Abstract:
There has been a rapid growth of global fashion industry. Kenya like other
developing nations is fighting for a slice of this growth and positioning itself as a
competitive contributor to the same. In this regard, both the fashion marketers
and academia are becoming increasingly interested in variables of fashion
consumption. This study investigated the relationship between the sociodemographic characteristics of University students and apparel purchase.
Demographic characteristics of students such as age, gender, marital status,
religion and residence (urban/rural) play a key role in students’ apparel fashion
consumption decision. Targeting 4 public and 16 private universities, study
sampled 7 universities and 534 students. However, 503 questionnaires were
completed hence used to collect data, a Chi square was used to test the null
hypothesis; Socio-demographic characteristics of university students have no
relationship with their apparel consumption. Results showed that there was no
significant relationship between age and fashion need conceptualization (x2 =
7.905, df =5, p-value = 0.162) among university students. There was no
relationship between students’ gender and evaluation of all information before
making apparel purchase (p-value = 0.066) though females were more likely to
conceptualize a need before buying new clothes than males. There was a
significant relationship between marital status of students and evaluation
between possible alternatives (p-value =0.043). Religion of the students had no
significant relationship with fashion consumption. In summary results of this
study showed that demographic characteristics of respondents had no significant
relationship with apparel fashion consumption decision making among
university students (chi-square = 15.000, df = 12 and p-value = 0.241).
