Motivations & Realities

As much as I sometimes wish I could say my moral compass guided me towards fashion resale, the fact is, that's just not the case. It wasn’t wanting to live more green. It wasn’t me wanting to save the water, or the turtles, or the air, or whatever – though for the record, I absolutely do want to preserve those things.

For me, it was cost and uniqueness. When I first started shopping resale regularly about 15 years ago, I wanted to feel good in what I was wearing, have it last for a long while, and not completely drain my checking account. Those were my motivators. And yes, I liked the compliments. The “where’d you get that?” and the “wow, that’s beautiful” felt great.

Similarly, it wasn’t consciously “wanting to extend the lifecycle of a garment” that made me want to sell on resale platforms, either. It was money and decluttering. I could clean my closet and earn brunch money on Poshmark? Sign me up.

Those were my motivators.

Living a more environmentally-friendly life is why many consumers embrace resale – but it’s not the only driver, or necessarily the main driver. That’s OK – because no matter your main motivator, the positive environmental impacts happen. If you need a little reminder of the good you’re doing by shopping and/or selling fashion resale, keep these data points in mind:

In secondhand Isabel Marant Etoile, March 2022. Purchased for $33.85 on The RealReal.

• It takes, on average, ~2,400 gallons of water to a make a single new pair of jeans

• Every week, approximately 15 million pieces of old clothing are shipped to Ghana and at least 40% of this shipment is sent straight to landfills.

• Every year, the fashion industry uses 93 billion cubic meters of water

• Only 8.6% of materials extracted from the earth end up returning to the economy for a second act

• New fashion contributes 20% of all global industrial water pollution

• $127.7 billion worth of fashion is made using modern slavery practices

Uncomfortable to read, right?

According to Morning Brew, 31% of consumers say the high cost of sustainable products are the largest barrier to making sustainable behavior changes. That doesn’t have to be the case. You don’t have to go all or nothing on resale – little behavioral changes here and there can go a long way. Try it.