Love Circular and Thrifting? Six of Our Favorite Places to Shop Resale

At Manymoons, we LOVE thrift shopping and the increasing abundance of in-store and online thrifting options available to consumers today—and we’re not alone. According to eBay’s 2024 Recommerce Report, millennials and Gen Z are driving the recommerce trend, with 66% of Gen Z and 62% of millennials saying that shopping for preloved goods has grown in personal importance to them. 

According to Manymoons Founder and CEO Carolyn Butler, “Whether you call it thrifting or shopping resale or preloved, reselling and buying used items is having a moment.” Both online marketplaces and retail stores are having a resurgence. From designer resale that specializes in high-end wearables, like TheRealReal, to stores that buy a range of brands from customers and resell online or in stores, like Buffalo Exchange, to marketplaces that specialize in peer-to-peer matchups like Poshmark and Depop, resale is back to stay. 

Is thrifting sustainable? Yes! “Any opportunity we have to extend the useful life of products instead of throwing them away is very powerful from a sustainability perspective. The average American only wears 20% of the items in their closet, and they discard an average of nearly 82 pounds of textiles per year*.  Simply getting more wear out of our clothing has the dual benefit of being cost-effective and not using up resources,” Carolyn says.

Looking for more thrift shopping options? Six places we love to shop

If you’re like the 86% of global consumers that eBay says have bought or sold a preloved item in the past 12 months—be it online or at a secondhand shop—you are always interested in hearing about new places to shop resale. Here are five favorites from the Manymoons team.  And feel free to leave a comment with your faves.. We would love to hear about them! 

No. 1: Manymoons for circular rescues, rentals, resale and “give back” credits.

Of course, we are our own first favorite! If you are new to us … Welcome! There’s a broad selection of boutique-level apparel to explore for women, baby and kids (and men’s coming soon!), at up to 60% off retail. You can shop our Rescue pieces, which are new items (with tags) in assorted collections from past seasons. Resale items from our customers are high-quality, gently-used, preloved items that we restore to “like new.” Of course, inventory is limited and changes every day. 

Prefer renting? Check out our Clothing Rental Plans which as of this writing, start at $1.49/month for kids and $12.99/month for women. You can purchase what you love, and when you return items in saleable condition, we’ll reward you with 20% off the purchase price paid as a Give Back credit. 

No. 2: Etsy for upcycled clothing, vintage fabrics and unique finds.

We love how artisans and seamstresses are embracing upcycling by adding their own touch to preloved garments—from embroidery and fabric patches to painterly effects, found items and more. For example, if you search “upcycled jeans” or “upcycled quilts,” you’re sure to come across the one-of-a-kind custom jeans with vintage quilt panels and vintage quilt coats created by Aurora Milstein for her shop, QuiltsandClogs. 

Other sellers, like Betsey Stookey, owner of STOOKEYOOKS, use preowned garments, vintage linens and other “found treasures” to create unique garments you won’t find anywhere else. And if you want to get joyously lost for hours … search “upcycled clothing.” (We warned you.)

No. 3: Subscription clothing plans like Rent the Runway and Nuuly.com to keep “new” styles in your closet.

If you love thrifting, want to wear “new” things on the regular and are passionate about reusing clothes and the circular economy, Nuuly.com and Rent-the-Runway (RTR) are a couple of other great options. Nuuly falls under the URBN brand umbrella (along with high-quality brands like Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Free People) and offers 100+ brands and designers to choose from. RTR offers selections from tons of high-end designers and brands. 

No. 4: Stoop sales to score luxe items for a lot less.

While they may be few and far between, celebrity stoop sales, like the one former J. Crew President Jenna Lyons recently held, serve up a treasure trove of high-end, designer items at a drastically reduced price. Other celebs and A-listers, like Chloë Sevigny, Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon and even Spike Lee, have held stoop sales and garage sales to clean out their closets and raise proceeds for charity.

While many of these sales don’t actually occur on a stoop or in a garage, they do offer some pretty cool stuff if you can get into one (or even find one in your area). If you live in L.A., New York City or another city celebrities favor, follow your favorite style makers on Instagram and TikTok, which is where they typically promote these sales.

No. 5: SUAY to find upcycled textiles reimagined into something new.

When it comes to thrifting websites, SUAYLA.com warms the cockles of our circular-minded hearts. Los Angeles-based SUAY (which means beautiful in Thai) describes itself as a 100% vertical sewing and production shop. Their products are made from a combination of post-consumer waste, deadstock and domestically, organically grown fibers.

Not only will you find one-of-a-kind, upcycled creations (clothing and items for the home) designed and sewn onsite, the shop is dedicated to the skilled laborers it employs. SUAY is “unwaveringly committed to creating a culture of community and reuse by investing in skilled laborers and creating a truly transparent textile recycling, reuse and repair model that serves everyone.” Fancy yourself a DIY-er who enjoys reimagining garments yourself? Check out SUAY’s Community Dye Bath^TM program!

No. 6: PROCHE for upcycled designs and circular shopping that keeps garments in use.

It’s no secret we love PROCHEStudio.com; after all, they are a Manymoons partner brand. If you’re like other millennial and Gen Z thrifters who say shopping for preloved goods is personally important to them, then you’ll love PROCHE, too. Let’s start with Felicia Zivkovic, the designer behind PROCHE, who in 2020 started her business by upcycling fashion with her grandmother’s hankies and items she found in her home.

Fast forward to today, not only does PROCHE offer new garments and accessories made of high-quality, responsibly sourced, organic materials and upcycled items, customers can also get thrifty at the PROCHE Circular Shop. You can shop Rescues (brand new items with tags from aging collections) and Resale items (clean, “like new” items at a discounted price), then get a credit for returning items for resale once you’re done using them. 

The PROCHE X Manymoons partnership helps support your efforts to prioritize circularity and make our world a better place for generations to come. Manymoons handles all of the cleaning, repairing, reselling, recycling and composting of items returned to PROCHE, just as it does for items purchased and returned to Manymoons.

Flex your thrifting muscles at Manymoons, today!

If this is your first visit to the Manymoons blog, we encourage you to check out all of the thrifting opportunities available on the Manymoons site. Manymoons is America’s First Circular Retailer® and offers deep discounts on preloved garments for Resale, Clothing Rental and Rescues for women and kids (men’s coming soon!). New styles arrive daily. Happy thrifting!

* Source: “Environmental Impact.” The True Cost Movie website. Available at https://truecostmovie.com/learn-more/environmental-impact/. Retrieved June 25, 2024.