The Rise of Thrift Culture and Ethical Shopping

Throughout the pandemic, thrifting second hand clothing has grown into a popular industry, for quality clothing.

A growing awareness around the negative impacts of fast fashion sees many people turning to thrift shopping, and inadvertently profit-based thrifting.

Fast fashion is the name given to the overproduction of clothing, and the harmful effects of its production process - excess plastic, water pollutants and exploitative manufacturing.

Globally, 6 000kgs of clothing goes into a landfill about every 10 minute due to over production and consumption, and textiles such as polyester emits greenhouse gas and exhausts water resources.

Popular commercial brands in South Africa, such as H&M, Zara and Forever 21, are being criticized for their unethical production processes - most of which produce in parts of Asia, where amongst terrible living conditions, working conditions and drastically low wages, child labor is prevalent.

With the growth in the demand for second hand clothing, both for affordability and ethical clothing shopping purposes, there has been a radical growth in providers, from online based applications such as Yaga to thrift shop Instagram accounts.

All online stock is found in local thrift shops, Hospices and the larger clothing-importing warehouses who recieve most of the clothing from Europe and the United States. These thrift stores also meant to support individuals with low income.

From this growth in the industry comes the dilemma of ethically selling second-hand clothing at affordable prices, as large thrifting apps take a commission from sales. Individual thrift accounts make larger personal profits, and courier services have grown profit from the amount of online-thrifted clothing parcels.

Essentially thrifting, and the channels through which second hand clothing is now being sold, is becoming more profit based. The growth in profit-based thrifting has resulted in more people choosing to sell their secondhand clothing through private thrift shops and thrifting apps, rather than simply donating their old clothing to charities and charity-based thrift shops.

This process reduces the amount of good-quality second hand clothing being provided to people who rely on these, usually, more affordable options. Additionally, often unique, branded items are auctioned off to the highest bidder, which essentially gentrifies the traditional purpose of thrifting; to find good-quality secondhand clothing at affordable prices.

To sustain the thrifting cycle, Instagram thrifting accounts promote sustainable, slow fashion, and recycling. Others donate parts of their sales to charities and organizations, such as the SPCA, and most recently there have even been charity-based raffles held on local thrifting accounts.

Without a doubt this industry will continue to grow, yet as consumers it is important to remain aware and informed about the ethical debates around sustainable fashion and the growing thrift industry.