How Gen Z’s love for thrifting got fashion brands to finally embrace resale

It’s no secret that secondhand fashion has been having a moment for the past few years.

According to a report conducted by ThredUp, an online consignment and thrift store, the US secondhand market is expected to reach (US$70 billion) by 2027. Globally, the market is expected to reach (US$350 billion) in the same time period. 

Thanks in large part to TikTok and Gen Z’s love of thrifting and vintage fashion, the resale market has never been more robust.

Established resale platforms like eBay, Depop, and TheRealReal have been profiting off of the vintage fashion trend. But what about the brands that consumers are buying on these platforms?

With such a strong market for archival fashion, should fashion houses be doing more to cash in on the trend? 

The rise of the resale market

While thrifting has always been popular with fashion archivists and sustainability advocates, the practice has become more mainstream in recent years, causing the secondhand fashion market to explode.

A major factor behind this shift is the rise of video-forward social media app TikTok and its primarily Gen Z user base. 

In 2019, TikTok was downloaded 693 million times, making it the most downloaded app that year. In 2020, it was downloaded another 850 million times. Today, 60 per cent of TikTok users are part of the Gen Z demographic.

Resale platform Depop, which attributes 90 per cent of its user base to Gen Z, also had a record number of annual users in 2020, at 4 million.

Hashtags like #thriftflip, #upcycledfashion, and #vintagehaul encouraged and highlighted the concept of thrifting and repurposing old clothing items, and brought brands like Vivienne Westwood and Juicy Couture back into the spotlight.  

Buying and wearing secondhand clothing — once seen as something to be downplayed — has become trendy, and perhaps even more desirable than buying brand-new clothing items. 

The environmental benefits of prolonging the lifecycle of clothing is a key part of this. Gen Z is often described as being more focused on sustainability than previous generations. 

ThredUp’s 2023 Resale Report found that 83 per cent of Gen Z consumers have shopped or are open to shopping for secondhand apparel, and view this market segment as both a trendier and more sustainable shopping route.  

Building an in-house resale division

While resale sites like ThredUp, The RealReal, and Depop are cashing in on selling vintage items, what about the fashion brands that populate their platforms?

As Coresight research analyst Sunny Zheng told CO—, a digital information platform created by the US Chamber of Commerce, more retailers should consider investing in a resale division in-house.

“Our estimate is that over 60 per cent of brands and retailers partner with third-party resale marketplaces such as ThredUp to enter the fashion resale market, while over 20 per cent choose to build their own marketplaces from scratch,” Zheng stated. “We believe that those that bring the resale business in-house will likely achieve better profit margins than brands and retailers that work with third-party marketplaces because of lower operational costs.”

In May, Diane Von Furstenberg became the latest fashion brand to do just that through its partnership with Archive, a technology company that powers profitable resale businesses for global brands, according to CEO and co-founder Emily Gittens.

Dubbed ReWrap — a nod to the brand’s iconic wrap dresses — the program enables consumers to buy and sell pre-owned Diane Von Furstenberg and shop the brand’s archival designs.

There is also a feature dubbed “Missed Connections”, operating essentially like a classified ads page for the fashion brand to secure specific collections or pieces from customers, including Furstenberg herself. 

As the cost of living continues to rise, experts predict that more consumers will be turning towards secondhand fashion items as a way to cut costs, providing even more incentive for fashion brands to hop on the resale train while they can. 

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