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Why Americans Are Suddenly All In On Thrift Clothes · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This year is the largest garment on hangar system in
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  Speaker 1: the world. We can house roughly up to three point
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: five million items in this facility.
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  Speaker 2: Here at threadups Warehouse and Suwanee, Georgia, roughly forty thousand
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  Speaker 2: articles of used clothing are given a second life each day.
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  Speaker 3: We receive more than one hundred thousand pieces of clothing
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  Speaker 3: every day. So it's a business operating at some significant scale.
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  Speaker 2: Threadup is in a thrift store. It's a resale platform
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  Speaker 2: built like a tech company, part logistics network, part e
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  Speaker 2: commerce site, and we.
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  Speaker 3: Do all the work for you that buyers shop like
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  Speaker 3: they would shop anywhere else on the internet.
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  Speaker 2: Gen Z shoppers have been driving the rise of secondhand fashion. Now,
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  Speaker 2: rising prices and new tariffs announced by the White House
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  Speaker 2: earlier this year are pushing even more Americans to follow
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  Speaker 2: their lead. The global secondhand apparel market is expected to
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  Speaker 2: reach three hundred and sixty seven billion dollars by twenty
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  Speaker 2: twenty nine, growing almost three times faster than the overall
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  Speaker 2: global apparel market.
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  Speaker 4: More people, of course, are turning to these rests platforms
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  Speaker 4: to find ways to save money on their fashion purchases,
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  Speaker 4: while other people are going to these platforms to sell
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  Speaker 4: their items so they can earn a little extra income
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  Speaker 4: in order to offset some of the other rise and costs.
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  Speaker 2: And now AI tools are making it even easier for
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  Speaker 2: shoppers to buy secondhand fashion. Tech startups like phoebe Gates
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  Speaker 2: and Sofia Kiani's AI shopping tool Fia are reshaping how
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  Speaker 2: people shop.
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  Speaker 4: The next wave is taking all of this search data
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  Speaker 4: and all that we're learning from our users to start
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  Speaker 4: to personalize their results and move towards a discovery feed
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  Speaker 4: for each and every user.
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  Speaker 2: CNBC got a behind the scenes look at threadups operations
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  Speaker 2: to learn more about how new AI tools and tariffs
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  Speaker 2: are boosting America's secondhand market. Every item that passes through
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  Speaker 2: here is sourced, sorted, and shipped within the US, no imports,
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  Speaker 2: no overseas supply chains.
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  Speaker 3: Threatup is really easy to use. So fore we send
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  Speaker 3: you a clean out kit, you fill with all the
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  Speaker 3: things that you're no longer wearing. You put it where
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  Speaker 3: your mail gets picked up, and then we go to
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  Speaker 3: our distribution centers we process all of your clothing.
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  Speaker 1: Once the items have finished their photography or in studios,
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  Speaker 1: they're actually on their way up to the mezzanis. So
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  Speaker 1: they can get put away into one of our put
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  Speaker 1: away carousels.
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  Speaker 2: Thread Up operates four facilities like this across the US,
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  Speaker 2: collectively processing hundreds of thousands of secondhand items weekly through
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  Speaker 2: a mix of human inspection.
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  Speaker 5: Our packers are one of the most important jobs that
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  Speaker 5: we do here because they are the last hands that
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  Speaker 5: we'll be catching the customer's item before customer gets it,
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  Speaker 5: so they are there to make sure that quality is.
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  Speaker 2: Triple chuck and automation that powers the company's resale engine.
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  Speaker 1: When this building was first built in twenty twenty, people
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  Speaker 1: would have to manually enter it in the information and
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  Speaker 1: print one barcode one by one. Now that we've automated it,
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  Speaker 1: we've been able to bring that down to one team member.
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  Speaker 2: The US secondhand apparel market is expect to reach seventy
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  Speaker 2: four billion dollars by twenty twenty nine, growing nine percent
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  Speaker 2: annually on average.
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  Speaker 3: I think it's a great opportunity to remind customers of
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  Speaker 3: the great value that we provide on Threadup, and also
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  Speaker 3: that it's a sustainable way to shop during the holiday season.
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  Speaker 2: After years of flat performance, Threadup stock is up over
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  Speaker 2: one thousand percent in the past year. President Trump's tariffs
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  Speaker 2: were billed as a way to bring manufacturing back home,
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  Speaker 2: but the measures hit one of America's most important dependent industries. Fashion.
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  Speaker 2: About ninety seven percent of clothing sold in the US
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  Speaker 2: is imported, mostly from China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and India.
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  Speaker 4: Our reliance on products from overseas is being severely impacted
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  Speaker 4: by tariffs.
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  Speaker 6: And that's for the existential threat that the industry is
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  Speaker 6: sort of grappling with now. How much price elasticity is
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  Speaker 6: out there for a consumer that's pretty exhausted from an
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  Speaker 6: inflation standpoint.
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  Speaker 7: Prices were rising. We start to see them come down
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  Speaker 7: a little bit in the second half of twenty twenty four,
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  Speaker 7: but in the past four months prices turned and started
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  Speaker 7: to go up again. So consumers are really looking for
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  Speaker 7: how can they save. We're seeing this overall mentality shift.
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  Speaker 7: We look at resale doupes, fast fashion, even private brands
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  Speaker 7: like consumers are shifting to these options, but they're not
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  Speaker 7: seeing them as a trade down. They're really seeing them
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  Speaker 7: as being just as good.
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  Speaker 2: That shift is showing up across resale platforms. Thread Up
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  Speaker 2: reported that revenue grew thirty four percent year over year
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  Speaker 2: in its third quarter twenty twenty five earnings. It also
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  Speaker 2: said that it acquired more new customers in the third
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  Speaker 2: quarter than any other time in the company's history, with
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  Speaker 2: new buyer growth up fifty four percent from the same
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  Speaker 2: period last year. Deep Hop and offer up are also
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  Speaker 2: seeing similar momentum, and even Amazon is betting on pre
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  Speaker 2: left fashion.
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  Speaker 4: We're also seeing an increasing number of sellers as people
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  Speaker 4: are looking to offset some of the rise and costs
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  Speaker 4: earn a little extra income.
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  Speaker 6: If you start seeing higher prices flow through from tariffs,
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  Speaker 6: it would follow then that resold items could do one
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  Speaker 6: of two things. They could just allow demand to theoretically
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  Speaker 6: flow through by keeping their current pricing right, because that
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  Speaker 6: value spread would open up even greater, or they could
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  Speaker 6: take their prices up and just maintain the same percentage
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  Speaker 6: spread to a like item full price like item, and
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  Speaker 6: both are significant benefits to resale platforms.
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  Speaker 2: But threadup isn't the only one changing how people shop.
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  Speaker 2: One of the newest players in resale, Fia, is using
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  Speaker 2: AI to take that idea even further. Founded by Phoebe
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  Speaker 2: Gates and Sofia Kiani, Fia compares thousands of listings across
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  Speaker 2: retail and resale in seconds, helping shoppers find the best deal,
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  Speaker 2: either new or used well. We work with both secondhand
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  Speaker 2: partners and also retail partners.
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  Speaker 4: We have tons of thousands of users transacting and it
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  Speaker 4: proves that we are really solving a pain point for
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  Speaker 4: our consumers.
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  Speaker 3: AI has really accelerated I think the adoption of secondhand.
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  Speaker 3: I think consumers are going to benefit. It's going to
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  Speaker 3: bring more people to shopping secondhand.
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  Speaker 6: Through essentially image capture and artificial intelligence, You're able to
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  Speaker 6: have essentially unlimited search attributes right, so you can search
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  Speaker 6: for and you can search for themes, Nantucket, wedding, fourth
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  Speaker 6: of July, Saint Patrick's Day, whatever it is, right, and
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  Speaker 6: that will bring you a broader universe of items.
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  Speaker 4: AI has the potential to really transform the way that
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  Speaker 4: people are shopping online. Right now, AI has become an
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  Speaker 4: important discovery and research tool for shoppers. We're seeing more
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  Speaker 4: of them turn to AI chatbots for product recommendations, and
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  Speaker 4: many of these companies are looking for ways to try
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  Speaker 4: to monetize that behavior. Younger shoppers really are the driving
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  Speaker 4: force behind the growth and fashion resale. Gen Z and
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  Speaker 4: millennials both value affordability and sustainability in their fashion purchases.
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  Speaker 4: And these things tend to be at odds. If you
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  Speaker 4: think about fast fashion, for example, it tends to be
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  Speaker 4: a cheaper option, but not a more sustainable option. Resale
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  Speaker 4: really hits on both of those fronts, So buying secondhand
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  Speaker 4: clothing items is both a cheaper and more sustainable option.
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  Speaker 2: By twenty twenty nine, new shoppers will account for sixty
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  Speaker 2: percent of all secondhand spending, and younger generations for nearly
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  Speaker 2: seventy percent.
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  Speaker 7: I think that idea of value it's not just a
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  Speaker 7: one size fits all. It looks different, it's a different
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  Speaker 7: equation for each consumer. So it's really for brands and retailers,
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  Speaker 7: it's about understanding, well, for my consumer, for my core demographics,
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  Speaker 7: what does that value equation look like? And how am
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  Speaker 7: I checking those value boxes.
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  Speaker 6: The stigma around secondhand clothes really died with the baby
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  Speaker 6: boomer generation, and now you're seeing much younger cohorts really
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  Speaker 6: take to and adopt and even seek out these reshold
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  Speaker 6: platforms resold goods offer tangible value for retailers.
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  Speaker 2: That shift could be long term, with some saying it
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  Speaker 2: could be the new center of American fashion.
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  Speaker 3: I think the future of fashion will be more sustainable
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  Speaker 3: than it is today, and I think consumers are going
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  Speaker 3: to have more choices to reflect their unique personalities and
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  Speaker 3: I think Secondhands can be a part of that