A rack of pre-owned jackets are being displayed by one vendor at the Bull City Flea in downtown Durham. The thrift event happens on the first Sunday of every month. Photo by Isabelle Abadie
By Isabelle Abadie, Federica Cedeno and Will Gray
On the second Saturday of every month vendors line the Brightleaf Square parking lot in downtown Durham.
Each tent is stocked with an array of vintage t-shirts, sweatshirts, pants, dresses, jewelry, shoes and more. People of all different ages meander the area, hoping to find their “dream thrift items.”
“I like how things are cheap, but cool,” said Riverside senior Silas Heinz. “When you thrift, it feels like you’re getting the only one that exists, you know? So it feels more unique.”
What was once a style relegated to those unable to afford new clothes is now a coveted pastime for all kinds of consumers.
In the past eight years, reselling clothes has increased 550 percent in popularity and traditional thrifting has grown by 26.3 percent, according to Capital One’s Shopping Research.
This surge in interest allows many fashion enthusiasts to transform their passion for thrifting into a business. The resale website Depop has gained 100,000 sellers since 2021. Thrifters use Instagram social media to advertise the clothing they are selling on other online platforms or operate their own online secondhand store. According to Instagram data, as of mid-2025 over 14 million reels were tagged with “#thrifting.”
The Sellers
Isa Halle grew up around thrifting.
It was a common activity for her middle-school friend group in Portland, Oregon. Three years ago, Halle discovered a flea market in an abandoned Forever 21. It was there that she discovered she could do more than just thrift clothes for herself: She could also do it for others.
“I realized I had a lot of clothes that I didn’t wear and I was like, ‘why not sell them?’” Halle said during an October interview with The Pirates’ Hook.
Reselling clothes generates a sporadic, secondary income for most thrifters. But selling secondhand and vintage clothing has become Halle’s main source of income.
“I can buy a shirt from the bins for 20 cents,”she said. “Then I can sell it on Depop for eight dollars.”
The popularity of creating a small online thrifting business isn’t concentrated just around areas where there is already a big thrifting culture. It’s happening everywhere.
Natalie Laslovich of Missoula, Montana, started her online thrifting business at the beginning of high school. But unlike Halle, Laslovich said she doesn’t live in a popular thrifting area.
Because Laslovich has limited money for thrifting, she uses a method that ensures she will make a couple hundred dollars a year.
“I do buy things from certain brands just because I know they are nicer than others,” she said. “Brands like Carhartt or LuluLemon.”
Multiple other young resellers expressed similar opinions to Laslovich during October interviews with The Pirates’ Hook. But Sahir Jones, a 22-year-old Depop seller, began thrifting for a different reason.
“I was in a lower-income family, so pretty much all the clothing I got was secondhand,” Jones said. “Either from the thrift store, cousins and brothers, or my parents would get it off eBay or some other secondhand platform. We also went to swap meets or flea markets. So, I was kind of already in the secondhand space from a young age.”
After graduating high school, Jones realized he could turn his thrifting from a personal need to a source of income.
“I’ve always had an entrepreneurial mindset, so it just made sense to take that route,” he said.
The Buyers
The Capital One Shopping Research Thrifting Statistic Report estimated that in 2024, one-third of clothing purchased in the U.S. was bought secondhand.
Cara Kwon of Chapel Hill, North Carolina thrifts for personal reasons, not to resell. Kwon, who bought her homecoming dress on Depop, is the type of shopper resellers like Halle and Laslovich are trying to reach.
“I got into fashion and different styles but realized how expensive shopping firsthand is,” the 16-year-old told The Pirates’ Hook.
Even though some people prefer to shop online, many still participate in in-person thrifting as well.
“I go to a lot of different flea markets in Durham and random Durham thrift shops, but I get a lot of my stuff on Depop, honestly,” said Riverside senior Henry Lines.
Part of what draws many people to Depop is the targeted algorithm that makes thrifting online much easier than going to a store with tons of styles to sort through.
“Sometimes, going to the same thrift store can feel repetitive, said Betsy Linkhorst, a senior who lives in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. “Online shopping, especially on Depop, is great because it’s really curated to your style.”
Over the past few years the online thrift market has taken off. According to the Capital One Report, it’s outpacing general retail exponentially.
“In 2023, clothing resale grew 15 times as fast as the general retail apparel sector,” according to the report. “Online resale is expected to continue growing 17 percent annually through 2028.”
Laslovich credits the increase to people becoming more exposed to reselling on social media and that the hobby and shopping method has become more mainstream.
“I feel like it’s become a trend,” she said. “[It’s] definitely a better trend to be buying secondhand and thrifting than buying fast fashion.”
Younger generations aren’t the only people who have noticed the growing trend. Riverside CTE teacher Kimberly Nelson Burgess, who runs the school’s fashion club, compared the popularity of thrifting today to when she was growing up. Nelson Burgess also runs a pop-up thrift store in her classroom during part of the school year to raise money for prom.
“Going to a Goodwill was a curse in my generation,” Nelson Burgess said. “Everybody knew that you were poor, that you didn’t have money to buy things, and so you were embarrassed to be seen. Now, it’s not like that. It’s cool to be at the thrift store.”
