Four companies in Hamburg, Germany, are trying different ways to absorb the city's excess old clothing. Their common idea: keep second-hand clothing re-entering circulation locally as much as possible, rather than exporting it overseas.

In Schanze, Hamburg's fashion cluster, siblings Janina and Elias Urlu run the second-hand store 2nd Fit together with their parents. The store's approach is a complete inventory change every three weeks, with prices decreasing daily. Every three weeks, nearly three tons of old clothes pass through their hands. The siblings sort three times a week in the warehouse, then bring the organized clothing to the store for sale. Some clothing is donated to local Hamburg charity organizations; Elias, who studied graffiti, also adds prints or spray paint to some items to give them new value. After nearly two years in business, 2nd Fit has built up a solid base of regular community customers, and tourists often come to Schanze to hunt for bargains. A few months ago, the Urlu family opened a second store in Hamburg Ottensen. According to Elias's vision, this model will soon expand beyond northern Germany.

2nd Fit's source of old clothes is just two streets away—Hamburg startup recyclehero. Nadine Herbrich and Alessandro Cocco's team uses electric bicycles for door-to-door pickup, collecting old clothes free of charge from individuals and businesses. Monthly collection has reached five tons and is still rising. They want to put old items back into circulation and keep these clothes in northern Germany. The two explicitly oppose exporting old clothes overseas, believing it would destroy the textile industries in destination countries. In the early days of the startup, they collected clothes after work using a borrowed cargo bike; now both have quit their original jobs and opened branches in four other major German cities. In Hamburg alone, there are 20 employees and 8 electric bicycles in operation. Besides old clothes, they also recycle waste paper, waste glass, and deposit bottles. Herbrich says the ideal situation would be for their business to become superfluous—because people shift to more sustainable consumption—but there is still a long way to go. Currently, recyclehero is testing the waters of old mobile phone recycling and plans to enter six more cities.

Britta Falk, who runs the second-hand boutique Second Schanze, believes the second-hand boom is far from over. She gives two reasons: rising prices, and more consumers realizing that fast fashion is produced under inhumane conditions and harms the environment. Falk follows the classic buy-and-resell model, mainly purchasing high-quality old clothes from individuals, as well as sample collections from sustainable brands and local Hamburg brands. She personally handles every piece of clothing and is familiar with all approximately 3,000 items in the store, so she can give customers personalized advice. Falk is a mid-career switcher; she knew this store as a customer long ago and lives on the same street. When she heard the original owner planned to retire, she took it over without much hesitation. Because business is good, she plans to expand into menswear soon.

Bridge&Tunnel, founded by Constanze Klotz and Charlotte Erhorn, focuses on social and sustainable aspects. In Hamburg Wilhelmsburg, they cut old fabrics that would otherwise be thrown into the trash into new clothes. They also give "second chances" in hiring: they employ seamstresses who have difficulty finding work in the regular labor market. The team's current task is to complete a batch of upcycling orders under particularly tight time pressure.

For the old clothing trade industry, these small Hamburg businesses represent a path opposite to "mass export": local collection, local resale, local remanufacturing. The relationship between export destinations and destination industries is precisely the focus of long-standing global debates over the old clothing trade, and whether such European local circular models can scale will affect the future flow of old clothing sources and the export landscape.

Source: Die Nordreportage · Originally published on 2026-09-12