Approximately 300 million pairs of shoes are thrown away annually in the United States alone. Many could be reused or recycled. Brands are catching on to the importance of becoming sustainable and circular, launching recycling programs to extend the life of their products and keeping them out of landfills.
Here is a list of branded resale shops. Most launched during this recommerce boom of the last few years, though a few have been around longer. There are trade-in programs, peer-to-peer marketplaces, white-glove sustainability programs for luxury items, and more. Many are parts of broader sustainability initiatives from eco-conscious companies.
To follow the recommerce boom, check out ThreadUp’s The Recommerce 100, which ranks resale shops by the number of monthly product listings.
Branded Resale Sites
RE/AE is the popular resale site for American Eagle. The site is powered by ThredUp, a resale-as-a-service platform. American Eagle teamed up with Snapchat on Earth Day 2023 (April 22) for a shoppable AR Lens showcasing select styles from a specially curated inaugural 200-piece RE/AE collection. RE/AE lists nearly 40,000 resale products, enabling American Eagle to recirculate over 1 million items.
RE/AE by American Eagle
Renew is the resale shop for women’s apparel brand Eileen Fisher. The program began in 2009 as an opportunity for employees to return their unwanted clothes. It then launched nationwide in 2013. Customers can bring Eileen Fisher clothes back to any U.S. Eileen Fisher or Renew store and receive $5 in Renew Rewards for each piece, no matter the condition. Quality items are cleaned and resold; the rest are recycled or turned into art.
ReGear is the trade-in and resale hub of Arc’teryx, an outdoor apparel and equipment company. ReGear inspects, repairs, and rejuvenates used Arc’teryx gear before making it available for sale through the online store. ReGear is just one part of ReBird, the home for Arc’teryx circularity initiatives. The other parts are ReCare, with care and repair tools to make gear last, and ReCut, a program for creating new products from recycled materials.
Worn Wear is a set of tools from Patagonia that extends the use of its products through responsible care, repair, resale, and recycling at the end of a garment’s life. For trade-ins, Worn Wear provides customers with a credit of up to $100 per item (whether or not the item sells) to be used at Patagonia retail stores, WornWear.com, and Patagonia.com. Among the first resale programs from brands, Worn Wear started in 2013 at Patagonia pop-up events and became a permanent program in 2017.
Worn Wear by Patagonia
Like New is Lululemon’s trade-in program, which runs through resale technology provider Trove. The program allows customers to trade in used Lululemon clothing in exchange for an e-gift card to be used at the retail stores, online, or Likenew.lululemon.com. All profits on Like New go to the Apparel Impact Institute’s Fashion Climate Fund, with the goal of having an end-of-use solution for 100% of products by 2030. The program started in 2021 and expanded nationwide on Earth Day 2022.
Outerworn is a peer-to-peer resale marketplace for Outerknown, a sustainable clothing brand co-founded by surfing champion Kelly Slater. The brand’s mission, “For People & Planet,” is to make quality sustainable products that last a lifetime, keeping garments out of landfills. Launched in 2021, Outerworn enables the buying and selling of used pieces. Outerknown also pursues sustainability through socially responsible sourcing, organic materials, and upcycling textile waste.
Conscious Closet from Bergdorf Goodman is a service that extends the useful life of its customers’ luxury goods. The program has five focuses — edit, repair, alter, resell, and donate — and leverages a network of strategic partners and the retailer’s in-house services to assist clients at each stage. For the resell portion, Bergdorf Goodman has partnered with Fashionphile, a platform for pre-owned luxury accessories. The partnership offers customers circular services by enabling personal shoppers to facilitate the selling of clients’ luxury items in exchange for Bergdorf Goodman gift cards.
Conscious Closet by Bergdorf Goodman
Carhartt Reworked is a trade-in program for the workwear and outdoor apparel maker. Powered by Trove, the resale site is dedicated to extending the life of workwear and keeping previously worn, slightly imperfect gear out of landfills. Carhartt Reworked accepts trade-ins by mail and in participating Carhartt retail stores. In the first 12 months of the resale site’s launch, Carhartt says it extended the life of over 43,000 garments and kept more than 68,000 products out of landfills.
Re/Supply is a used gear program that outdoor equipment co-op REI started in 2017, though it hosted “garage sales” for many years. Re/Supply offers members a more sustainable and affordable way to purchase gear and apparel. The program consists of items customers have returned or traded in. Members can trade in gently used gear for gift cards to help extend a product’s life for fellow members. REI estimates that buying a used item avoids 50% or more CO2 emissions from new product manufacturing.
Canada Goose Generations is the recommerce platform for Canada Goose, the maker of performance luxury outdoor apparel. The site is powered by Trove. Building on the brand’s mission of making quality outerwear, Generations keeps long-lasting Canada Goose products in circulation, giving them additional life by inviting customers to trade in. Generations supports the brand’s Sustainable Impact Strategy, helping to achieve its goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2025, reducing scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 80% from its 2019 baseline.
Athleta Preloved is a partnership between fitness brand Athleta and resale platform provider ThredUp. Athleta Preloved offers gently used Athleta products at a discount. The site lists more than 30,000 resale products. Trade-in participants can earn Athleta credit for eligible items that sell in the listing window. Unsold items are reused or responsibly recycled. According to its website, approximately 525,000 Athleta clothing items have been recirculated and reused.
Athleta Preloved
Toms (re)Wear Good is a program from shoe company Toms, in partnership with ThredUp, that sells gently used shoes and accessories and allows customers to turn used clothes into a Toms shopping credit. Customers wishing to resell items on the resale platform can request a free “clean out” label via Toms website. The service determines which items are eligible for consignment. For the items sold, sellers get an e-gift card to use at Toms.com. Items not eligible for consignment will be reused or responsibly recycled.
Tea Rewear is a popular resale marketplace from San Francisco-based children’s clothing company Tea Collection. The Tea Rewear site is powered by Kidizen, a resale marketplace for kids’ fashion and essentials. Participants can list and sell items or work with Style Scouts, local representatives for parents who have merchandise but don’t want to list and sell it themselves.
Ikea Preowned is a new second-hand online marketplace where customers can sell Ikea products to each other rather than third-party marketplaces. The seller posts listings on Ikea Preowned, and Ikea’s algorithms generate the details of the item, including size and the original retail price. Ikea Preowned is up and running in Madrid and Oslo. The company plans a global roll-out by December.
Hanna-Me-Downs is a peer-to-peer marketplace to buy and sell pre-owned Hanna Andersson products. The marketplace is powered by Archive, a resale service platform, and is a part of Hanna Andersson’s sustainability drives that include (i) sourcing organic cotton, (ii) moving all cotton to regenerative farming by 2025, (iii) producing collections with at least 50% recycled content, and (iv) creating durable products with heavier-weight cotton and colors that last.
Hanna-Me-Downs by Hanna Andersson
via https://www.aiupnow.com
Sig Ueland, Khareem Sudlow
