Resale Revalued
What the U.S. secondhand market can tell your brand
Resale now shapes how consumers discover brands, judge prices and decide what to buy new. Find out what your secondary market can tell you, and how to start using it.
The intelligence layer behind America’s secondhand boom
Sneakers, handbags, denim and fine jewelry are changing hands on secondhand platforms at roughly four times the growth rate of new-goods retail. The shoppers behind this growth are not only looking for a good price: they discover brands there, build loyalty, and increasingly decide what to buy new based on what a piece is worth used. For most brands, resale has become a source of market intelligence they do not yet know how to read.
This whitepaper brings together independent research on the U.S. resale market to show where it stands today, why it matters to brand strategy, and what sets apart the companies already getting value from it.
What you will learn
$78B
Where the U.S. resale market stands
The U.S. secondhand apparel market is on track to reach roughly $78 billion by 2030, growing at around 7% a year and representing about a fifth of the projected $393 billion global secondhand market.
Online resale is expected to nearly double by 2029, approaching $40 billion: in the most recent full year of data, it grew eight times faster than the broader retail clothing sector.
Brands are responding: more than 150 U.S. brands now run an official resale program, up from single digits before 2020. Apparel drives volume, but watches and fine jewelry hold around three quarters of resale value, so a strategy built only on apparel data reads half the market.
Up to 1,000%
Which resale strategy fits your brand
Some brands resell at nearly 1,000% above retail, while others capture almost none of their own resale market. The research groups brands into four recurring types, based on how well their products hold value and how much of their secondary market they can see.
90 days
How to get started
That is the typical time to market with a resale as a service partner, compared with 18 to 24 months for an in house build. The whitepaper compares the three ways to start, including partnering with a marketplace, with lessons from real launches, including one that did not work.
Who should read it
Leaders in strategy, merchandising, sustainability and e-commerce at fashion, footwear and luxury brands. In most companies each of these functions holds a piece of resale, with partial visibility and no shared ownership. The whitepaper gives them a common picture of the market and of the paths available, from using secondhand data as an intelligence layer to running a fully owned program.
Research base
The paper is built on research by NYU Stern Luxury & Retail MBA ’25 candidates into the U.S. resale market, spanning mid-market apparel, streetwear, sneakers and fine jewelry. Working from different categories and brand sets, these independent analyses reached remarkably similar conclusions. Real program launches from the past two years add practical evidence to the findings.
