Jeansland Podcast
This is why I do this. Jeansland is a podcast about the ecosystem in which jeans live. There are an estimated 26 million cotton farmers around the world, and about 25% of their production goes into jeans, which could mean 6.2 million farmers depend on denim. I read estimates that at least 1 million people work in retail selling jeans, and another 1.5 to 2 million sew them. And then there are all the label producers, pattern makers, laundries, chemical companies, machinery producers, and those that work in denim mills. I mean, the jeans industry, which is bigger than the global movie and music business combined, employs a lot of human beings. And many of them, like me, love jeans. The French philosopher and existentialist Simone de Beauvoir, when visiting New York, said, "Everyone in the New York subway is a novel." I never met her, but I guess she made the observation because of the incredible diversity of people who ride the subway system. I'm convinced the people in our jeans industry are like those in the subway. They are unique, with rich and complex stories to tell, and I want to hear them. And deep inside me, I think you might feel the same way.
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Jeansland Podcast
Ep 68: The Rise of Resale
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In Episode 68’s Andrew’s Take, he looks at the rise of secondhand clothing. Not as a side story in fashion, but as one of the fastest-growing parts of the global apparel business.
Secondhand clothing is now growing dramatically faster than traditional apparel retail. In some cases, three or four times faster. And younger consumers are beginning to ask the question the industry never really wanted them to ask: why buy new at all?
He breaks down the numbers behind resale growth in the U.S., Europe, and globally, and why the shift matters not just economically, but structurally.
At the center of it all is a larger contradiction. An industry built on perpetual production now colliding with consumers increasingly comfortable buying what already exists.
Thank you to our sponsor Inside Denim.
Welcome back to Jeansland. Think about this for a moment. There are millions of books in the world you will never read, millions of songs you will never hear, movies and TV shows you're never going to watch, and podcasts, tons of them that you're never going to click on. Human beings produce culture at an industrial scale. And every single day we make more. More movies, more music, more books, more content, more useless stuff in many cases. We don't produce new things because humanity needs them, but we produce them because modern economies survive on perpetual production. And the jeans and clothing industry is exactly the same. The apparel industry does not produce what humanity needs. It produces what the machine requires, or to satisfy profit needs or desires of investors. Every day we make more jeans, more inventory. The system keeps producing even when closets are full. But something fascinating is happening. Consumers are beginning to look at the mountain of existing clothing already in circulation and asking a very dangerous question. Why am I buying new at all? The question is quietly reshaping the global apparel industry because the numbers are starting to tell a very serious story. The used clothing market in the United States is currently estimated at roughly $50 to $55 billion annually. By 2030, projections now suggest that the U.S. secondhand apparel market will reach nearly $79 billion. That implies annual growth of approximately 7 to 8% per year. Meanwhile, the broader apparel market is growing at closer to 2% to 3% annually. Translation? Used clothing in America is growing roughly three to four times faster than new clothing. In 2025 alone, the U.S. secondhand market reportedly grew nearly four times faster than the broader retail apparel market. Let's go to Europe. Europe's resale apparel market was estimated around 15 billion euros in 2024. By 2030, projections place it at close to 26 billion euros. That represents an annual growth of 8%, 8.5%. Some forecasts even are more aggressive. Certain European market studies project that secondhand clothing market could exceed 75 billion by 2034 with annual growth rates approaching 10%. Globally, the numbers are way bigger. The worldwide secondhand apparel market is now projected to reach $400 billion by 2030. Global resale growth is currently estimated at around 9 to 10% annually. Some forecasts are even higher. Depending on methodology, secondhand apparel is now approaching roughly 10% of all global fashion sales, and younger consumers are driving most of that growth. Gen Z and Millennials are projected to account for roughly 70% of resale market expansion over the coming years. Online resale is accelerating even faster. It means people buy a garment for $30, wear it six or seven times, and then sell it online for $20. In the United States, online resale alone is expected to nearly double by 2030, growing from roughly $30 billion to more than $48 or close to $50 billion. Used clothing is growing two, three, sometimes four times faster than traditional apparel purchasing. The difference matters enormously. But that's on the consumption side. Let's talk about the sustainability side. Years ago, when I helped produce a class at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, students with very earnest faces would ask me, Mr. Rola, what should I buy that's sustainable? And I used to always answer the same way. Don't ever buy anything new again. Don't buy new furniture, don't buy a new car, don't buy new clothes, don't buy anything new. Buy used. That's the most sustainable thing you can do. And so without anyone really speaking about it, the actual impact of this kind of growth on the sustainability element of our industry is massive. Thanks for listening to Jeanland.