Cost per wear, the only metric that matters when buying better
Wardrobio team · Aug 27, 2026 · 1 min read
The price of a garment says nothing about its real value. What matters is how many times you will wear it.
The formula
Cost per wear = purchase price divided by number of wears.
A 400 coat worn 200 times comes to 2 per wear. A 20 t-shirt worn twice comes to 10 per wear. The coat is five times more cost-effective.
Why nobody computes it
Because nobody counts their wears. It is tedious by hand. In Wardrobio, every logged outfit increments the counter of the pieces it contains. Cost per wear is computed automatically and shown on every garment's page.
How to use it when buying
Before a purchase, ask a single question: how many times will I really wear this in a year? If the answer is "fewer than ten", divide the price by ten and ask whether the garment is worth that amount per outing.
Pieces that drop below 1 per wear are your best investments. They are the ones to buy again first when they wear out.