Thrift clothes have taken over the apparels’ market by a storm. Thrift clothes are no longer labelled as unclean or inferior as it used to be in the past. Buying second-hand clothes used to be looked down upon, but it has now become a trendy thing. According to ThredUp Resale Report 2019, the resale market has grown 21 times faster than the new apparels’ market in the last three years. The second-hand market is projected to double in the next five years, to hit $51 billion.

In 2019, the global resale apparel market was valued at seven billion U.S. dollars. It is projected that the market would grow to 36 billion U.S. dollars by 2024. The rising popularity of thrift clothes even among wealthy consumers as an alternative to buying expensive, ethnic, first-hand fashion brands reduces the already limited options available to low-income communities. Although some people can afford to buy new clothes from shops, thrift clothing has become much more interesting to them due to social media.

Second-hand apparels have come into the mainstream view in recent years. The rise in the sale of thrift clothes is due to the growing popularity of the Internet which has played a critical role in promoting them. Social media behemoths like Instagram and Twitter have created a good market for thrift clothes.

The craze to stay trendy is inevitable in the market where expensive brands are purchased in less numbers by people belonging to the low-income category. They can now afford to maintain a trendy image even on a shoestring. Some thrift stores also ensure that poor communities get the first pick of their products. Thrift clothes are actively pushing the fashion industry and thrift stores are ushering in a positive change in the economy. In short, thrift stores have made a strong presence in the fashion industry.

Now that thrifting has become widely accepted, with the ever-increasing awareness about fashion sense, thrift retail stores are growing fast both in number and sales and the concerned people involved are making a lot of money. Thrift stores that cater to the buyers’ tastes and habits in the same manner as stores selling first-hand brands do, are becoming curated in many ways. Thrifting is benefitting buyers and sellers alike.