Summary: Under the impact of ultra-fast fashion brands like Shein, which use algorithms to release roughly 4,700 new garments a day, secondhand trading is moving from an edge subculture into the mainstream. In an interview on the Vox podcast Explain It to Me, fashion journalist Hannah Marriott pointed out that traditional thrift stores such as Goodwill have clearly raised prices, while platforms including The RealReal, Depop, and Vinted together form a vast secondhand ecosystem—but whether consumers can use it to escape fast fashion remains to be seen.

Key points

  • Shein uses algorithms to test demand and launches about 4,700 clothing styles a day, while Zara releases about 20,000 a year
  • Goodwill is run by 150 independent nonprofits that each set their own prices; a Connecticut store sells a $75 early-access shopping bus tour
  • The pandemic pushed secondhand apps such as The RealReal and Depop to rapid popularity among Gen Z, turning secondhand clothes from a source of shame into social currency

In the latest episode of Vox's weekly podcast Explain It to Me, the host traced a question: is the garment you're wearing now something you picked yourself, or something an algorithm picked for you? Fashion journalist and Back Row newsletter author Amy Odell leans toward the latter—the era when luxury designers and magazine editors set the aesthetic has been replaced by fast fashion and even "instant fashion."

Odell described the mechanism: companies use algorithms to track trends and user interests, first producing a few hundred pieces of a wide range of styles to test demand, then deciding what to scale up. This lets companies like Shein release about 4,700 new styles a day, while Zara, the emblem of fast fashion, produces about 20,000 a year.

Faced with that speed, some consumers turn to thrift stores in search of personal style. Traditionally, thrift stores were where people who couldn't afford new clothes went, but fashion journalist Hannah Marriott noted that over roughly the past century, secondhand clothing has repeatedly become a trend within subcultures—from the 1920s Surrealists and 1990s grunge to the Rolling Stones in the 1960s, it was precisely the stigma that made it cool.

During the pandemic, apps such as The RealReal and Depop proliferated and became popular among Gen Z, and secondhand trading became social currency on social media like TikTok, almost reversing the stigma. Marriott described today's secondhand ecosystem as clearly stratified: consignment platforms like The RealReal take a higher commission but promote sellers for them, making them suitable for designer clothing with larger profit margins, especially handbags; eBay users skew older, while Depop skews younger and trendier; Vinted, from the UK and now entering the US, along with ThredUp and Poshmark, each has different business models, fees, and audiences.

But going mainstream has also brought pricing problems. Marriott said low-income community thrift stores like Goodwill matter more to lower-income people and are less trend-driven than Depop, but have "undeniably raised prices." Because Goodwill consists of 150 autonomous nonprofits that each set their own prices, it is hard to verify the full picture. She gave an example: a Goodwill chapter in Connecticut launched a $75 secondhand shopping bus tour that offers early entry to one store before visiting another—money that in the past could have bought ten things at Goodwill. Some bargains have been diverted online or marked up by resellers, also leaving longtime customers feeling they can no longer "find a steal."

Marriott believes secondhand shopping long ago stopped drawing side-eye and has instead become an ordinary way to shop. She remains confident in the appeal of unique pieces that are "the only one, that no one else has," seeing this as precisely the opportunity for thrift stores and niche non-fast-fashion brands. She judges that the current secondhand boom may be a backlash against fast fashion's three decades of constant acceleration—people are growing tired of this business model and looking for other ways to shop and express themselves.

For the used-clothing trade, this discussion points to a familiar tension: as secondhand channels shift from a low-cost necessity to trend consumption, the contradiction between traditional charity thrift stores' pricing strategies and their positioning of serving low-income groups is being brought onto a broader stage.

Source: Can thrift shops save us from Shein? · Originally published 2026-10-04