Demand is not the issue. ThredUp’s **** Resale Report, with GlobalData, puts global secondhand apparel at $*** billion by ****, around ** per cent of apparel spend, and says US secondhand growth in **** was nearly four times broader retail clothing. The problem is the labour before revenue: collection, grading, cleaning, repair, authentication, storage, shipping and returns.
That is why the sector wants tax relief. A new garment is generally made at scale, imported, sold once and taxed once. A used garment may be taxed again even though no new garment has been produced. The more a company repairs and sorts, the more labour it carries.
