The case for custom.

• Author: Griffin, Elle

Fast fashion is killing seamstresses, shoe repairs, and haberdashers. Here's why we need to keep these industries alive.

I recently took several of my shoes to the shoe repair, only to discover that it would be closing in a few months time. The Salt Lake City Housing Authority had purchased the building, and many others nearby, and the shopkeeper could no longer afford to move to a new location. As a result, he decided to close up shop.

There are only two shoe repair shops in Salt Lake City, and one is a customer favorite. That one being Steve's Shoe Repair, the one that will be closing up soon. To lose this staple is a loss to our community, even more so in an era that is seeing the disintegration of some of our country's oldest professions.

But what need is there for the shoe repair, you might wonder? Isn't it a dying industry? Well yes, that's true. According to a HuffPost article entitled "The Changing Footprint of the Shoe Repair Industry," in 1968, there were 68,000 shoe repair shops open across the country. By 2011 there were less than 7,000.

The cost of new clothing

But I believe it's worth noting why the industry has seen a decline. And that's because, over the last two generations, consumers have adopted a more consumerist approach to shopping. In other words: why repair a pair of old shoes, when you can purchase a new pair? Why replace the zipper on a pair of trousers, when you can replace the whole trousers?

And those very thoughts have led to an entirely new industry. One in which trends are chasable, clothing is replaceable, and furniture is leasable. We went from owning a custom pair of leather shoes to owning a closet full of pleather ones. We went from having two outfits in our closets to hundreds of them. We went from buying our cell-phones, to renting them so we could swap them out each year for the latest model.

In short, everything has become replaceable. A stand-in until something better comes along. We buy things only to buy newer things the next year. And as a result of our endless pursuit of things, we no longer purchase things that last, and we no longer need the industries that help our things last. And is that really a good thing?

Personally, I don't believe so. According to an article by Scientific American, an American will "consume 53 times more more goods and services than someone from China," will "drain as many resources as 35 natives of India," and will "create 13 times as much ecological damage over the...