Low-priced, highly replaceable fast-fashion secondhand clothing struggles to compete with new clothing in the market. To address this, the UK-based secondhand platform Nuw has adopted a bartering model, replacing the traditional retail model with a price tag. This innovative model allows the secondhand clothing market to operate smoothly, eliminating the need to purchase new clothing.
When a new fashion trend emerges, it is inevitable to replace the wardrobe again. Constantly buying new clothes and discarding old clothes is an inevitable trend under fast fashion, but it also causes the earth's carbon emissions to continue to increase.
According to statistics, the fashion industry accounts for one-tenth of global carbon emissions, with up to 300,000 tons of discarded textiles dumped into landfills each year. Simply buying a white cotton T-shirt can emit as much carbon as a car driving 50 kilometers.
To address this problem, various secondhand clothing markets have emerged. On different secondhand clothing trading platforms, you can resell, give away, or donate your old clothes, and buy clothes you don't already own at relatively low prices.
However, this model tends to only work for certain goods, especially luxury goods or vintage clothing, but not for cheap, disposable clothing such as fast fashion. The reason is that people can buy new clothes at similar or cheaper prices, so second-hand fast fashion clothes are not attractive enough.
Fast fashion products are low in price and rarity, making it difficult to resell them in the second-hand clothing market.
Aisling Byrne, from the UK, witnessed firsthand the devastating impact of fast fashion on the local environment and communities during a trip to India. Shocked by the sheer volume of waste, she resolved to make a change, abandoning the fast fashion production methods and instead adopting the concept of "sharing" to create new options in the clothing market.
“I’ve found there’s a barrier to pricing secondhand clothing,” Byrne said. “We can’t give [fast fashion] products a second life because of arbitrary pricing.”
Does this mean that people don't like wearing secondhand clothes? Byrne doesn't think so. While studying at University College Dublin, she observed that when she put her old fast-fashion clothes up for sale online, they didn't sell well. However, if she changed the setting to a used goods exchange, her friends were happy to accept the secondhand clothes.
"When the price is set a little higher, people will say it's too expensive and it's cheaper to buy new ones. When the price is set a little lower, people will assume the quality of the clothes must be poor." Byrne found that if the exchange of second-hand clothes could be decoupled from the price, most people would actually be happy to try buying second-hand clothes and giving old clothes new life.
Upload old clothes in exchange for tokens, Nuw promotes the circulation of second-hand clothes
People are reluctant to buy new items, but are happy to trade in old ones. Based on this observation, Byrne designed the Nuw app, which brings the old clothing exchange process online. Its operating principle is similar to bartering, meaning you can simply exchange something you no longer want for a new one.
To use Nuw, simply upload an old piece of clothing—no need to sell it—and you'll receive a token in exchange. Tokens are divided into silver and gold coins. For typical fast-fashion items, you'll receive a silver coin, while for items with a higher original price, better quality, or greater rarity, you'll receive a gold coin. You can then use these tokens to "purchase" another piece of clothing on Nuw.
The price of each piece of clothing is one token. After purchasing, you only need to pay an additional $1 service fee and shipping fee to "buy" the clothes that others don't want.
The exchange market is popular among Generation Z, and local communities will be established to save shipping costs.
Byrne said Nuw has created a model for getting clothes back into circulation, eliminating the need to throw old clothes away or overconsume and hoard clothes you really don't want to wear anymore.
Nuw officially launched in Ireland and the UK in 2021, and expanded to the US in April 2023. To date, 50,000 pieces of clothing have been uploaded to the Nuw platform, of which 36,000 have been exchanged. Since its US launch, Nuw has users across all 50 states and has exchanged 20,000 used clothing items.
Users come from all age groups, but Nuw is particularly popular among users aged 16 to 24. These Generation Z users are more accepting of more sustainable consumption and second-hand clothes.
With these users scattered across various regions, Byrne's next step is to establish exchange communities at the state level and even on university campuses, allowing users to exchange second-hand clothes directly in a more local and face-to-face manner, saving shipping and service fees.
But she also admitted that even though most people are fully aware of the environmental impact of fast fashion, there is still a tendency to buy disposable items as a special ritual. For example, when the movie Barbie premiered, many people bought a lot of pink clothes that they didn't own, just to keep up with the trend.
"It's worth noting that secondhand stores or exchange platforms can also encourage overconsumption." It is estimated that the global secondhand market will nearly double in size by 2027, reaching US$305 billion. Byrne mentioned: "We can consume secondhand items at will, just like the speed of fast fashion, but these products will never have a new life and will eventually be thrown into the landfill. The problem remains unsolved." In response to this situation, Nuw is considering introducing different ways for everyone to enrich and share their wardrobes in different ways, "allowing these clothes to circulate again and have a life that is more than just a single wear." Byrne hopes to continue to change people's fashion consumption behavior through Nuw's innovation.
This article is reprinted with permission from Social Enterprise Flow. The original title is "Creating Your Second Wardrobe: Nuw Bartering Makes Fast Fashion Recyclable." It is not licensed under the CC license.
References：
*Nuw official website
*Fast Company（2023/8/31），This startup lets you turn your clothes into currency
*Irish Times（2023/4/24），From bags to riches: How to resell the clothes you never wear
*IMAGE（2021/1/25），Clothes-swapping app Nuw provides the perfect sustainable fashion platform
Source: Environmental Information Centre
