Thrifting has become increasingly popular among teenagers and young adults. It’s something that has been going on since the 1890’s.

Thrifting, also known as second hand shopping, started during the industrial revolution. With clothes being made so fast, they had to lower the prices. People naturally began to see clothes as disposable leading to high rates of waste. Shops began to bring in the clothes to reuse instead of disposing of them. 

Many people believe that Christians are actually the ones who began thrifting. But in reality, it was Salvation Army. People went around with carts asking for used clothes in exchange for food and lodging. 

Goodwill was founded 1902 by Edgar Helms, a methodist minister. The first store opened in 1973 in South Carolina. 

Thrifting did not become popular until the 2000’s but that doesn’t compare to how thrifting has blown up recently. Thrifting gained popularity during…you guessed it, COVID! Most people who thrift are Gen-Z, the generation accounts for 40% of global consumers. They make up such a large percentage of consumers because thrifting has been accessible online with websites like Depop. Depop is an app where you can sell and buy used/handmade clothing. During COVID a lot of people were cleaning out their closets and they turned to apps like Depop to make some extra money. Depop is an app commonly used among teenagers where you can find just about everything. Mecari and Poshmark are similar to Depop. This is a great way to recycle clothing by giving it a new life with someone else and you also benefit because you’re getting paid in the process, you pick the price of the item you are selling!

“Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” is something that we’ve all heard before. But we almost always think about recycling stuff like plastic and glass, but why don’t we think about clothes? According to Earth.org, we are wasting 11.3 million tons of clothes on a yearly basis. An average American throws away 81.5lbs of clothes every year. With the number of times a garment has been worn declining by 36% in the past 15 years, this is why it is so much more important to recycle our clothes by giving them to thrift stores/selling them.