Reselling thrifted items like clothes may help the environment in that it’s helping ensure they find a second home—instead of joining the other 90% of donated items that don’t—but it doesn’t come issue-free.
Especially since any environmental benefits are really just a happy bonus of thrifting for profit, rather than the driving motivation behind the movement.
Let’s look at some of the biggest criticism behind thrift flipping clothes:
Thrift Flip Criticism #1: Fatphobia
One peruse of the #ThriftFlip hashtag, and the pattern is clear: young, attractive people take oversized garments that are way too big for them from thrift stores and turn them into something small and showy.
Many feel this propels fatphobia, something unfortunately not new to the world of fashion. In this way, it’s argued that thrift flipping continues the legacy of unrealistic beauty norms and perpetuates the notion that curvy is ugly and bad.
Thrift Flip Criticism #2: Oversumption
Overconsumption of thrifted items low income communities actually need is another important critique of #thrifthaul culture.
Because the thrift flipping trend supports keeping up with the current trends, in spite of items being repurposed from old clothes (good!), it also encourages subscribing to the ever-evolving latest trends (not good!) and taking away from those low income communities who really need it (really not good!)
As a collective, we need to critically evaluate our relationship toward shopping and psychologically assess why we need to buy so much, even if they’re super cheap thrifted items.
Thrift hauls—and online gloating about flipping thrift store items—contributes to a culture of overconsumption and disposability. We all need to really ask ourselves if we need another something-or-other in our wardrobes, even if it is from a thrift store.
In order for the act of thrift store reselling to really take sustainability to the next level, the trend needs to challenge the entire paradigm of trends, overconsumption, and the disposable culture of contemporary fashion.
Thrift Flip Criticism #3: Privilege
Then there is the issue of privilege and access to thrift stores.
If thrift flippers buy huge amounts of high quality items at great prices from local thrift stores in low income neighborhoods, for example, this prevents access to affordable or designer clothing for those who really need it.
Especially if garments purchased from thrift stores are plus-sized, this becomes a legitimate issue, since it’s already “slim pickings” due to fashion’s inclusivity problem.
Thrift Flip Criticism #4: Gentrification
There’s no denying thrift store items are going up in price. What used to be a very affordable way to shop now often comes at a higher price, especially at the larger chain thrift stores like Value Village or Goodwill.
The question is why this is happening.
Does flipping Goodwill items drive up their cost? Are thrift stores being gentrified as a result of the #ThriftFlips trend? Or because of current economic times?
Realistically, it’s a mix of both.
