Clothing resale; a sustainable future of an industry killer?

Have you ever got the feeling of dread at the thought of cleaning your closet? Or maybe that pile of clothes on the floor waiting to be sorted and put away? Like many of us, the problem of our excessive wardrobes is becoming a larger concern than we imagined. Approximately 300,000 tonnes of clothing are being thrown out into landfill every year yet only a small fraction of that is recycled into new textiles. So how do we combat a problem that we have created? You incentivise change for the better and add profit. Reselling has become an economic force exceeding the billion-dollar market revenue, and the ones who profit are the youth. Depop, eBay, Grailed are some of the big-name companies out there that are paving the way for the future of fashion from the tip of your fingers. This begs the question, are people really becoming more ecologically conscious or is it just another commercial ploy?

Fortunately, if you’re reading this then you probably know a little about the fashion industry and what the main problems are surrounding it. But to simplify our consumption of fashion is exceeding what we actually need by a large margin, facilitated by the fast fashion companies looking to make a quick buck. New collections are being released every week, so our collective minds scour the internet to find new articles of clothing neglecting the clothes we already own. Whether you’re doing this out of retail therapy or a display of wealth, it still stands; we’re overconsuming products that we can’t sustain. Then you think to yourself where do these old products go? I mean the clothes only have a small percentage of salvageable materials so what does the average person do? Either throw it away or donate it. However, a lot of the clothes people collectively give to the charities or companies exceed what they can handle and unfortunately still end up in landfills. Recycling is supposedly the go-to in this situation, but the energy required to breakdown fabrics and then reconstitute it into threads is still not net neutral, so it leaves reuse as the next best option. Companies have popped up over the years to monopolize this market and each app offers something different to accommodate different demographics.

Depop:

This London based company specialising in user sold items has grown quickly from their 2015 start-up to become one of the largest businesses involving in reselling. Amassing over 13,000,000 users, it’s one of the forefronts of eCommerce. So how does this business model work and how does it directly influence sustainable fashion. A key part of their userbase are below the 30-year-old threshold who for the most part are becoming more environmentally conscious about what they do. And since a large portion of their youth are finding who they are and what they want to be, fashion is the most visible way of expressing this type of change. Depop is attractive in a sense as they provide an easy to use platform for this generation to quickly snap their wardrobe and put it online for sale. They have 3 pillars of what they base their operation on, and one of them being the sustainability factor. They promised to promote the reuse of clothes and extend the life of garments, creating a positive change within the fashion industry. And for the most part, they’ve accomplished this. They have somehow taken the concept of a local thrift store and expanded globally with a snazzy app to boot. Rather than donating clothes, that may or may not end up on the rails of your local store, they’ve streamlined the process and allowed an alternative way to produce an income.

eBay:

This eCommerce provider is the oldest and one of the largest companies in the world with a multi-billion profit business revolving around the idea of user-based selling. Although it’s not as specialized as Depop in terms of only working within the realms of fashion, they still provide a service where people can sell unwanted or unused goods online. Moving from the ’90s as a local auction site to sell a broken laser pointer to having over 1.9 billion items listed on the site, it’s no wonder why it’s a beloved platform by many. But what are the impacts of eBay in the world of fashion? Since eBay is older than the majority of people who use Depop, their main demographic differs by a decade. 2019 saw a surge of secondhand purchases by middle-aged users with the younger generation lagging behind. It’s clear to see why, rather than the specific approach Depop utilises by targeting their demographic of teens, eBay is a service that sells all types of items that can’t be streamlined into a single target group. Everyone is their target group. Coupled with the fact that the site and app are modelled more traditionally than Depop’s bright colours, it stands to reason why the youth are less prioritised in this business model. Even without the teens, 4 million pre-owned fashion items are still being bought by the older age group, promoting a greener lifestyle for everybody. eBay is pretty transparent on their energy and waste statistics as they are displayed on their website, with sustainable commerce being a vital element on their impact agenda. Reporting to avoid 3 million tonnes of carbon emissions through the resale of preowned and refurbished items, they coined the term circular commerce as their main aim. Even with my scepticism with company-owned statistics, there is reasonable evidence that points towards eBay leading the charge for pre-owned clothing being resold. And with the push towards more environmental decisions, many are opting for eBay as a way to find those fashion goods.

Grailed:

Imagine the more edgy cousin of Depop who wears all black, Grailed specialises in the resale of more contemporary, hard to get items that the normal person wouldn’t have a clue about. It’s for those who truly love fashion and the brands they support, from Bape to CCP. Like the others, it’s a user-based marketplace specialising in fashion items. Grailed is also a recent addition to the eCommerce world being founded in 2014. It’s more curated than its predecessors with designer brands being the main focus. Grailed being a play on words “grail” to describe a very sought-after item, originating from the sneaker reselling scene. Now because it’s more specialised than the other two in terms of what users sell, their demographic ranges widely with the commonality between all of them are their love of fashion and the brands they support. It facilitates this love for fashion by other outlets as well, with topics and articles littering the front page. This is why it’s so popular among the fashion community, instead of relying on corporate shopping sites to get good deals the power of buying and selling is placed on the user. But since it’s more curated, how does this company deal with the idea of sustainable fashion? They have been seen promoting articles regarding sustainable ways of approaching fashion on their website, by opting to support brands that are environmentally forward. Grailed has also expressed that they have a community who love and admire clothes deeply so in this sense they are providing a platform for people to buy used clothing rather than buying it off the shelf. However, Grailed was born out of the desire to sell designer clothing rather than having a sustainable agenda backing it. I found barely anything regarding Grailed’s outlook on environmental impacts and their statistics seems to be hush-hush. In this sense, Grailed resembles a more traditional retail company than the other two I talked about before. But as people become more environmentally aware Grailed as well as the many other reselling websites are becoming the go-to alternative to physical stores.

Commercial Stores:

This begs the question, how are large corporate retail sites reacting to this push for more environmentally friendly ways? Unsurprisingly many of them have promoted their support of reducing waste by slapping statistics and talking about their green agendas as a way to stay culturally relevant, greenwashing in this case. There are some however who have understood the problems and have taken steps to promote a healthy retail lifestyle and reduce waste. Large scale fashion companies like Farfetch have shown initiative when it comes to reusing garments. A large chunk of their about section revolves around their actions toward reducing the amount of fashion waste and all-around energy usage. “Positively Farfetch” talks about their agendas in terms of partnering with brands who are sustainably conscious, and also companies that provide services like shipping and packaging that aren’t too energy-consuming. The thing I wanted to highlight, however, is their Thrift+ connection. Farfetch Secondlife is an area where users can send their old designer garments to sell whilst getting credits to buy new clothing from their site. Although this model has been done many times before, it’s refreshing to see a large retail business opting for this method as it sends old or used items back into the fashion cycle rather than landfills. Smaller niche companies that sell designer clothing have also opted out of Black Friday as a way to combat waste. Black Friday is where our unbridled desire to purchase anything and everything is seen, and because of this, there’s a proportionate number of items that are thrown away in the weeks after because people realise that the items they bought had little to no use to them. Basically, bought in a frenzied panic. Now you’re seeing many retail stores opting out of the Black Friday sale for this very reason.

Understandably many of us can’t afford these pieces of clothing and may have to resort to fast fashion clothing as a necessity. Not everyone has the luxury of buying designer clothes of these sites and thrifted clothing also come with a hefty price tag. But it’s still baby steps, over these years more and more people are opting for this reuse lifestyle and by changing your ways of shopping maybe you could also make a difference. I personally believe that this secondhand wave isn’t some sort of trend that will go away in the next few years but will persist with the people's desire to buy clothing that isn’t harming our world. As more and more companies push these environmental ideologies it’s safe to say that the world of secondhand clothing will remain relevant for many years to come.