Overall, more than 9,070 tons of clothing and footwear was landfilled in 2018, more than double the amount from 2000, per the EPA. Wallace from ThredUp said the push against fast fashion comes from a desire to see less waste generated from apparel. Meanwhile, Vestiaire Collective last fall announced it wouldn’t feature any fast fashion brands in its marketplace. Data provided to Modern Retail shows Searches for Pretty Little Thing, Fashion Nova and Shein went down by 43%, 33% and 25.8% in October 2022 to vest January 2023 compared to the previous year.

Other resale brands are noticing a shift too: Poshmark has seen decreases in fast-fashion sales on its marketplace. Then in August, it teamed up with “Stranger Things” star Priah Ferguson for a “Stop Fast Fashion” hotline advising sustainability shopping tips. Last June, ThredUp blasted out coupons to Bay Area-shoppers and asked them to boycott a Shein popup. It’s not the first time that ThredUp has launched a marketing campaign calling out the waste of fast fashion. We wanted to continue to push this narrative and continue to drive awareness around ultra fast fashion and just keep it top of mind - specifically for Gen Z who are telling us ‘We want to change.’” “But the action hadn’t necessarily been reflected in the data. “More than one in three consumers want to quit fast fashion this year,” she said. ThredUp’s own marketplace has at least 10,000 items from Shein, more than 17,000 from Zara, nearly 23,000 from H&M and more than 23,000 from Forever21.

Erin Wallace, vice president of integrated marketing at ThredUp, told Modern Retail that the campaign aims to address the tension particularly seen in Gen Z shoppers, who say they want to be less wasteful but are also big buyers of fast fashion. It’s the latest example of how the resale world is responding to the growing anti-fast fashion sentiments.

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