Fast fashion second-hand clothes, which are cheap and highly substitutable, find it difficult to compete with new clothes in terms of market mechanisms. In order to solve this problem, the British second-hand platform Nuw uses the concept of barter to replace price sales, and uses an innovative model to allow the second-hand clothing market to operate smoothly without having to spend money to buy new clothes.
When new fashion trends emerge, it is inevitable to change your wardrobe. Continuously purchasing new clothes and discarding old ones is an inevitable trend in fast fashion, but it also causes the earth's carbon emissions to continue to increase.
According to statistics, 1/10 of global carbon emissions come from the fashion industry, and up to 300,000 tons of waste fabrics are dumped into landfills every year. Just buying a white cotton T-shirt emits as much carbon emissions as running a car for 50 kilometers.
In order to solve this problem, various second-hand clothing markets began to appear. On different second-hand goods trading platforms, you can resell, transfer, and donate your old clothes, and buy clothes you don’t own at relatively cheap prices.
However, this model often only applies to certain products, especially those with luxury goods or vintage clothing, but does not apply to cheap disposable clothing such as fast fashion. The reason is that people can buy brand new clothes at similar or cheaper prices, and second-hand fast fashion clothes are not attractive enough.
The price and rarity of fast fashion products are low, making it difficult to resell in the second-hand clothing market
Aisling Byrne from the UK witnessed firsthand the destructive impact of fast fashion on the local environment and communities during a trip to India. The large amount of waste shocked her and made her determined to make changes and abandon the production method of fast fashion. , instead using the concept of "sharing" to create a new choice in the apparel market.
“I found there was an obstacle in the price operation of second-hand clothing,” Byrne said: “Because of arbitrary pricing, we cannot give (fast fashion) products a second life.”
However, does this mean that everyone doesn’t like wearing second-hand clothes? Byrne doesn't think so. While studying at University College Dublin, she observed that when she put fast-fashion used clothes for online auction, the second-hand clothes did not sell very well, but if the scene was changed to an exchange of old items, her friends were happy to accept these second-hand clothes. Clothes.
"When the price is set higher, people will say it is too expensive and buying brand new ones is cheaper; when the price is set lower, people will assume that the quality of the clothes must be poor." Byrne found that if the exchange of second-hand clothes can be compared with the price Decoupling, in fact, most people are happy to try buying second-hand clothes and giving old clothes new life.
Upload used clothes in exchange for tokens, Nuw promotes the circulation of second-hand clothes
People are not willing to spend money to buy new things, but they are happy to exchange old things. Based on this observation, Byrne designed a Nuw app to bring old clothes exchange online. The operating logic is similar to "barter", that is, you can directly exchange the things you no longer want for a new one. something.
When using Nuw, you only need to upload an old piece of your own clothes first, without selling it, and you can exchange it for a token first. Tokens are divided into silver coins and gold coins. If it is a typical fast fashion item, you can exchange it for a silver coin. If it is clothes with a higher original unit price, better quality, or rarer items, you can exchange it for a gold coin. You can then use those tokens to "purchase" another piece of clothing on Nuw.
The price of each piece of clothing is one token. After purchase, you only need to pay an additional US$1 for service fee and shipping fee to "buy" the clothes that others do not want.
The exchange market is loved by Generation Z and will build local communities to save shipping costs
Byrne said that Nuw has created a model to recirculate clothes without having to throw away old clothes directly, and without having to overconsume and hoard clothes that you really don’t want to wear anymore.
Nuw has been officially launched in Ireland and the United Kingdom in 2021, and will enter the United States in April 2023. So far, 50,000 pieces of clothing have been uploaded to Nuw’s platform, of which 36,000 have been exchanged. Since its launch in the United States, Nuw's users have spread across all 50 states and districts in the United States and have completed the exchange of 20,000 second-hand clothes in the United States.
Users range from all age groups, but Nuw is particularly popular among users aged 16 to 24. These Generation Z are more receptive to more sustainable consumption and second-hand clothes.
With these users scattered in various regions, Byrne's next step is to establish exchange communities at the state level and even on university campuses, so that users can directly exchange second-hand clothes 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 trend in the market 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 second-hand stores or exchange platforms can also encourage overconsumption.” It is estimated that the global second-hand market will nearly double to 305 billion US dollars in 2027. Byrne mentioned: “We can do whatever we want. If people consume second-hand goods at the same speed as fast fashion, then these goods will never have a new life and will eventually be thrown into the garbage dump. The problem still cannot be solved. "In response to this situation, Nuw continued. Then I started thinking about launching different ways so that everyone can enrich and share their wardrobe in different ways. "It can recirculate these clothes and have a life of more than just wearing them once." Byrne hopes to continue to use Nuw's innovation , continue to change people’s fashion consumption behavior.
※ This article is reprinted with permission from "Social Enterprise Stream", the original title is "Create your second wardrobe: Nuw barter, so fast fashion items can also be recycled". CC co-creation licensing terms do not apply.
References:
*Nuw official website
*Fast Company (August 31, 2023), This startup lets you turn your clothes into currency
*Irish Times (April 24, 2023), From bags to riches: How to resell the clothes you never wear
*IMAGE (January 25, 2021), Clothes-swapping app Nuw provides the perfect sustainable fashion platform
Source: Environmental Information Center
