The conversation around resale isn’t new. But now more than ever, shoe brands are taking the opportunity to integrate this burgeoning market into their own business ecosystems.
Archive, a technology provider that helps brands launch their own resale programs, has partnered with brands such Ariat, Sam Edelman, and Sarah Flint since its launch in 2021. In the last few months, the company has onboarded more footwear clients and has seen a meaningful uptick in shoe brands with an interest in building their resale offering.
“[We’re] definitely seeing a lot of appetite with footwear brands,” Archive chief executive officer and co-founder Emily Gittins told FN in an interview. “There’s a lot of uptake and interest in the footwear space.”
Just last month, Archive helped Dr. Martens launch its ReWair platform, which offers pre-worn and repaired boots, shoes and bags for sale at discounted prices. And in February, New Balance launched its “Reconsidered” platform via Archive, a new program that lets shoppers shop pre-owned shoes.
In addition to the sustainability benefits, brands are realizing that damaged returns or pre-worn items can be used to boost sales and keep potential resale opportunities within their own business — as opposed to on another marketplace platform. When it comes to footwear specifically, resale offers an alternative to the more intensive process of breaking down a shoe’s many components to recycle into a new product.
“Recycling options are harder for footwear brands,” Gittins said. “So when footwear brands are sitting on damaged returns, they have sort of leapfrogged the rest of the industry in realizing that they can monetize that into a profitable business through resale.”
According to Gittins, shoe brands have been more keen to adopt integrated resale programs than apparel brands, in line with what she said is the shoe industry’s general tendency to be “ahead of the curve” when it comes to technology adoption.
“Generally, we just see [players] being one step ahead of what the next technology trend is,” Gittins said. “I do think a lot of apparel brands will follow in the next couple of years. But footwear brands are really ready to embrace this at scale.”
And when it comes to hot footwear products like running shoes, having an assortment of pre-worn options could mean easier access to harder-to-find models that are no longer for sale on a brand’s website. “If the brand is no longer selling [a shoe] new, you’re probably forced to go and look for it on third party sites, which is quite a difficult experience to navigate,” Gittins said. “So being able to surface those options directly to the consumer through the brand is really exciting.”
While a brand might start its resale journey with selling damaged returns, Gittins noted that many are opting to grow their programs to include customers returns in stores or via mail-in, as well as peer-to-peer listing programs. Some opt to expand their drop-off programs to more stores as well.
According to ThredUp’s annual resale report, the global secondhand apparel market grew by 18 percent in 2023 to $197 billion in gross merchandise value and is projected to grow three times faster than the overall apparel market and hit $350 billion by 2028. (That is a slight step back, as ThredUp’s report last year said that the industry would log GMV of $351 billion in 2027.)
In the U.S., the secondhand apparel market grew 11 percent, or seven times faster than the broader apparel market, to $43 billion last year, including value of resale sales as well as traditional thrift and donations. That take is expected to rise to $73 billion by 2028.
The resale market has recently been buoyed by price-conscious consumers navigating higher interest rates and inflation. As such, brands that offer pre-worn products have found a unique avenue to attract new customers.
“A lot of people buying on these resale experiences are new to the brand and may be priced out of full-priced product,” Gittins explained. “But it’s a really fantastic entry point to get them to fall in love with the product.”
