Abstract

Increasing product lifespan is recognised as a way to reduce the consumption of resources and materials that go into
producing consumer goods. Increasing the emotional bond an owner feels to their product through encouraging product
attachment is a strategy to achieve this. This study focusses on product attachment with green products with the aim to
inform product designers that are already seeking greater sustainability through their use of green design principles.
A case study into relationships with one brand of slippers is undertaken through an online survey of seventy-nine slipper
owners and three semi-structured interviews with selected survey respondents. Data from the survey is compared
with data from an existing 2008 study: Consumer-Product Attachment: Measurement and Design Implications which
investigates owner relationships with four categories of product: jewellery, lamp, clock and car (Schifferstein and
Zwartkruis-Pelgrim 2008).
The slippers are found to be a high-attachment product, though this is not predominantly due to their being made from
reclaimed materials. Other factors, in particular the fact that each pair is unique, are found to be more influential. Overall
a new form of attachment was identified: that of ideological attachment whereby feelings of attachment stem from an
alignment to the ideology of a product.
It is suggested that a class of consumer exists that view their possessions within a wider political, environmental and
social context and that their feelings of attachment towards an object are affected by this.