50 Secondhand Finds That Are As Strange As They Are Wonderful

The BBC reports that, based on the findings by secondhand fashion retailer ThredUp, a whopping 67% of British millennials shop secondhand, while nearly half of Generation Z’s clothes are pre-owned. It’s estimated that the total value of the fashion resale market is likely to double by 2027 to a jaw-dropping $3.5 billion.

However, this is still just a drop in the ocean compared to the size and breadth of the apparel market worldwide. According to Statista, the revenue in the global apparel market is estimated to reach $1.84 trillion. The largest segment of this market is women’s apparel, predicted to be around $0.96 trillion this year.

There are some serious issues with the industry, though. For one, the BBC notes that US companies like ThredUp and TheRealReal aren’t profitable, while Lithuanian peer-to-peer fashion resale startup Vinted, which is popular in the UK, also posted a large pre-tax loss in 2022. British brand Depop also lost tens of millions in 2023.

“The problem is one of economics. With the rise of ultra-fast, ultra-cheap fashion brands, the volume of clothing produced and shipped globally continues to explode, and consumers are offloading more of it after just a few wears,” the BBC explains, noting how one 2023 study found that a large Swedish charity has to pay to have around 70% of donated clothes incinerated due to their low-quality.

Around 40% of the clothes that are exported to Ghana, which is one of the largest recipients of secondhand fashion from Europe, is considered to be waste.

"There's an oversupply of clothes. And it's lowering the perceived value, and the real value, of everything,” said Liz Ricketts, co-founder and executive director of the non-profit The Or Foundation.

"We treat waste as if it is a free resource. Sure, you might give it away for free, but it takes a tremendous amount of effort and labor and skill to try to re-commodify that thing that you gave away. Reuse is based on the quality and the condition of the individual item, which means that it requires a human touch and a human eye to assess that."

Buying things secondhand, rather than getting everything brand new, has its fair share of pros and cons. On the one hand, secondhand shopping can be a wonderful way to save money, reduce humankind’s impact on the environment, and reuse things that are still functional but may require a bit of sprucing up. It’s also fun!

On the other hand, shopping secondhand means that you may not always find what you need and you might have doubts about the quality of certain items. You also need to consider how much time and effort you’re willing to spend hunting down a specific piece of clothing, decor, or furniture. There’s a big element of luck at play here.

If you have plenty of time to spare, like to take things slowly, and genuinely enjoy browsing the inventory at different stores, then secondhand shopping is perfect for you.

However, there are bound to be time-sensitive purchases that you’ll have to make. Sometimes, you don’t have the luxury of not getting something due to bad luck when you absolutely need it. In those cases, online shopping or heading to a store that you know for a fact sells the product you need might be best. However, that approach is sometimes hard to balance with a desire to be eco-friendly.

Buying furniture, clothes, tech, or random knick-knacks secondhand means that you’re extending their lifecycle. When you don’t buy new things, that means that the demand for that product falls, which should—at least theoretically—reduce the amount that's produced and then transported worldwide.

If everyone around the world suddenly decided to buy at least some things secondhand, hold on to their tech for longer, or repair what they already have, that would have a massive impact on global production and trade. Companies would pivot to match these new, more eco-friendly, and pro-DIY trends.