March 28, 2024

Recently, when I unlock my phone, my thumbs no longer instinctively reach for Instagram or TikTok. Instead, I head straight to Vinted or Depop. I can spend hours scrolling through these marketplace apps, obsessively checking if my ‘liked’ items have been sold yet and buying bundles of secondhand clothes for less than the price of a coffee.

And I’m not alone. Vinted currently has 75 million users, 57% of whom are aged 18-34 and just over half are women. Last year, Vinted amassed 7.6 million downloads, making it the most popular mobile shopping app in the UK, ranking above both Amazon and fast fashion retailer SHEIN. And Depop isn’t far behind — the app has around 30 million users, 90% of whom are under the age of 26.

Secondhand clothing hauls have become ubiquitous on Instagram and TikTok too: #vintedhaul and #depophaul have 63.3 million and 59.9 million views on the app respectively. Creators such as @alipeeee and @daughterofahoarder have found social media fame for posting their secondhand clothing finds.

Fashion production makes up 10% of humanity’s carbon emissions, and culture in the last few years has begun to assess overconsumption. With 75% of students reportedly shopping for secondhand clothing, the thrifting culture that has taken over Gen-Z’s shopping habits is a great way to enjoy fashion without harming the planet, as well as an effective means of saving money during a cost-of-living crisis.

Depop/Vinted

So what’s the problem? Well, when everything is priced at £3 or £4, and the dopamine hit of a new item of clothing is a click away, it can be easy to buy and buy and buy from the apps without a second thought.

Chantal Derrick recently found herself buying excessive amounts of secondhand clothing from resale apps ahead of a holiday, and realised her relationship with secondhand shopping might have gotten out of control. “You find yourself going down a rabbit hole,” she says, “I could be searching for hours and end up spending £100 on stuff I didn’t really want and nine times out of ten don’t wear.” The 25-year-old posted a TikTok talking about how addictive secondhand-shopping can be. She was startled by over 600 comments from people sharing their experiences, from buying 57 items in four weeks to spending over £500 on Vinted and Depop in just 24 hours.

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With everything from the environment to personal style and quality in mind, secondhand shopping is ultimately the better option compared to buying something new, especially when it comes to fast fashion. Secondhand clothing offers a kind of quality and functionality that’s tough to find in today’s fast fashion market, as a recent report by Vox highlighted how today’s consumer culture has made contemporary clothing design worse: “design has shifted more towards manufacturability and appearance than functionality when it should be a balance of all three.”

But it’s a David and Goliath moment when secondhand shopping is up against our culture of overproducing and overconsuming. Countries like Ghana are overburdened by donations – Kantamanto market in Accra currently receives over 15 million garments per week, and more than a third of that ends up in landfills and polluting the countries’ beaches. Much of that is fast fashion. The resale process sometimes just delays the demise to landfill.

“I would never want to discourage people from opting for secondhand,” says Dr Amber Martin-Woodhead, Assistant Professor in Human Geography at Coventry University and minimalism expert, “but the best thing you can do is just not buy anything.” Dr Martin-Woodhead points to the carbon footprint of the delivery process of buying secondhand as something to consider before making a purchase, as well as the hard-to-recycle plastic and sellotape often used to package the clothing. “I think the key is moving towards a culture where it’s normalised to have a lot less in your wardrobe,” she adds.

23-year-old Adele Walton has always had an eye for secondhand bargains, but even so, she sometimes finds herself buying things she doesn’t need, and has to restrict herself to going into charity shops just once a month to avoid overconsumption. “The price difference can be a blessing and a curse,” she says. “Secondhand items are easier to impulse buy when you want to give a pre-loved item a new loving home, but I’ve often bought things in charity shops and on resale apps that I then never wear.”

help i'm addicted to vinted

Depop/Vinted

Other than putting limits on how much you allow yourself to buy, Dr Martin-Woodhead suggests applying a quality over quantity approach, always shopping with a specific item in mind and trying to buy timeless pieces that fit into your existing wardrobe. “I don’t always get it right, but I try to buy good quality secondhand things,” she says, “I realise this might be a bit financially exclusive because not everyone can buy something really expensive, but I try to buy pricier secondhand items that will last longer.”

This is something that 24-year-old Sophie Kilminster does too. She checks Vinted daily and makes an average of one purchase a week, but typically specific high-quality items to fill a gap in her wardrobe, such as workwear from Reiss. “The cheaper prices make buying things more tempting because you think to yourself, it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t fit or if it doesn’t look that good,” she says, but Sophie estimates only “one in ten orders are a bit of a dud”, and she plans to resell any items she isn’t happy with on the same resale platform. Plus, shopping secondhand has meant she has almost entirely stopped buying new clothes.

At the heart of this subject is the cultural attitude of needing new things, all the time.

At the heart of this subject is the cultural attitude of needing new things, all the time. Dr Martin-Woodhead identifies social media as a key driver of this, “I think young people are under so much pressure to look good or have new outfits all the time because everything is recorded on social media,” she says, “so I can see why there’s this kind of psychological need or want for lots of different items.”

Ultimately, buying secondhand is something we need more of the world to be doing, but more than that, the challenge is to ask why we are consuming what we’re consuming, considering what and why we need to buy something before we press purchase. Is it because of a gap in our wardrobes or because we are bored with what we already have and want something new to show off? Can we mend, upcycle, or reimagine looks around what we already have? It’s unlikely my daily scrolls of Vinted or Depop will stop any time soon, but I do want to put more thought into my purchases and try to create a more conscious and intentional wardrobe.

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