ThredUp is reaping the benefits of resale’s COVID-19 pandemic boom, and it’s brought company.
The secondhand e-tailer, which bills itself as the world’s largest online consignment and thrift store, announced Tuesday that it has collaborated with Brooklyn-based designer Daniel Silverstein, a.k.a. Zero Waste Daniel (ZWD), to create a zero-waste collection derived from secondhand garments and other castoff textiles.
The 200-item ReFashion lineup, which includes hoodies, leggings and shorts, leans into ZWD’s signature hand-appliqué style, this time in the form of summery monstera fronds, whose distinct, perforated leaves are an Instagram staple. The bright palette—hot pink on coral, fluorescent green on lavender—is likewise a visual snap to attention.
“The inspiration behind this collaboration was the Summer season and the colors that I always want to work with, but rarely do for ZWD,” Silverstein said in a statement. “The pink and green motifs are so fun and exciting and a palm leaf is such a wonderful symbol of summer. It’s a little way to always have something green with you, even if it’s pink.”
ThredUp is funneling 100 percent of proceeds from ReFashion to its nonprofit Circular Fashion Fund, which the e-tailer established in 2018 to “identify, vet, and distribute funds to organizations and individuals committed to a more sustainable future.” Previous recipients of the fund include Queen of Raw, a New York City startup that matches designers to deadstock and other sources of surplus fabrics.
ThredUp says it will donate an additional $1 to the fund every time the hashtag #thriftmoretossless is publicly shared on social media.
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Online resale, a recent ThredUp report found, is not only surviving but thriving in the age of coronavirus, which has thrown traditional retail into a state of chaos and uncertainty. A “quarantine cleanout frenzy” triggered by stay-at-home orders caused listings on its platform to surge in April and May. Compared with pre-pandemic months, customers ordered 6.5 times as many of ThredUp’s donation clean-out kits in April. In May, shoppers spent 2.2 million hours browsing items on its website during that period, a 31 percent increase from before the outbreak as “online resale fills a void for stuck-at-home value seekers,” it wrote in its report.
COVID-19, and the pursestring-tightening brought about by widespread unemployment and a looming recession, is likely only to accelerate resale’s ascent, according to analytics firm GlobalData, which collaborated on the report.
While the broader retail sector is projected to topple by 23 percent in 2020 due to boarded-up shops and reduced consumer appetite for clothing, online resale is expected to grow by 27 percent. Even as traditional retail cedes further ground, resale is expected to quintuple in market share over the next five years. By 2029, resale is poised to soar past $80 billion in value, leaving fast fashion’s projected $43 billion share in the dust for the first time, ThredUp said.
ZWD isn’t ThredUp’s first bold-face team-up. Last year, the e-tailer linked arms with actress Olivia Wilde’s Conscious Commerce brand to celebrate secondhand by screening slogans such as “Thank You for Choosing Used” and “Used Goods” on gently worn T-shirts, sweatshirts and denim jackets.
In April, ZWD worked with organic basics brand Pact to create a limited line of hoodies for men and women that featured hand-crafted, 100 percent recycled patches.