Firsthand Out, Secondhand In
On your way home, a couple of boots shine through the window of the vintage store that you always pass by but never go in. You stop for a second and decide today is the day you step inside. On your first step, a certain kind of smell hits you in the face. It’s not a particularly good or bad scent, it’s the smell of the life experiences all the clothes carry. On your second step, the diversity of the items almost intimidates you, all the colors, sizes and fabrics seem too much. But you proceed and put your hands on one of the racks. The touch of every piece is unique to itself, every item you touch encourages you to explore more. As you go through every piece of clothing one by one, you feel like interacting with as many lives as the number of clothing you touch. You leave the store empty handed, but knowing that you will be back for another bazaar yet fulfilling experience.
Secondhand shopping in New York is ballooning in popularity. According to the Resale Report of 2022 that Thredup released, in 2012, the market was worth $11 billion, while now its worth is closer to $43 billion, and it’s still growing. Vintage shopping seems to be meeting the moment of 2022. But why? And is it here to stay? According to the people of New York, vintage shopping is desirable for a multitude of reasons.
On a night out in New York City, Soho, 73 people answered whether they do vintage shopping or not. 61.6% answered positively, while the remaining 38.4% answered negatively.
One of the most popular reasons why people prefer secondhand shopping concerns the pricing aspect. 57.8% of people said they prefer it because it’s more affordable. “NYC is already an incredibly expensive city to live in, secondhand shopping helps me spend less on clothes.” said Selin Senturk, a junior year student from NYU who owns a multitude of vintage clothing.
17.8% of people reasoned their answer with the fact that secondhand shopping is environmentally friendly. “We owe our lives to nature, and yet we harm it so recklessly. At least when I’m buying secondhand, my conscience feels a little lighter.” said Christian Montgomery who works in finance in NYC.
In third place, the popular reasoning with 11.1% of the votes was the social media effect.“I see influencers and celebrities promoting incredible pieces of clothing on Tik Tok that I find myself in that store the next day, buying unique pieces for myself.” said Zeynep Ortanc, whose favorite store in New York is Real Real.
The other two reasons that got 6.7% of the votes were “It feels cool” and “The rush of stepping into a vintage store and finding a unique piece.” Which concludes the positive aspect of second hand shopping.
With 46.4% of the votes, the biggest reason why people avoid vintage shopping is because it feels dirty. “I don’t like the smell and the weird worn out texture of the secondhand clothes.” said Hanya Raouf, a 22 year old student who has been living in New York for 4 years and owns one vintage leather jacket.
21.4% of people mentioned how they don’t like the smell of vintage stores. “I will avoid secondhand stores forever, just because of the weird smell.” said Cesur Yilmaz, who has never owned vintage clothing and is not planning on buying one anytime soon.
17.9% of the people said they don’t know who owned it before, and the 14.3% of the people said simply “I don’t need to.”
Meaghan Gorkowski, the owner of the Unearth Vintage Thrift Store, located in Smith Street Brooklyn, and her partner Monica have been working in vintage for over 15 years. They had a store in Williamsburg before this which they opened in 2015.
They functioned for 6 years, and in 2021 because of covid they decided to close down the space they had. Then they came back and opened up a pop up just a few blocks down on Smith street, while they were renovating their current store which is now permanently open.
“Before people used to shop thrift and second hand because they had to, it was out of needing more affordable clothing. And now it has become such a hot topic, it’s trendy.” said Meaghan. She also added that the owners of thrift stores raise their prices from 100 to 500 dollars overnight just because they can, which is harming the whole purpose of secondhand shopping.
The affordability aspect of second hand shopping makes it incredibly attractive to buyers. Even though some vintage and thrift stores sell their products at higher prices than its worth, in the current economic climate, it still is a budget friendly option. Alongside that, the awareness of the climate crisis and the harm textile industry causes to the environment is gaining more attention than ever. The effect of the media tools in 2022 helps secondhand industry raise a solution to the major problems of our time.
