An American retail brand, Express Inc is a fast-fashion clothing brand for men and women. This brand mainly caters to young men’s and women’s fashion and has its headquarters in Columbus, Ohio.
Express is a multichannel, modern accessories and apparel brand that is known for its trendy, comfortable, and chic designs and clothing.
Express was founded back in 1980 with the focus of making style, comfort, and trends available for young men and women in one place.
With time, Express has been a statement in the fashion industry and a part of some iconic and culture-defining moments. The philosophy of the fashion experts here is to make the desired clothes available when and how they are needed.
There are more than 500 retail stores of Express in America and in Puerto Rico. You can also buy your favorites from the online store and mobile app available on Playstore.
Express has also got the brand Up West under its belt and is traded at NYSE with the symbol EXPR.
As a popular brand, Express believes in having a fashion-forward approach. The style community believes in having and creating confidence and inspiring positive self-expression.
From your basic wardrobe essentials, you get to work with versatile clothing that complements your daily hustle and individuality.
A solid take on new trends that helps you create a fun wardrobe for an everyday look. The quality of the clothing is quite amazing with the impeccable details and premium finishing to suit your style.
Express brand has a venture called Express X You where it collaborates with aspiring artists and styling communities. For every season collection launch, Fashion experts at Express invite a few of their customers in the process of creation.
The intention behind this is to help people work with new designs, selection of prints, trying on new fits and fabrics, in order to create something new and loved by everyone.
It is a fun experience for experts and customers to collaborate and become a part of seasonal trendy looks.
Along with high fashion clothing, Express also strives to make the brand more inclusive with every single day. Express Together believes in building a world where everyone is welcome and a place where everyone feels confident.
It is a place where opportunities are created for the underprivileged and green friendly approach prevails. The motto is equity, diversity, and inclusion.
Goals:
- To spread awareness, dialogue and education based initiatives that reflect an associate driven make and model and leader led progress.
- To build and grow further with the existing and diverse workforce.
- To deepen DE&I understanding and awareness among the people of organization.
- To give utmost importance to dialogue between associates and leaders.
- To extend impact and influence beyond our organization and workforce.
One of the ways Express brand believes in impacting every community in a positive way is by mentoring and giving back.
The Big Dream fundraising and awareness project at Express is always open for your support that empowers young and striving people. You can also contribute by volunteering, amplification, and associate engagement.
Express is big on making conscious decisions while producing the best and most stylish outfits for its customers. One of the conscious decisions is to have responsible and environmentally friendly options for production.
By 2026, Express aims to;
- Make 75% of the denim apparels and products through conscious materials.
- 20% of the fabric would be sourced through eco-friendly ways.
- Total of 50 million gallons of water would be conserved.
Is Express Unethical?
Having this question as an aware individual is very common and fair when you’re out shopping. We all know that these days you can easily shop online at any fast-fashion brand. There are criteria that people have when they are looking for an ethical fashion brand.
Transparency:
If you go to the Express website, you’ll notice that there is very little information about their idea of sustainability.
The website does not clearly state where the production locations are, factory conditions, or the traceability of the sources.
Well being:
Having a big name as a fashion brand comes with an employee and consumer well being responsibility. Express does have a regular and decent code of conduct and also a compliance program but the vagueness of it is very apparent.
There is not any evidence of Express implementing any wellness programs for their workforce on their website.
With the words like “implementing wellness programs for everyone” on their website, there is no tangible proof of the said implementation.
Sustainability:
The fact that Express likes to keep up with the trends, it has gotten a bit out of hand for this brand in competition with the competitors.
There are not any apparent sustainability goals defined for the public. Improvements can be made by having a closed-loop of production which is reduced, reused, repaired, and then recycled.
Raw Material Sustainability:
In order to become a sustainable brand, Express needs to have 50 percent of its raw materials sourced sustainably in a way that also protects human rights.
As of their website, there is no evidence of the fast-fashion brand doing so.
A lot goes into making a good, environment-conscious, well-being-oriented, and sustainable fashion brand. With that being said, Express does lack ethics and is definitely not a leader when it comes to setting trends.
Does Express Have High-Quality Clothes?
Express is an affordable and versatile clothing brand. With seasonal collections, there are various kinds of clothing styles you can go through.
But would you call the clothing high quality? Well, that depends on a lot of factors. First, there are more than 500 stores of this brand. The sources of raw material are from all over the world and the manufacturing as well.
The quality of the clothing is semi-good but you can not compare to high-end luxury brands like Prada, Gucci, etc. The quality is very similar to H&M and you can see it if you are a regular shopper.
Secondly, you can find the perfect fit according to your size but if it is an online order then you may face some issues. According to some reviews, online orders placed have not had the same outcome as it was stated in the product description.
You can wear these clothes for like a couple of seasons and then they do wear out. In short, you do get the money’s worth.
The Bottom Line
At some of the locations, the employees are forced to stay later than their shift, that too unpaid extra hours. According to some reviews of the employees on Glass Door, management at Express is not entirely concerned about the wellbeing of their employees.
As a fast fashion brand, the main focus is on making rapid progress and profits.
Although there are some reviews that address supportive management but not any clear guidelines for employee wellbeing.
With not-so-great impact over time, Express has been having it rough lately. The retailer has announced plans to close almost 100 stores of the brand by the end of 2022.
Express has been laying off its workers from the headquarters in Ohio and in New York as well. The reason for doing so is to cut the cost of overall cost and to work on the improvements where required.
From a consumer perspective, Express has been lacking the “keeping up with the trend” idea and it shows in their collections as well.
Unflattering colors, repetition of patterns, and design make it look very dull and not up to the mark fashion at all.
If you visit the stores, you will find yourself as the only consumer there as people have not been showing interest lately. An Insider post mentioned that the clothing racks are filled to the brim with unsold products.
Even the sale corner is not attracting consumers despite a 50% clearance offer. Express has also introduced a rental clothing option and still there is no progress for this fast-fashion brand.
If you are looking to create a look, then after spending some time on the internet you might find something on Express as well. Express fashion is still considered good if you are on a budget.
With a 30 year old history, Express is the 6th largest fashion retailer of men’s and women’s clothing in America. You can get the best out of the collections to get the perfect weekend look and or for your work.
What makes Express the best budget clothing option is the discounted offers they come up with from time to time. From clearance sales to big discounts, you get the affordable fashion that too on sale, it does not get better than this people!
Visit the website www.express.com and get going with the shopping!
