Are Resale and Repair Actually Good for Sustainability?
By Flawless Magazine
Circular fashion — the promise of extending the life of garments through resale and repair — is gaining mainstream traction. Platforms like Vestiaire Collective, eBay, and Depop are championing a new vision of consumption, where fashion’s value doesn’t expire with a season. But does circularity live up to its sustainability claims?
As these platforms scale and the secondhand economy matures, the industry is now faced with a more nuanced question: is the resale revolution actually reducing fashion’s environmental footprint — or just shifting it?
Extending Lifespan, Reducing Waste
At its core, resale helps keep garments in circulation longer. When a jacket is bought secondhand rather than new, it displaces the environmental cost of manufacturing an entirely new garment — including raw material extraction, textile dyeing, and shipping.
Similarly, repair services — from sneaker restoration to luxury bag refurbishing — are gaining consumer interest. Companies like The Restory and Sojo are building scalable models to help consumers love and maintain their garments for years, not months.
By extending the lifespan of a product by just nine months, research from WRAP suggests carbon, water, and waste footprints can be reduced by 20-30%.
The Rebound Effect
However, the rise of resale also brings potential unintended consequences. Consumers may justify buying more fast fashion, knowing they can simply “resell it later.” Platforms sometimes function more as trend accelerators than reducers of demand. And with the convenience of online resale comes packaging waste, increased shipping emissions, and the risk of “recommerce” becoming another form of overconsumption.
The result? Circularity becomes less about reducing production and more about replacing linear consumption with infinite loops of buying and selling.
Platform Accountability
Vestiaire Collective is taking steps to quantify impact. In 2023, it became the first resale platform to ban fast fashion entirely and introduced environmental savings reports to help users understand the emissions and water saved by buying secondhand.
eBay has also invested heavily in its certified refurbished programme and repair partnerships, while Depop is experimenting with educational campaigns around mindful consumption.
But experts warn: without standardised metrics and third-party verification, it’s difficult to know whether resale platforms are truly sustainable — or simply marketing circularity as a feel-good, guilt-free shopping experience.
Scaling Repair Culture
Repair remains more niche than resale, in part because of cultural perceptions. In many parts of the world, repairing clothes has been seen as a sign of economic necessity, not choice. That narrative is shifting as Gen Z embraces customisation and craft, and as more brands launch in-house or third-party repair services.
Policy is beginning to catch up too. The EU’s Right to Repair legislation and new durability standards signal that repair could soon become not just a lifestyle, but a legal obligation for brands.
Flawless Perspective
Resale and repair can absolutely be part of fashion’s sustainability solution — but they’re not a silver bullet. Their success depends on how they’re used, by whom, and at what scale.
If the goal is true sustainability, then resale and repair must reduce the total volume of new production, not just extend the runway for waste.
Fashion doesn’t just need circular models — it needs circular mindsets. One where the value of a garment is measured not just by style or status, but by longevity, ethics, and impact.
