In a college town, it’s inevitable that any compliment given to a casual-stroll outfit can unravel a wide array of brands, designers, and ‘I thrifted it’ responses in passing comments. I myself catch it even in my own habits. After many heated discussions with strangers and friends, I ended one evening with a debate of whether Depop or Grailed was the superior choice. Framing them as competitors made less sense initially, and defined what made them so uniquely different. Not only do these markets represent used clothing and footwear, they also represent different communities and business owners. Second-hand buying has become the backbone for Gen Z’s style evolution, and this popularity has developed palatable, clear cut differences in what second-hand clothing marketplaces offer.
Trends in Sustainability: understanding the second hand landscape
Bringing the thrift store into an online landscape has become incredibly helpful in making sustainable options easy to find. With apps targeting users of all age groups, from Vinted to Vesitaire, these platforms aim to create community spaces to resell second-hand finds. Starting in the early 2010s, the convenience of trailblazer Vinted opened a window into an evolving marketplace for sustainable shoppers. According to Teen Vogue in their article titled “How Online Secondhand Shopping Helped Define this Decade”, online thrifting has set a new standard for sustainably with the rise of online consignment.
Sustainable Fashion Today
With a new opportunity to reflect on the patterns of consumerism — and heightened need for individuality — it is clear that second-hand selling apps have taken Gen Z users by storm, and that there is clear value in the niche fashion online shopping scene. The United States alone racked up “…16.76 billion U.S. Dollars in platform sales in resale fashion e-commerce in 2024…” according to Statista’s analysis in the chart below.
Histogram A, Statista, EMarketer collected data within April of 2023 alongside Insider Intelligence.
Showcasing new unique looks, finding hyped pieces on apps like Depop or Grailed have become the hottest trend of the 2020s, and it’s not going anywhere.
Depop: The stylish sustainable closet of Gen Z
Depop has become a hotspot for trendy pieces and bundles, and many use the app to discover the wide variety of coveted trends and brands. The app hosted many independent brands before the popularity of shopping platforms like Shopfiy and other independent ecommerce partners. One example is iGirl, a punk jewelry brand that promoted ethical and quality sourcing in Los Angeles before moving to bigger projects and a self-run iGirl store in New York City. By enabling a starting point for indie brands, Depop — the only platform where you’re truly able to buy anyone’s old favorites — has continued to be a fixture for trendsetters, even models and influencers sell on the app. Elle Australia features a variety of influencers, such as Devon Lee Carlson, Bella Hadid, Olivia Rodrigo, and even Charli XCX selling the essentials of their closet past.
The beauty of Depop lies in its ability to bring the thrift store to your phone, as if hand picked from the best stylists of the internet. Depop as a platform has positioned itself as a sustainable source for finding unique vintage pieces for Gen Z and millennials alike. Creating a space to not only rid of old-picks or sell hand-crocheted pieces, Depop knows its sellers and buyers equally as well. Users have and continue to sell the most micro-trendy pieces of them all. Whether it be vintage jewelry, boxing boots turned streetwear, or old reworked jerseys, the app curates the ‘niche’ of Gen Z’s fashion. The app has branded itself as “where new cult brands are born, and where celebrities and stylists source unique vintage finds.” It offers the opportunity to not only shop the closets of those in the U.S., but also to bring the vintage shopping scene to a worldwide market, opening doors to affordable global shipping and sellers.
Grailed
Bringing the authentic to fashion-fanatics, Grailed is another second-hand and resale platform, predominantly for men’s designer items and many varieties of shoes. Parent company GOAT Group has a wide reach in sales of used sneakers overall. Launched in 2013, Grailed aims to fill the gap in men’s second-hand selling, and offer a wide array of high-end used pieces and aims towards the popular “Hypebeast” culture of the time.
GQ reflects on the history of the company’s name in “What the Guys Behind Grailed, The Shopping Site Menswear Fans Swear By, Wear to Work” by Jake Woolf. A ‘grail’ is “an item of clothing/sneaker/bag that is 1) hard to come by and 2) has appreciated in value since it came out (thanks in large part to #1).” Selling rare pieces of collectors’ closets developed a widespread community for buyers on the hunt for specific ‘grails,’ as well as giving sellers an opportunity to easily get rid of preserved impulse buys.
The site heavily emphasizes its process of authentication and verification of packages, ensuring refunds for any purchases left unfulfilled. Although less user-to-user oriented in the actual interface of Grailed in comparison to others, the site brings hypebeasts and sneakerheads alike into a community exchanging in-demand, second-hand goods.
Second-hand scams & steals
Despite the evolution of the Internet, the incredibly valuable platforms have a downside, especially towards luxury ends. Scamming and upselling is a chronic issue within the reselling community. From sneakers to jewelry, it can become a major gamble depending entirely on smart buyers. Not only do internal issues perpetuate skepticism among users who seem uninfluenced by the short ends, but can drive away the trustworthy members of communities to other marketplaces. Without checks of condition, limited review interfaces, or hefty fees, the target student consumer can’t help but be phased by the hikes in cost for thrifted goods. By users looking to cash in on resale value, some tend to hesitate at fairly priced designer, or sought-out items as rare items get competitive fast.
Asking friends in search of what puts them off, causing hesitance in buying certain items on resale platforms, my friends and I came to similar conclusions: the true one-of-a-kind pieces are always too expensive. “When it comes to Depop, I am willing to spend. I mean – where else would I find things so original and my style,” says friend Hannah Cha, 23, a sophomore at Mercer County Community College. Some more willing to take the chance on the odds of landing dream pieces elsewhere simply don’t buy into the upselling used trends on platforms like Depop anymore.
Sustainable and second-hand selling platforms have their scare factor, but can also allow consumers to purchase used goods for affordable pricing at times. Most trendy pieces on apps can go for a range of costs, some items genuinely priced to retail, others reflective of their wear. Other finds, like the disingenuous hikes for ‘vintage’ marked pieces, are found at local fleas and thrifts. Which? discovered in the same study that “Depop buyers were most likely to experience a scam – with nearly six in 10 surveyed (57%) telling the consumer champion they had experienced a scam on the site”, clearly leaving users feeling vulnerable. Being over half of the study’s overall consignment marketplace, it’s clear the worry isn’t irrational. Without the tools to look for scams, users are left to learn exactly how to defend themselves from counterfeits and fraudulent sellings.
Subcategories in second-hand do matter in today’s sense of individuality
As resale platforms skyrocket in popularity, looking for what subcategory best fits is essential to finding what audience a platform like Depop or Grailed can serve. Within a culture fixated on originality and finding a unique expression through clothing, Gen Z perfectly showcases that the specialty growth of second-hand marketplaces is far from done.
Discovering unique pieces today means going beyond the once generalized appeal of mass-department selling. This is a common ground that both apps, as well as many more, fall into. However, both in my opinion serve very different audiences.
Depop is best for unique vintage, thrift-finds, and indie-fashion brands and designs one may not be able to find in person. Grailed brings the best high-end selection of fashion sneakers, pants, and jewelry. Although similar in its purpose, Grailed serves far wider than simple categories of gender identity or sizing, but in-depth subcultures and categories from across the world to better sell to unique markets.
Both curating the niche influence fashion has over today’s generation, Grailed and Depop flex their muscles on what a fashion marketplace takes to sustainably supply unique and marketable items, no matter their age. Embracing wear and tear, the second-hand marketplace is only set to grow, projections aforementioned in histogram A conclude that by 2026, fashion e-commerce resale platform sales will skyrocket to 23.92M USD. As both trend and economy head towards renewed and reused vintage, both platforms contribute to a bigger network of subcultures looking to make style and taste easily expressed by all.