Disclosure: I was approached by thredUP and asked to take the “thredUP Challenge” on their dime—could/would I wear used clothing for a week, if they let me choose 5-7 outfits from the site? All clothing featured in this post provided to me, but—as always—all opinions are my own.
The initial “challenge” to wear used clothing for a week for a smaller eco-fashion-footprint kind of made me giggle. I wear used clothing all the time. I’m a hardcore thrifter, and while I appreciate the environmental benefits, mostly I just have expensive taste but want to save money. So secondhand clothing has always been a big part of filling out my closet. Was I up for this challenge? Absofreakinglutely.
I made my selections, and about a week later a polka-dotted box arrived:
Read on to hear more about my experience with the site and to see me posing awkwardly in my new-to-me clothes!
The premise of the thredUP site is right up my alley: Find gently-used or even new-with-tags brand-name clothing at a fraction of the original retail cost, without having to paw through your local Goodwill or risk finding items which are soiled are otherwise damaged. This means you’ll pay a little more than you’d pay at your local thrift store (boo), but everything you get will be pristine (yay!). You can also sell them your unwanted clothing, too.
What I loved: These are clothes I want to buy. There’s no worries about the condition of the items, shipping is very reasonable ($2.99 + $.99/item up to orders of $50, then free shipping after that), and their return policy looks hassle-free, too. You can filter by brand and/or size successfully (filtering by color is also available, but I found that less reliable). You can also sort by the standard sorts of things like price, what’s new, etc. Every item I received could’ve been brand new.
The drawbacks: My experience with thredUP was almost entirely positive, but I’ll share what I didn’t like, too. Items are presented with a single photo; although that photo is quite large/detailed, you can’t see the backs of the items, which I found frustrating. The skirt I picked, for example, doesn’t have any back pockets (I wish it did), and a dress I chose has a sash that ties in the back, which was not obvious to me from the photo. Also, as someone who has a tremendous amount of difficulty finding bottoms that fit properly (curvy ladies with small waists, represent!), you’d better believe I know which brands/cuts work for me… but there is no additional fit information offered on the thredUP site. So, for example, I took a chance on a pair of LOFT cargo pants because they looked like a cut that fits me well, and I was right, they fit great. But the Gap skirt is not the cut of theirs that works as well for me, and I need to wear a belt with it. I wish that information was given in the item description, or even just that there was a close-up pic of the tag available, because cut info is often displayed there. Finally, I know the items are color-coded because there’s a sort-by-color option, but nowhere on the items is this information displayed. Maybe it’s nit-picky, but sometimes it’s hard to tell from a picture whether something is navy blue or black, for example. I’d love to see the color name displayed on the item page. Basically, I want more information, period.
The challenge was to put together a week’s worth of outfits, so let’s see how I did.
For Monday’s outfit I went with a blouse from Banana Republic and a denim skirt from Gap. It’s maybe hard to tell from the picture, but the blouse is kind of a cotton sateen with a lot of interesting stitch-work, so despite this being a “hi, I’m a soccer mom in suburbia” kind of outfit, I think the blouse makes it a little more interesting.
On Tuesday I went for a more typical hang-around-the-house outfit for me, a fun t-shirt (which was supposedly $43 new from The Limited; if you think I would ever pay that for a t-shirt you are on drugs) and a pair of long cargo shorts. I’m also wearing the purple leather thong sandals I picked out because they turned out to be really comfortable and good for just about everything.
For the Wednesday outfit let’s pretend I don’t live on the surface of the sun, and either it’s stopped being a zillion degrees with a thousand percent humidity in Georgia, or it’s a rainy day and I’m inside (preferably somewhere nice and cool). Anyway! The blouse is from Izod, which means my 8th grade former self who wanted nothing more than a polo shirt with a real Izod alligator on it is totally jealous. I had no idea Izod actually made anything other than polos, but I think this blouse may be my favorite thing in the box. It’s cute, it’s lightweight, it’s fun. And I will get tons of wear out of the cargo pants once summer is over. I think you can tell from the picture, though, that I was melting in them right now.
It seemed like Thursday would be a good time to go back to the cargo shorts (if I told you how often I wear cargo shorts for real you’d… ummm… know I have a real affinity for cargo shorts), and this time I paired them with a white top from LOFT that I could’ve just as easily worn with a skirt or jeans. [Here let us pause and consider my husband, the photographer, who didn’t bother to mention that the under-bust seam on that shirt had ridden up as I ran down to the yard. I swear the shirt fits properly. I was just too hot/lazy to reshoot the picture, and prefer hassling my husband for being oblivious.]
And finally, for Friday I figured if I wore a dress, probably my husband would offer to take me out to dinner (he did). Here’s another place where I wish the thredUP site had a bit more info—this dress is a little on the short side for me, I think, and I might’ve thought twice about it if I’d known the length. It’s BCBG, though, which is a brand I love, and the fabric’s cute, and maybe I can just be in denial about my age and wear it anyway. (Hey, my teenage daughter said it was okay, and she’s usually the first one to say, “You can not wear that!”)
Speaking of my daughter, you may have noticed in the picture of the clothing that started this post that there was a rainbow-striped dress, as well. That went straight to her, as it fell squarely in the you-are-too-old-to-wear-that-Mom territory. (I agreed. I picked it for her, really.)
This meant I got a whole week’s worth of outfits, plus an outfit for my kid, for around $140. I celebrated the generous gift of receiving these clothes by… going right back over to thredUP to buy a few more things (true story).
If you sign up for thredUP as a new customer, they’ll give you a $10 credit good towards your next order. If that doesn’t appeal to you, you’re probably in the wrong place. And yes, they carry kids’ clothes, too!
Bottom line: I’ll be shopping at thredUP when I need a secondhand fix and don’t have the time and/or patience to hit up my local Goodwill.
So glad you had a good experience! I had a fairly good experience when I bought children’s clothes from them, too, though I was also frustrated by the single photo and lack of additional information issue. The quality was excellent, but I bought a couple pairs of pants that I thought were regular cotton yoga pants but turned out to be velour-type pants, which are way too hot most days here in the South. A word of warning on selling with them, though: it’s very convenient, but they buy clothing for only about 10% of their own selling price. I sent a bag stuffed FULL and after over a month of waiting for them to post the credit, more than half the bag was rejected (I really don’t know why…they were all acceptable brands, and I did not seen any damage or stains when I checked them)….and I got less than $6 credit. I hope this doesn’t sound like sour grapes — I will shop with them again — but next time I will donate to my local Salvation Army or pass down to a friend instead.
I had a good experience with a purchase from ThredUp recently… a gorgeous dress for $2.98 (I had coupon codes!)
It came quickly, and was in fantastic condition.
I agree with Amelia on the selling experience. I was really, really disappointed. Semi-rant ahead.
I sent in two bags. The first bag I got an ok return from. Not what I was expecting, but ok. So I decided to do it again and sent a bag stuffed with clothing and a few pairs of shoes and I got less than $10. For example: The shoes were brand new, had tags, were suede and were Simple brand. They didn’t accept them. I am incredibly picky about stains, pilling, etc. I’ve consigned with super picky consignment stores for years. I feel like I know what to look for, and I went over that stuff with a fine toothed comb before I sent it. Less than $10.
As far as purchasing, I’ve done it once. I ordered two pairs of shorts. The next day, I got a paypal notice that ThredUp was refunding part of my money. When I got the package in the mail, I only had one pair of shorts, hence the refund, I guess. I was never notified that I wasn’t going to get the second pair. No emails, nothing on my account info on the website.
I think it’s interesting that they’re selling women’s clothing now, but I don’t think I’ll try it.
I had no idea they even had adult clothes – but I’ve ordered once for my one-year-old, and loved everything we got. I’m impressed by how many things you got were NWT, thanks for sharing!
I’ve been considering selling clothes to them – these comments have helped me decide to go another route! They do have cute stuff (especially for kids) – and they even carry plus clothes (for women like me without tiny waists – but still curvy figures!).
Thanks for the info, Mir!
Look at MIR, rockin’ the straight hair!! You and your second hand clothes terrific. Nice pix, Otto.
Lately the thrift and consignment stores have been triggering my asthma, so I would need to wear a mask to go in… and that just doesn’t seem polite, so I haven’t been thrifting clothing. I just tried Thred up and bought a dress for work for $20. Hopefully I’ll like it when it arrives!
I agree that the dress looks a little shorter than I would expect from you…ya know cause I *know* you so well!…but it doesn’t look inappropriately short. Any hey, it got you a dinner out with your husband, so sounds like a winner to me!
Ha, I got so carried away with the bitching that I didn’t even comment on the pics. You look great. 🙂 My favorite is that Limited tshirt because look at that figure!
I was not familiar with ThredUp, but it seems like a business I would like and support….as I am a big consignment shopper and consignor. So I’m definitely going to take a look. What a great little project you did….I love the photos of each day’s outfit. Very cool. Thanks for sharing ~
Your hair! I love your hair!
*ahem*
Anyway, those pants are exactly the style I’d love to wear. You did a great job picking out sizes. How do you decide what sizes to get in different brands?
I love that you love my hair. 😉
All of the shirts were size Small; I figured those were probably safe. All of the bottoms were size 4—my regular size—though as I mentioned, the cut of the skirt isn’t quite right in the waist. I took a chance on the Jag shorts because I’ve never bought that brand before, but the picture looked like they were the right shape. I lucked out!
I love the shirt from Izod — and I never would have imagined it was from them. This is the most you “challenge” that I can imagine. (Challenge: I do not think that word means what you think it means. 😉 )
I’m glad you had a positive experience. BUT. They have multiple complaints filed with the BBB, based on the consigning end of things. Anywhere you search for information about ThredUP, you get hundreds of angry customers who feel cheated out of their money. I’m surprised this company is still in business!
Laura, I can only speak to my experience in terms of buying from them, obviously, and I’m also under no obligation to defend the company in any way. That said, given the prices of items on the site, I think it’s clear that consigning with them is hardly going to be a moneymaker. Most of the complaints I see are all “but they hardly paid me anything!” Well… yeah, look at the prices they sell at. You’re not going to recoup whatever you paid, period.
I looked them up on the BBB site (based on your comment) and they have a given rating of A (and that rating factors in, among other things, complaints received).
For comparison’s sake, I went ahead and looked up Better World Books, because it’s a similar model (though BWB gets most of their books via donation, I think) and I’ve ordered from them a dozen times with no issues. They have 40 complaints on file for the same time period where thredUP has 79. (They also have an A+ rating.) Personally I think any company that has fewer than 100 filed complaints over a 3 year period is probably doing okay.
Look, I’m not trying to change anyone’s mind, but people complain about stuff. And while there are complaints, there’s also plenty of satisfied customers, they just tend not to be as loud. Caveat emptor and all that, of course.