Starting on Monday, Urban Outfitters shoppers will have a new way to shop for secondhand clothes. The retailer is rebranding and restructuring its vintage and secondhand offerings online to make up a new program called Vintage + Remade.
Under the new structure, the Urban Outfitters online store will introduce two new sections: Vintage and Remade. Vintage products are authentic vintage finds, discovered and curated into limited-edition collections by Urban Outfitters’ in-house merchandising team and outside collaborators.
Remade is a new category focused on items that have been repaired, restored or otherwise updated by Urban Outfitters’ product team. Also included are new products made from deadstock fabric, said Cyntia Leo, Urban Outfitters’ head of brand.
As part of the new structure, Urban Outfitters will work with fashion brands including Puppy Breath, Lucky Loves Label, Landon Moreis, Moxie Wrrld, Tessa Fay and Oddli to curate limited collections featuring new items from the brands and vintage items that complement them. These collections will be promoted through paid social ads and displayed prominently on Urban Outfitters’ revamped website.
According to Leo, Urban Outfitters’ interest in vintage is a response to the perceived clogging of in-person thrift stores with low-quality fast fashion goods. They’re making the finding of true vintage items with a long lifespan more difficult, she said.
“The thrifting environment has become challenging,” Leo said. “It used to be about discovering timeless high-quality pieces and we want to bring that experience back to our customers. Vintage shoppers are willing to wait longer and are looking to purchase personalized and custom pieces.”
Urban is clearly seeing a big opportunity in vintage at the moment. Its other main avenue for selling vintage clothes is its rental service, Nuuly, which saw its year-over-year revenue increase by 69% last quarter and its subscriber base grow by 56%.
Resale as a whole is a growing business, particularly online. New data from eMarketer found that online resale will surpass $80 billion in volume this year, with a rate of nearly 4%.
