pieces. 

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Here are two real examples from my closet!

• North Face Puffer Coat

  • Purchased for $300 in fall 2008.

  • Worn every year, throughout winter, for 13 years. Let’s estimate 90 wears per year. (In reality, it’s probably more, but just to be conservative.)

  • 90(wears/year) x 13(years) = 1170 wears since purchasing

  • $300/1170 = $0.2564

  • It has cost just over a quarter per wear.

• Floral converse

  • Purchased for $33.58 in summer 2020.

  • Worn maybe 2 times.

  • $33.58/2 = $16.79

  • Not the most expensive, but definitely not getting the use out of these shoes that I could.