Questions to Answers

What is wrong with the fashion industry and what are some ways that it can be fixed?

How is Thrilling different than its competitors?

What are some specific stats that show the landscape for the secondary fashion market?

How does education play into Secondary Markets Thriving

Key Terms

Description: Terms helpful in understanding the landscape of Sustainability specifically in the fashion Industry.

Fast Fashion- Fast fashion is the approach to designing, creating, and producing products based on fast moving trends and cheap prices. While cheap and trendy, fast fashion is dangerous because it results in overproduction, waste, environmental degradation, and the overworking of factory makers.

Slow Fashion - A deliberate choice from consumers to slow down their consumption, and buy less, while investing in high quality pieces that last longer. It is the ethos of “buying fewer better things”, embracing individual style rather than chasing trends.

Sustainable Fashion - This term usually means eco-friendly practices in the fashion industry, referencing the approach of designing, producing and consuming clothes that respect the planet by causing little to no damage, and therefore sustaining the environment. It also refers to the practice of recycling and reusing the product to extend its life.

Ethical - Ethical means brands committed to treating their makers with fairness, respect, and care.

Transparency- This is the practice of publicly sharing information about where products are made, and the makers that make them. It’s important to note that publishing a list of Tier 1 factories does not really make a brand transparent, but sharing the names and information about all the factories involved (from start to finish) does.

Circularity - Circularity is the approach to designing and producing products that can be repaired remade, reused, and eventually recycled or biodegraded at the end of its use. Truly circular products must be non-toxic, preferably biodegradable, so that any waste generated is minimized.

Greenwashing - This is the practice of branding or marketing a product in a way that misleads the consumer about its social and environmental benefits. It is common for fashion companies to use sustainability to differentiate themselves in the marketplace and appeal to socially conscious customers without actually being committed.

Cost Per Wear: Cost-per-wear considers the value of a piece in relation to how many times it's worn.

Key Drivers

Description: The fashion industry is the second largest in creating pollution following behind the oil industry. Here we will look at the different ways on how the industry is problematic in matters relating to sustainability and ethics.

Notes

Key Drivers

Summary

The fashion industry is broken in many places not only is it bad for the enviroment but also in matters relating to ethics as well. When looking into the sustainabillity of the current state of fashion, it is not sustainable at all.

From the fast fashion, to the mass amount of water usage the industry is depleting many of our natural resources. Multiple natural habitats have been destroyed so that textile factories can be built. In these factories the workers are expected to work rigourous amounts of hours as well as every day of the week. They are treated unjustly and the pay is barely liveable.

The industry will have to change dramatically to even reverse a small percentage of all the damage that has been done. To fix these problems fast fashion will have to change: hazardous chemicals will need to be reduced, manufactures will need to reduce green house gases, updated labor laws, materials will need to become eco - friendly, products will need to be re-used and recycled, and water will need to be decontaminated or reduced.

This is no easy task and will take many large companies changing their policies as well as new startups coming along to bring awareness as well as new solutions. A big factor in all of this is the consumer's mindset moving from fast fashion to slow fashion.

*second hand shopping could potentially reduce enviromental impact by 75%.

Key Players

Description: Different companies that are trying to solve the problem of sustainability within the fashion industry. Most companies on the list

Thrilling (Secondary Market ) -Thrilling is a seed stage company founded in July 2018. So far they have raised a total of 2.1 million as of 07/17/2019 The company partners with company who bring in the second hand clothing for website and thrilling handles all the logistics, photography and data entry for the clothing.

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Links

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The difference with Thrilling may be that they don't hold on to the items they are selling at a warehouse instead they take a picture then give it back to the store until it is sold online or in store. May want to look into this.

Aaron-Thred Up (IPO) (Secondary Market) - Thread up is another secondary clothing market founded in 2009 that raised a series F on 08/21/2019 for a total of 305M raised. They are now working to IPO. They are an online thrifting/ consignment store tailored to women and children.

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Links

Rob- The Real Real (Public Company luxury consignment) - This company was founder in 2011 and has raised a total of 359 Million and went all the way to a series H. It is now on the NASDAQ. The Realreal focuses on being the leader in authenticated luxury consignment online. Gucci is partnering with the real real for luxury secondary items.

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Links

Aaron- Depop (Secondary Market) - Depop was founded in 2011 and raised their series C on 06/06/2019 for a total of 105.6 Million raised. Depop is a secondary market for peer to peer selling. Prices may be higher than thrilling and threadup because consumers set prices for their own clothing.

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Links

Rob- Poshmark (Secondary Market) : Poshmark was founded in 2011 and has raised a total of 153 M. They are currently preparing to IPO as of 09/27/2020. Poshmark is another competitor in the space where people can buy and sell their clothes online.

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Links

Aaron- Swap (Secondary Market ): Swap was created in 2008 and has currently raised a total of 33.4 million as 12/08/2016. Swap uses AI to help inform the low-priced pre-owned clothing consignment store.

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Links

Rob- Rent the Runway (Clothing Rental) : Rent the runway is an online e-commerce store founded in 2009 and has raised a total of 541.2 million. This company allows women to rent designer apparel and accesories. Advertises at sustainable but may be green washing. The amount of dry cleaning for products emits high amounts of carbon dioxide. Returning clothes often all requires lot of shipping, transportation, and boxes that end up not getting recycled.

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Links

Aaron- Material World (secondary designer) - Material world is a series B company that was founded in 2012 and has raised a total of 9.8 million as 03/30/2016. They are a personal styling service that delivers pre-owned desinger items at up to 90% off of retail. Low amount of publicity not too many articles compared to others.

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Links

Rob- Vestiaire Collective (2nd hand luxury) - Created in 2009 and has raised a total of 240 million wit the last round of funding on 04/20/2020. Cool to see thet got money during Corona. I think this shows that investors see 2nd hand fashion as a large upcoming market. It is a global marketplace that enables people to buy and sell luxury pre-owned fashion products.

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Links

Aaron- Worthy (2nd Hand Luxury) -A series B company created in 2011 that has raised a total of 8 million as of 10/22/2015. Worthy is a pre-owned luxury goods marketplace specifically in jewelry. Uses an auction system.

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Links

Rob- Kidizen (Parent-to-parent 2nd market place)- Kidizen a series A company was founded in 2010 and has raised a total of 5.1 million as of 03/9/2017. On this website parents can sell and buy pre-owned kids clothes.

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Link

Aaron- Vinted (2nd Market) - Vinted is a series 3 company founded in 2008 and has raised a total of 260.3 Million as of 11/28/2019. Vinted is another second hand company.

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Last week, Lithuanian fashion reseller Vinted acquired its Dutch competitor, United Wardrobe, forming one of the largest resale plays in Europe with a combined 34 million users. (Posted 11/3/2020)

Rob- Grailed (Peer to Peer Market) - Grailed is a NY based Series A P2P Clothing Market. They have raised a total of 16.5M as of 06/28/2018.

Most Common Solution Types

Secondary Shopping: We plan to focus on secondary shopping as the solution because it brings about the most impact. With return programs, the companies are still producing a high amount of clothing with manufactures.

Return/Recycle Programs - Return programs are a good way to get people to send back items they no longer use for a discount. The items then can be resold in the secondary market for a slightly lower price. This helps to continue circularity of the product instead of it going into landfills.

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Recycling Initiatives

Clothing made from sustainable materials - This is another good option because trees would not have to be used for Nylon, instead ecofriendly materials could be made instead.

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ECO Material Websites

Repurpose - Another opportunity is in the up-cycling of clothing to make them useable once again. This is a great way to lengthen the cycle of clothing.

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Repurpose websites

Renting - Renting clothes is another trend that has started to pop up. This is good for the re use of clothes. This is a great way to target people who like to change up their clothing style a lot without bringing as much negative impact to the environment. Renting may be bad because of the amount of dry cleaning that takes place. Still better than what we have now.

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Rental Brands

Digital Fashion - This completely fixes the sustainability issue because all clothes are online. Fashion can be pushed farther than ever before because it is completely online.

*Shipping is a niche area where new greener options can be thought up outside of the packaging,

*CAGR for industry is expected to be 4.6% from 2020-2027

Trends

Sustainability Trends

Younger generations are more aware of how our buying habits impact the Earth. They are looking to make more investments in clothing rather than frivolous purchases.
49% of all 18-24 year old are very supportive of sustainable fashion brands. While all other age ranges are a little less supportive of the initiative.
While many understand the importance of sustainability, only 7% percent of participants from one survey said that sustainability was the most important factor.
Education to the general public about this topic still need to grow.
People aren't willing to pay significantly more for sustainable.
People want to see brand transparency.

Secondary Market Shares

The second hand clothing industry is set to expand by 10% by 2029.
It will be one of the highest growing segments within the fashion sector within the next 10 years.
These alternative shopping methods will help to keep the fast fashion industry stagnant with a steady 9% of the market over the next 10 years.
During this pandemic while retailers have seen their numbers drop significantly the online second hand industry has seen a 50% increase in sales over this same period. This is expected to continue through at least 2021.
4 in 5 consumers are open to doing second hand shopping when money gets tight.
Some of the bigger players in this field include Thredup, Fashionfile, The Real real, and a few others.
Digital Resale Market Poised to grow 27% this year to 9 Billion and could quadruple by 2024.
By 2029 Resale all together will be worth 44 Billion.
It's hard for these companies to operate in the black because of cost of warehousing, authentication, etc.

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Trend Report

Miscellaneous Trends