Secondhand Clothing Is Becoming One-Tenth of Fashion | The Global Resale Market

Secondhand clothing has, before we knew it, gone from an “eco-friendly option” to an “ordinary market.” The scale of the numbers makes that shift clear.

A market worth 197 billion dollars

According to ThredUp’s “Resale Report,” global secondhand apparel sales in 2023 increased 18% year on year to 197 billion dollars setting a new all-time high.

In addition, secondhand clothing is expected to account for about one-tenth of the overall fashion market in 2025, and is projected to reach 350 billion dollars in scale by 2028.

What is driving the growth?

• The spread of online resale platforms
• Lower consumer resistance to secondhand clothing
• The expansion of peer-to-peer buying and selling models
• The development of systems for authentication and quality verification

The last point is actually important. For the secondhand market to become an ordinary market, buyers needed to be able to confirm before purchase whether an item was authentic and what condition it was in. As that part has been put in place, higher-priced items have also begun to circulate.

Its meaning as circularity

Resale is a way to pass an item directly to the next person without returning it to raw material. It requires less energy than recycling that breaks fibers down and makes them again. Japan’s clothing material flow Even there, reuse accounted for 18.1%.

Wearing one garment for a long time and passing it on to the next person point in the same direction. When a market grows, it also means that this handoff becomes easier.

Reference: ThredUp, “Resale Report”

—The Value Village Editorial Team