Sustainability starts with students: Gen Z’s second-hand shopping trend
ThredUp, Goodwill, local vintage or thrift shops, and Depop. What do all of these stores have in common? They’re students’ go-tos for shopping secondhand. In 2022, 80% of Gen Z said they were likely to shop for secondhand clothing. But what is causing students to make the change from popular fast-fashion stores or even well-known, trendy brands? It’s simple, students want to protect the planet.
When it comes to worrying about global warming, Gen Z beats all other generations, with 38% of them feeling concerned about the environment and where it’s headed. Hence the shift away from fast fashion and towards sustainability. As part of their contribution to addressing climate change, students are turning away from trendy stores like Shein and H&M and embracing second-hand shopping and thrifting as sustainable shopping choices. Plus, why shop at Shein when you can find unique, “no one else has” clothing pieces at your local thrift?
Quick-glance definitions
Before we dive in, here’s a snapshot of relevant terms/definitions you should know:
- Thrifting and/or second-hand shopping: Choosing to shop at thrift or second-hand clothing stores. But Gen Z students are taking it a step further and thrift shopping online at popular stores like ThredUp and Depop.
- Fast fashion: Cheap, affordable, trendy clothing that is quickly produced and can have long-term, harmful negative effects on the environment.
- Hauls: Videos or blog posts where students post their “clothing hauls,” which consist of showing off their recent purchases. Remember when you used to do a fashion show at home to show off your new outfits to your parents? It’s just like that, but instead of showing off your new clothes in person to your family, you post them on social media and show hundreds, thousands, or even millions. Here’s a student vlogging her back-to-school thrift haul on YouTube.
Students take action by thrifting and shopping secondhand
As their social media feeds are flooded with content about climate change and the state of the world, students are looking for practical ways to do their part. One way students are doing their part to help the planet is by making thrifting trendy and for all the right reasons.
How shopping second-hand allows students to play to their core values:
- Over 100 billion clothing garments are produced every year, and about three-fourths of them actually end up in landfills. When students actively choose to shop second-hand, they help reduce the amount of clothing that rotates in landfills.
- Students are showcasing their secondhand items and raising awareness for thrifting by using TikTok and YouTube to post their #ThriftHauls. So, they’re not only extending the lifespan of pre-owned clothes, they’re sharing their thrift finds and inspiring their followers to adopt the same shopping habits.
What 17-year-old Evelyn Wang has to say about fast fashion and second-hand shopping:
Evelyn Wang, a 17-year-old student from Naperville North High School in Illinois, was published in the New York Times for her piece on how fast fashion harms the planet. In “How Fast Fashion Became Faster — and Worse for the Earth,” Evelyn shared her experience trying to find a dress for an upcoming spring dance. While a friend of hers chose to buy a new dress online that was less than $20, Evelyn chose to rock the same dress she had worn the year before. While re-wearing a dress may seem insignificant, Evelyn played to her core values by choosing not to contribute to “the aggressive cycle of consumption perpetuated by fast fashion,” as she puts it.
The high school student goes on to share that when we want to update our wardrobe, we should “do so sustainably by thrifting, reworking old garments or researching environmentally-conscious brands.”
TSI’s Take
Evelyn isn’t alone in her thinking. Students around the world are becoming increasingly worried about climate change and global warming. As students turn to online thrift apps like ThredUp, instead of fast fashion brands, and #thrifthaul currently has over 3 billion views on TikTok, one thing is clear — students are taking matters into their own hands by choosing to thrift or shop second-hand to reduce waste and promote sustainability.
At The Social Institute, students who use our peer-to-peer technology, #WinAtSocial, have the chance to share their voices and opinions on topics that are relevant and matter to them. In our Grade 11 Use Your Mic For Good Lesson, Considering how the brands we support impact the world, we asked students what was important to them when choosing the brands they support. Their top response? Considering a product’s eco-friendliness is one of the most important factors.
Not a partner but interested in running lessons like this and amplifying the voices of your students? Request a demo of our peer-to-peer curriculum that empowers students to find and follow positive role models and influencers today.
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The Social Institute (TSI) is the leader in understanding student experiences and creator of #WinAtSocial, a gamified, online learning platform that equips students, educators, and families to navigate social experiences — online and offline — in healthy ways. Our unique, student-respected approach incorporates topics like social media, technology use, and current events that have a significant impact on student well-being. Lessons teach life skills for the modern day to inspire high-character decisions that support the health, happiness, and future success of students, while capturing data that provides insights to school leaders to inform school policy and communications, and enable high-impact teaching and a healthy learning environment. For schools, our turnkey technology allows for easy implementation and a comprehensive game plan to support the well-being of school communities. For schools, our turnkey technology allows for easy implementation and a comprehensive game plan to support the well-being of school communities.