- Millennials are ditching fast-fashion retailers and flocking to thrift stores.
- The resale market in the US has outperformed the overall retail market in the past five years and is now worth $20 billion, according to research firm
- Brands are responding by bringing back archive collections and embracing vintage styles.
Cos, which markets has exceeded expectations. According to Persson,
"There is a market for a customer that wants design and quality for an affordable price," Cos' managing director, Marie Honda, said during the company's Capital Markets Day
Meanwhile, thrift-store shopping is booming, and new concepts are cropping up.
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consumers were willing to spend hundreds of dollars on a pair of old Levi's jeans in a vintage store, the denim company decided to create a new collection called Levi's Authorized Vintage, which consists of 50,000 Levi's jeans from the 1960s, '70s, and '80s. The jeans were priced at $300 a pair.
Blogger Betsy Appleton, who is an ambassador for Goodwill in Tennessee, said she had noticed an influx of donations because of the movement towards trendy, cheap clothing that goes out of style quickly.
"People are more willing to donate as it's not expensive. People were more invested before," she told Business Insider.
Appleton frequently sees fast-fashion clothing appearing in Goodwill six to 12 months after it launches in stores, which she says makes her less inclined to shop at stores that sell overly trendy clothes. In some cases, fast-fashion retailers are donating directly to these stores to get rid of unwanted stock.
"When I go to a mall I feel defeated," she said. "So many of these products are going to end up in a landfill, in the trash, or at Goodwill."
Fast-fashion clothing has created a big issue with waste. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, 26 billion pounds of textiles end up in a landfill each year. The fashion business is the second-most polluting industry after oil. According to The World Economic Forum, it takes 2,700 liters of water to produce a T-shirt.
"Millennials are becoming more conscious about sustainable living and preserving the environment," Erin Hendrickson, a minimalist expert who runs the blog Minimalist RD, told Business Insider.
Then there's the thrill of the bargain hunt. This shopping mentality has helped off-price stores such as TJ Maxx to explode in popularity in recent years as customers flock there for one-off pieces.
Appleton describes shopping at Goodwill as being a similar adventure.
"I go in with a different mindset; I'm not going if for something specific," she told Business Insider. "The adventure and the hunt is an adrenaline rush."