From Stigma to Pride: How Thrifting and Secondhand Shopping Are Reshaping How We Buy and Why It Matters
Thrifting has shifted from a sign of necessity to a cultural movement rooted in environmental awareness, financial intentionality and community pride, with Twin Cities voices including a Black Market Mpls. founder and a University of Minnesota professor explaining why secondhand shopping matters more than ever.
Connie Harrell describes thrift shopping as a form of personal therapy. Pushing a cart down the aisles of a Goodwill, she explained that she and her friend love to dig through racks and handle the clothes, searching for good deals. Harrell visits secondhand shops across town, and on this chilly shopping day, her outfit proves it. From hoodie to pants, everything she wore was bought at a thrift store.
For Harrell, thrifting is a financially responsible choice and something she hasn’t been ashamed of in a long time.
She is one of many adults who intentionally buy pre-loved clothes, furniture and other household items. Experts say the trend carries important environmental and financial significance as both landscapes shift. Consumers have also redefined secondhand shopping, once seen as lowly, into something cool and a way to stand out.
Lucy Dunne, a professor in apparel design at the University of Minnesota College of Design, said her interest in the secondhand economy grew out of a study examining how people use the clothes in their closets. Researchers found that the people studied were wearing just 7% of their clothing. The finding led Dunne to dig further, she found that fewer than 10% of clothing produced ever makes it into someone’s closet and gets worn.
That fact deeply troubles her as someone who trains clothing designers.
“Obviously we’re not doing our job very well if we’re mostly making trash.”
Clothes that don’t find a home are often destroyed, and most are shipped to the secondhand clothing market, primarily in other countries.
“I think people are really surprised to learn how little of our secondhand clothing stays in the U.S.,” Dunne said. “It’s a very, very small fraction that ever makes it back into someone else’s closet near you … And now we’ve just shipped our trash to another country that has worse infrastructure for dealing with trash.”
“We don’t really need anymore,” she said. “We just need to get the clothing that exists to the right people and we need to maintain it and refurbish it and do whatever we need to do to keep that clothing in circulation.”
Seanie Sheppheard is the founder and owner of The Black Market Mpls., a collective that hosts events and provides space for Black-owned businesses. Vendors at the marketplace, held every second Saturday, rotate monthly. Several are consistent sellers of secondhand and vintage clothing, shoes, accessories, household items and books. Sheppheard said it’s important to include vendors like these because of the environmental benefits of reusing items. Price is another factor.
“It is something where people are able to make their dollars stretch,” Sheppheard said. “A lot of the vintage and thrifted or secondhand items are priced at a point where people are able to buy multiple things at once.”
Thrifting allows Harrell to maintain a higher standard of living than she could if she were buying only new items.
“[Secondhand stores] have quality stuff that you couldn’t afford to get brand new somewhere,” Harrell said. “They always got something, a lid, a pot, or you can get lucky and find them together.”
Dunne said she has noticed many people trying to make more intentional choices about what they buy and bring into the world.
“I think as people have become more and more aware of the crisis that we’re in, in terms of sustainability, that becomes a really easy option,” Dunne said. “Like if you still need to consume, you might as well consume in a way that’s doing the least damage.”
Sheppheard added that buying secondhand has become a way to find one-of-a-kind pieces and honor the past, while acquiring products of better quality.
“I think that the narrative changed, it shifted a lot recently, and I see the young people really leading that charge,” she said. “They just speak about vintage items with more regard, and they see the value in something that was original … and the vintage stuff is like something you can take pride in because this is something that has a historical meaning to it as well.”
What has also changed is the shift from people historically shopping secondhand out of necessity to people now choosing it. There was once a stigma, now there’s pride.
Harrell experienced this shift firsthand. When she was a child, shopping at thrift stores felt shameful. Now as an adult, she understands the value. For Sheppheard, it’s something she wants to feel completely normal for her child.
“Now it’s just something that is… it’s almost like a treasure hunt, something like I look forward to hanging out with my mom on a weekend, grabbing lunch and going out and seeing what we can find.”
Dunne believes everyone should be shopping secondhand, and that greater demand will drive the market to evolve with developments like virtual clothing try-ons making the experience easier. But the growth of secondhand shopping isn’t without complications.
Meital Peleg Mizrachi, a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University and professor at the University of Connecticut, said people who thrift tend to overconsume. Her research spans sustainable fashion, consumer behavior and secondhand markets, and she found that people often buy more when items are cheaper, and keep them for shorter periods.
“They end up generating more textile waste than consumers only buying the primary market,” she said. “It’s a good thing as long as it doesn’t make us overconsume.”
Her advice: before buying another garment, ask yourself a few questions.
- Can you wear it for the next five to 10 years?
- Are you going to wear it more than 30 times?
- Can you wear it to more than just one place?
Damenica Ellis welcomes reader responses at dellis@spokesman-recorder.com.