by Emily Stochl

I started Pre-Loved Podcast in 2018 because I had become very interested in the world of sustainable and ethical fashion media, but didn’t see much coverage dedicated specifically to the secondhand side of the industry, which was my entry point to sustainable fashion in the first place. 

I’ve been a thrifter for over a decade. Thrifting, for me, started as a way to stretch my budget in high school and college. Then, I built my first professional wardrobe out of thrifted clothing, and furnished my first home in secondhand furniture. I thrifted for practicality, and I thrifted for fun. 

So, I started Pre-Loved Podcast, as my contribution to the sustainable fashion media space, deciding that it would focus on secondhand and all its many stories. 

Afterall, as I have learned, the secondhand fashion industry is a segment of sustainable fashion that is as large, diverse, and complex as any other. And fashion has a lot of power.
While creating Pre-Loved Podcast, I’ve heard so many stories about secondhand fashion changing lives. Secondhand fashion has brought countless people a feeling of creative inspiration, the confidence to embrace their personal style, a second or full-time source of income, and so much more. I have also heard from people in the secondhand supply chain, who are burdened with unjust levels of risk in the pursuit of recirculating secondhand clothing, in roles where it is very difficult to make a good living. And I’ve heard from waste pickers and recyclers who face the harsh daily reality that their efforts to recirculate discarded goods may never make a dent in fashion’s overproduction and waste. 
Once, in my volunteer work with the non-profit, Remake, I remember a volunteer saying, “It is possible to hold two truths at the same time: to love fashion, and to demand it does better.” And I have to believe that, because I am endlessly passionate about the secondhand fashion space. All its potential, and all its messiness. 

A lot of sustainable fashion media tells us that public interest in secondhand is rapidly growing. Statistics show that 70% of American women have purchased, or are open to purchasing, secondhand clothing. Industry reports claim that resale will soon eclipse retail, and that resale is growing twenty-five times faster than the broader retail sector.

And yet, we know so little about our growing secondhand fashion industry. While efforts are being made to index, research and report on transparency in the firsthand fashion industry, there is almost zero traceability in the secondhand supply chain. We have insufficient data about this global supply chain’s workers and their pay, how much clothing is recirculated, how many hands it passes through, secondhand’s overall impact on the economy, and even the long term environmental impacts. We don’t have sufficient secondhand consumer education, or general policy knowledge. And as we’ve discovered with the firsthand fashion industry, to know secondhand fashion, we may need secondhand brand guides, more transparency, clear definition and understanding of industry terms, maybe even consumer-recognizable certifications. 

Most of the general public, and even secondhand enthusiasts who are acutely passionate about thrift, don’t have easy access to information about the industry, or even truly understand how it works in many cases. 

If this “shift to thrift” is really happening at the scale researchers claim, we have a tremendous opportunity to build a secondhand fashion system that is more cooperative than our exploitative firsthand one. But this will require dedicated engagement with all of secondhand fashion’s stakeholders -- thrifters, clothing donors, charity shops, sorters, thrift shop employees, resellers, importers and exporters, textile recyclers, etc. -- to develop systemic solutions that address justice and equity in a way the firsthand fashion system has not. 

And we can’t engage with secondhand’s problems or opportunities, if we don’t understand it and all its angles. My role as a storyteller is to get us closer to that understanding. 

Pre-Loved Podcast is about loving secondhand style. It’s also about education. It’s about mending, up- cycling, reselling, dead stock, working as a vintage stylist, community development, flea markets, resale apps, fashion history, and more. It’s about a global industry that’s poised to grow, and fast. It’s about hand-me-downs and the best band tee you’ve ever found in the Goodwill bins. It’s about secondhand: its stories, from all angles.