Illustration by Chloe Geschwind
The days of scouring through endless rows of stained oversized shirts in thrift stores are behind us – or at least for just us consumers, at least. As for sellers, Goodwills are their number one suppliers for their self-run vintage shops found on Depop.
Depop is an online platform and mobile app that allows users to easily buy and sell secondhand clothing, as well as original pieces of their own. With one click, anyone can find any piece based on keywords like color, type of garment, brand, size, etc. The appeal is that there is no particular style to Depop, you can virtually find anything you want in an extremely efficient manner. This broadens the consumers range of demographic, making any type of fashionista find their perfect outfits in one convenient place.
A major trend that has contributed to the app has been the practice of buying thrifted items in bulk, and selling them for more on a user’s Depop page. So much so, this business model has also become a trend on Tiktok in which users will promote their new merchandise on the social media app. Tiktok is a very viral-friendly app, which is beneficial to sellers who just want to get their products shown across the app – and who care less about having a massive following.
For user ShopKatKim, viral fame came from her signature “Thrift Haul” videos, featuring her most recent finds at her local thrift stores. Her TikToks have gained her quite some popularity, with over 800,000 likes from just 19 videos, as well as a total of over 4.2 million (and counting) views collectively. Her 16 thousand followers came in a blur, without too much of a warning for 22-year-old creator, Katherine Kim.
Kim began her Depop business two years ago, initially selling only what was already in her closet. However, what started as a casual side gig turned into her main source of income about 6 months ago, when she committed to Depop full-time.
When she decided to do so, she started going to thrift stores to buy items that she would sell for more on the app. Although a problematic concept, the truth of the matter is that Kim runs a business like any other person, and there must be a profit in order to keep that business running.
After talking with Kim, I gained more of an insight into the daily life of a Depop seller, which includes much more labor than what one may think. Her work week includes going to her local thrift stores, spending hours curating clothes that fit her shop’s aesthetic, washing those clothes, and styling them for pictures. She then folds all of her merchandise and organizes them by garment type. Shown to the left, you will see a picture of her very well-organized closet which allows her to efficiently send out orders and allow for no mistakes or swapped orders. Since she has hundreds of items listed, 636 sold items to date, and maintains her 5 star rating, she must continue this level of planning in her system in order to keep up with her customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Kim has grown more appreciative of her choice to be private online, as she began posting on Depop with cropping her face out of the pictures. What originally started as a mindless choice to have her focus on the clothes had turned into a blessing, given what would soon come to her Depop and TikTok profiles.
"It actually didn't start as a privacy thing at all, but I'm actually glad I did hide my face – with certain events that have transpired. It was purely aesthetic reasoning, I thought the focus should be on the clothes," Kim said.
Below, a screen-recording shows the extensive profile of Kim's color categorized shop. Since Kim likes to keep up with this layout, she must repost every post every time an item sells to keep this order of clothing while also being able to have all of her marked sold items at the bottom.
"I decided to use TikTok to market my shop by making some short videos like Thrift Hauls, showing the items I thrifted and showing them modeled on myself. I encountered some difficulties on TikTok – for whatever reason, there's a pretty big controversy surrounding the idea of reselling thrifted items – Depop sellers, especially," Kim said.
According to Kim, the issue stems from people believing that this is taking away a limited resource from lower-income families who need to shop at stores such as Goodwill. However, that is simply not the reality of things.
“I can absolutely see why people would be upset by this, if that were the case,” Kim said about the issue.
Despite her growing popularity, Kim has been unable to fully bask in her growing views and likes because of the vast amount of hate comments on her TikTok page for openly displaying her business model. The idea of buying for cheap and selling for more does seem like a greedy thing to do in simple terms, but once consumers realize that this is the way every business operates, the more at peace they will be with seeing spiked up prices on vintage clothing.
Kim has decided to continue her Depop business – as well as her TikTok marketing strategy. The reasoning behind this comes down to the numbers and the real benefits of doing so; Benefits for herself, and for the environment.
Clothing is not a limited resource, and recent years have shown that the demand for fast fashion has created a hindering effect on our environment. Because of the intense surplus of clothing, we have created growing numbers in textile waste.
Photo courtesy of CALPIRG.org
While it’s an ethically right thing to donate your clothes, this unfortunately does not produce as much as good as we would think. Although some of the clothing is recycled, most of it contributes to our greenhouse gas emissions as well as our landfills.
“700,000 tons of used clothing gets exported overseas and 2.5 million tons of clothing are recycled. But over three million tons are incinerated, and a staggering 10 million tons get sent to landfills,” According to Green America.
Green America recommends people still donate, but to be more cautious of their new purchases. In regards to buying new clothes, the website also recommends looking for secondhand clothing from thrift stores or online businesses – which includes vintage shops such as those found on Depop.
While Kim is gaining profit in her Depop store, in the bigger picture of things, she's also playing a part in helping our environment. Most of the clothing that she's purchased for her store could have most likely gone straight to our landfills, but it's because she knows how to market clothing and find potential in her merchandise that allows her to make a business for herself.
As I previously mentioned, Kim has garnered quite some views on her TikTok videos, especially from these next three videos below. Would you be able to guess which one got her the most hate?
Look at videos one, two, and three before scrolling to the next paragraph, and guess which one gained her the most hate comments.
Number 1
The TikTok shows the items that Kim left behind at the thrift store while finding clothes for her Depop, which became her most popular video to date with over 2 million views and almost 400 comments. Unlike the next two videos, she didn't purchase anything in this video despite featuring an abundance of clothing that Kim admitted she regrets not buying. Most of the clothing featured in the video fits her brand's aesthetic, which is mostly consistent of #y2kfashion and #fairygrunge.
Number 2
This TikTok focuses on just one pair of boots that Kim purchased for her Depop store. The boots look rather unique and stylish, which is what attracted nearly 1 million views and over 1500 comments. Kim notes in the video that they are rare vintage Steve Madden boots, and that they aren't her size. At the end of the TikTok, she tags her Depop username for people interested in purchasing the boots.
Number 3
This last TikTok is a standard Thrift Haul video, featuring all of the merchandise Kim bought from her thrift store. The video has gained almost 1 million views as well, and over 1100 comments. Unlike the other two videos, this TikTok is Kim's usual kind of content. 17 out of the 19 videos on her TikTok page are of hauls like this in which she documents all of her recent findings, and then captions it saying everything is available on her Depop. Videos 1 and 2 are the only TikToks that do not conform to that exact structure.
If you guessed Number 2, you’re right! The video, unlike the other two most popular videos, only featured one item. The boots attracted an extreme amount of attention – and the boots, alone. Therefore, when people rushed to her Depop to try and get the boots first, they were stumped by the price: $400.
Viewers of the TikTok quickly realized that ShopKatKim did not purchase these boots for $400, or perhaps anything near it. This angered the commenters, who believed this was a selfish purchase since Kim wouldn’t be wearing the boots herself – and they could’ve gone to someone who truly appreciates them. For the record, the boots sold for the $400 asking price – so it’s safe to say they went to someone who truly appreciates them.
The reason the boots video didn’t get as much love was because as soon as a viewer clicked the comment section, they saw a flood of people clearly indicating the price. The other Haul videos didn’t mention any prices, and even if they did, most of her items range in the $20-$50 area – with the exception of a few rare finds priced higher. The $400 tag definitely gained some attention considering the far-out price, and because people knew she could have charged hundreds of dollars less and still gain a profit, they made sure to let their opinions known to Kim.
“I miss when thrifting wasn’t a trend,” one user said. This user, who is literally gate-keeping ethical shopping, earned nearly 10 thousand likes.
“First and foremost, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and should be able to express that opinion. Thrifting and reselling is a pretty complex issue. I’m very glad to know people are raising awareness to surrounding topics such as accessibility to resources, gentrification. With that said though, I do strongly disagree with the viewpoint that there is something unethical with reselling,” Kim said.
In the bigger picture of things, buying and reselling is not only causing zero harmful impact, but it’s also beneficial to our environment. Therefore, what truly upsets people is the simple fact that they did not get to those desirable clothes first. As I said, Kim values her privacy and therefore she doesn’t reveal her location to any of her customers or TikTok followers. Those people have no idea where the thrift store that had those boots even were. Perhaps they were in a small town with a population of 5, perhaps they were in a Goodwill superstore in the middle of nowhere. Realistically, those boots could have ended up being incinerated and ending up as a small contribution to our total number of greenhouse gas emissions.
What consumers must accept is that Depop is not an online Goodwill. You will not be finding sought after pieces for cheap prices simply because that’s what the seller bought it for. Depop is not a consumer-driven app, it’s seller-driven. It’s a place to set up your own business, your own merchandise, and therefore – your own prices. However, this sort of business didn’t come with Depop, it’s been existing for quite some time.
According to Zippia, personal shoppers earn an average annual salary of $35,086. Along with this statistic, it’s also reported that the unemployment rate for personal shoppers has gone down exponentially from the years 2010-2019 (graph shown below). Personal shoppers are becoming more in demand, and like any business, the need for social media and online interaction became a must. So much so, chain retail shops such as Nike, Amazon and Sephora have implemented personal shopping experiences online to gain more customer loyalty since a reported 80% of customers prefer to shop with companies that offer this kind of service.
Photo courtesy of Zippia.com
Depop sellers, such as Kim, spend the same amount of time and energy choosing a variety of attractive and trendy clothing as a personal shopper would for their own business. Sellers must be aware of their market, and what merchandise can gain them profit. It requires knowledge of brands, trends, and market values.
As shown in Kim’s business, there is work to it, and while some prices can be seen as high, it’s still a business at the end of the day. In reality, she needs to market her own merchandise the way she finds appropriate. She makes up her own prices, and she can only hope that someone is willing to pay. Kim is not forcing anyone to purchase her clothing, and this – as well as other Depop shops alike – do not prevent people from thrifting themselves. .
Another business operation that exhibits the same kind of work ethic as Kim is seen in vintage boutiques such as Reformation Vintage, Wasteland, and TheRealReal in Los Angeles. These businesses attract many happy customers who are willing to pay their hefty prices since they are aware of the shopping environment they're going into – which is certainly unlike any Goodwill despite it also being secondhand clothing.
"What I do isn't really different from what a vintage shop in LA or New York does. I curate items, I create a selection, and I do increase the price because you're paying for the convenience of not having to pick through all of the items yourself. No one would ever go into a vintage store and tell them what they're doing is unethical. I think that's a part of doing things online, you're subject to peoples criticism. It's just something you have to deal with," Kim said.
Photos courtesy of MelroseAvenue-Shop.com, Guest of a Guest.com, and LoopNet.com, respectively.
Consumers are always paying for a middle man in any business that they contribute to. The clothing that you purchase anywhere was produced for less, but it’s the convenience of a shop instead of a warehouse that people are paying service to. While it’s easy to bully a business online with the veil of a screen to protect you, TikTok viewers have to realize that this is the way every store operates. Additionally, the bigger picture reveals that most clothing that ends up in the donation centers will then be processed through different stages – up until an inevitable 10 million tons of clothing will be sent to landfills. We must contribute to helping our environment by shopping for secondhand clothing any way that we can, and luckily the price ranges for doing so are quite large.
In the end, Kim is happy with her TikTok popularity and she has tried to see past the hate comments because she knows what she’s doing is ethically right. She hopes to continue learning and growing within her business, and now that she's created a stable following, she also hopes to integrate her own artwork into her merchandise sometime in the near future.
"I keep my identity pretty private, I don't consider myself an influencer or any sort of online celebrity or presence, so I'm not particularly used to all of that attention – let alone negative attention. It can be upsetting, but deep down I know it's an environmentally and ethically sustainable practice. I'm trying to make a living, just like everyone else. Over time, I've gotten better at handling it [but] I don't think I'll ever feel used to it," Kim said.
Initially, the hate on the boots TikTok post did lead to having her listing taken down on Depop. However, Kim was ultimately able to appeal to Depop and have it reposted. As I mentioned, the boots did sell for the full asking price, perhaps to a viewer of said TikTok; Like they say, any publicity is good publicity.
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