Selling clothes that you´ve found off the street may seem like a wild concept, but for thrift vender Terry, it is an essential part of his business.
“I think part of it [Why thrifting has become so popular] is sustainability and the other part of it is people are tired of fast fashion and they want to create their own kind of aesthetic based around the history of certain items,” Says Terry, a vendor at the Select market anniversary thrift. “When people start to learn the history, especially the younger people, they are learning the history of clothing so they prefer the vintage version as opposed to the newer one.”
Mainly in part due to the expensive nature of regular clothing brands, many people looking to express their style in an affordable and sustainable way have turned towards thrifting. In a recent article called ¨Nearly one-third of consumers have thrifted in the past year¨by Zachary Russell of ChainStoreAge.com the author explains that in 2023 nearly 90 percent of people in both the US and Canada contributed to thrifting which is up from 83 percent in 2022. From talking to experienced people from
the thrift community, it has become apparent why this number is so high, and why people choose thrifting over supporting big clothing businesses.
In the past year or so, many people have been taking to thrift shops for their personal needs. Thrifting has become a popular option because of the benefits it offers such as money saving and the fact that it’s healthy for the environment. On Saturday, November 16th thrifters from the Boston area gathered in the Reggie Lewis Center for Select Market’s one year anniversary thrift market. Two Triton Voice reporters were there and were able to talk to some of the people shopping and some of the vendors that were there to find out why thrifting has become popular recently.
The biggest reason as mentioned before on why people are thrifting now is because it is so cost efficient. Jeans and old cargo pants that used to be priced at $40+ are now marked down to $10-20 just because they have been owned by another person.
Many vendors from the Select Market event at the Reggie Lewis Center had piles on the ground marked $5-10. Here is where money can be made, by digging through this pile a Triton Voice reporter found an extremely rare t-shirt that can be worth up to $50 because of its age and condition. The shirt features a one of one graphic on the front and a nicely aged color.
For the purposes of flippers or people who resell clothes they find at thrifts, it can be a very profitable business, and for people just looking to find clothes for themselves, they are saving a lot of money.
“Sometimes, things you don’t want anymore, other people might want them,” said Junior Joe Grimaldi. “They could really make someone happy out in the world.”
Thrifting is not only good for personal benefit though, it is actually very good for the environment too. In the article “A Sustainable Guide to Thrifting” by Lauren Mullen and Kate Huun of the University Of Colorado Boulder the authors talk about personal and environmental benefits of thrifting. The article explains that when you thrift clothes or buy old clothes you help extend the life of clothes to keep them out of landfills. Some clothes can take hundreds of years to decompose. You are also contributing to wasting fewer resources since the production of clothes takes a lot of resources including large amounts of clean water.
Buying from thrift retailers like Goodwill and Savers is also a chance for people to experiment with their style and wear things that seem interesting to them. Thrifting offers a large variety of clothes and different styles since it comes straight from other people’s possession.
