Fashion innovations often appear as new ideas to consumers. This may include a new garment type that is completely different from existing garments or is a common item used in an innovative way or targeting a very different market. Women in the mid-1800 wearing “pants” was one such example—women were not the target market for pants at all.

Rogers (1962) proposed  the concept of diffusion of innovation and described consumers’ acceptance of new ideas and trends in a bell-shaped curve  that identifies five types of consumers:

1. Innovators (2.5% of the population): Consumers who are willing to take risks of trying new things.
2. Early Adaptors (13.5%): Consumers who are willing to take some risks and typically assume some opinion leadership roles.
3. Early Majority (34%): Consumers who need to be more informed before deciding to adopt an innovation.
4. Late Majority (34%): Consumers who require more evidence to establish expectations of the innovations and often accept them due to peer pressure.
5. Laggards (16%): Consumers who prefer no change and may not adopt an idea until a style is an “old fashion.”

Types of innovation

Products evolve and ideas progress at different paces, causing some innovative products to be more easily accepted by consumers than others.

According to the effect of these innovations on consumers’ established behavior, we can classify innovation in three categories to help us determine the level of education needed to help promote them (Sirgy et al., 2014; Robertson, 1967):

1. Continuous: These innovations have the least disruption to consumers’ established lifestyles. Think about the progression from rotary dial landline phones to push-button phones.
2. Dynamically continuous: These innovations disrupt consumers’ usual use of a certain product but do not radically alter them. Think about the progression from a stationed landline phone to a cordless landline phone and to a cellular phone.
3. Discontinuous: These innovations drastically change consumers’ lifestyles. Think about the introduction of smart phones: They are cellular phones, but they are portable handheld computers that provide location-based services.

Keep in mind that these categories are all based on consumers’ evaluations and perceptions and may differ depending on consumers’ demographics, such as generation cohorts.

Evaluation of innovations

Like all other choices consumers make in their daily life, they evaluate innovations as an option among many before deciding whether to adopt them. This decision, however, is not as easy, as it may involve many uncertainties. For example, in addition to paying for the innovation, one may not be sure if it will function as expected, whether people around them would approve this purchase, whether the product suits them well, or even if they are confident enough to make the product work. Understanding these associated risks helps consumers make the decision to buy or not, and mitigating these uncertainties helps consumers to accept the product more easily. According to Rogers (2010), consumers evaluate innovations on these four aspects:

1. Relative advantage: Consumers evaluate the extent to which this innovation is superior in some important way to existing products.
2. Compatibility: Consumers consider the degree to which an innovation fits with their personal needs, values, lifestyles, and past experiences. Think about an innovative technology product that can easily sync with your other devices as well as fit your personal style aesthetically!
3. Complexity: Consumers evaluate the levels of difficulties to understand and use the innovation. The easier it is to use the product, the more likely people will adopt the innovation.
4. Trialability: Consumers need to assess the innovation. Trialability is the is the degree to which consumers perceive an innovation may be tried out. While many innovations in tangible products or services format can be tried out, some fashion innovations cannot be tried out, such as a new haircut as it cannot be undone in a short period of time.