Do Not Throw Away Your Clothes!!

As the tech revolution penetrates deeper into modern life, employments; business models, social mores and customs are wiped away by a production model based on knowledge as the primary input. Just as stores are giving way to cyber malls and malls are attended for their entertainment value, consumers are beginning to see product acquisition as a source of income through recycling. It will began with waste.

Young baby boomers and early Millennials environmental consciousness led them to embrace the concept of recycling as means to protect nature and slow down depletion of natural resources. But as the internet began to transform every aspect of modern life, recycling entered center stage. Furniture had traditionally gone through the wheels of recycling through garage sales and marches aux Puces all over the world. People with limited income stream could through such means access good and valuable furniture for their homes.

Marches aux Puces got revalued in the 1970s when upscale designers made them the requisite destination to obtain pieces that would give  upscale living rooms character. House ware  like table utensils and china have also been in the recycling bind for many centuries, as they were bequeathed from mother to daughter inside families. Whenever inheritors found heirlooms a nuisance China and table ware were sold in farmers markets. Cars have long been sold in the secondary market allowing lower income groups to access transportation in the USA and emerging markets where public service is very much at want except for the largest and most populous cities.

But it was very recently that clothes became recycling material. Under the name of consignment most young professionals are able to revamp their looks and attires by means of selling their used clothes in quite fashionable boutiques. Resale is a multi-billion dollar a year industry. First Research estimates the resale industry in the U.S. to have annual revenues of approximately $16 billion including revenue from antique stores which are 13% of their statistics.

Goodwill Industries alone generated $5.1 billion in retail sales from more than 2,900 points of sale in 2013. According to America’s Research Group, a consumer research firm, about 16 – 18% of Americans will shop at a thrift store during a given year. For consignment/resale shops, it’s about 12 – 15%. During the same time frame; 11.4% of Americans shop in factory outlet malls, 19.6% in apparel stores and 21.3% in major department stores.

Recycling can take many names such as resale, thrifting, vintage  or second-hand shopping. Whatever name you choose to give it its supporters and advocates see in this form of trade a chance to enhance personal style with unique pieces, at prices that are very affordable, giving articles of existing clothing a second life and supporting a small or charitable business, all while breaking the vicious cycle of mass production and consumption. Consignment leaders in the US are Gazelle; Material Wrld; thredUp, Crossroads and Tradesy. According to market watchers these shops do not see  clothes last more than a week in their hangers. Definitively the Millennial approach to style !!