In the apparel industry, returns quietly erase margin, distort customer acquisition cost (CAC) and starve lifetime value (LTV). Most apparel companies treat returns as a warehouse problem. They're not. Returns are created upstream by the promises made in ads, by clarity on product pages, by the product itself and by whether reviews help shoppers choose the right size. In a previous role at an outdoor/apparel brand, board-level accountability forced us to run returns from the marketing cockpit.