€79 swim trunks vs. €12 shorts: where does the price difference really come from, and why do these swimsuits cost more

€12 swim shorts: possible, but for whom?

You can get swim shorts from fast fashion chains for twelve euros. It's not a scam, nor is it necessarily dangerous. The product exists, it's delivered to your home, and it might last for the summer.

But that price doesn't cover everything. It just shifts some of the costs elsewhere.

Virgin polyester is cheap because it's produced from crude oil on an industrial scale without environmental obligations. The seamstress doesn't live in Finland and doesn't carefully sew just one pair. The producer doesn't pay for certifications because certifications cost money. The packaging is new plastic because plastic is cheap. Every point where responsible production costs more is a point that fast fashion bypasses.

It's not that cheap cannot be made. It's about what making cheap requires.

What €79 includes: cost breakdown without explanation

The €79 price of Saimaa Sealskin is not by chance or a brand premium. It's a precise calculation to keep the business running. The exact cost structure can be found on the Price Structure page, but here’s an overview of what the components consist of.

Broadly speaking, the price consists of the following: material, printing, sewing and quality control, packaging and logistics, value-added tax, and fixed business costs. Each of these is smaller or larger than the corresponding cost item in a fast fashion product. Most often, larger.

Material: why recycled Italian polyester costs more

Saimaa Sealskin fabrics come from Italy. They are made from recycled materials, such as old fishing nets and plastic bottles. This is called upcycling, and its price is higher than that of virgin polyester.

More expensive fabric is not a marketing ploy. It is a technical fact. Collecting, sorting, processing, and re-spinning recycled raw material into a usable fabric is more complex than refining crude oil directly into a pile of polyester yarn.

But the fabric lasts. It stretches in all directions, returns to its shape, and doesn't tear during the first workout. The price of sustainable fashion is often most visible in the material first.

Production: Finnish craftsmanship with fair wages

Every Saimaa Sealskin swimsuit is sewn by hand in Espoo. This area was not easy to find; you need a specific type of overlocker, a specific workspace for cutting, etc.

A Finnish seamstress receives a Finnish salary. This means an hourly rate above the minimum wage, statutory fringe benefits, and employment benefits. As a comparison, one can guess the amount paid in low-cost production.

In the fast fashion vs. slow fashion comparison, this is perhaps the most visible difference. Low-cost production is cheap because human labor is cheap where it is done. Responsible production in Finland cannot compete with that price, nor should it try to.

The sewing time for a single pair of shorts is half an hour. When you calculate that time with Finnish labor costs, you get a figure that alone explains part of the price.

Packaging, logistics, and VAT: invisible euros

Saimaa Sealskin uses recycled plastic in shipping packaging and recycled cardboard in product labels. These are small choices that could be made more cheaply. However, we want to order from Finnish subcontractors, such as Tuotenauha.

Logistics in Finland are more expensive than mass shipments from Bangladesh to Europe. Small batches mean a higher unit price for transport.

Value-added tax is 25.5 percent. It doesn't go to the brand; it goes to the state. Still, it appears on the price tag.

These are not sexy messages for marketing, but they are real costs that a fast fashion chain spreads across millions of units and that a small brand bears with smaller volumes.

When you buy cheap, someone else pays: the price of sustainable fashion is an honest price

Why do more responsibly produced clothes cost more? Because making them costs more.

€12 swim shorts are possible because somewhere in the world, wages are paid less than they should be, the cheapest materials are used, and the product is made to end up in a landfill after the first summer. No one is forced to buy cheap. But it's good to know where that cheap comes from.

With Saimaa Sealskin at €79, we can sleep well at night without a guilty conscience. It's not the price of a sustainable product because we want to sound responsible. It's the price because making it so costs.