Used clothing used to be for students short of funds, but is now a ¥500 billion market and increasingly accepted by mainstream consumers.
ZOZOTOWN (zozo.jp) is the largest dedicated fashion-shopping portal in Japan with 3 million users. With a famously fashion-forward customer base, many were surprised when its owner, START TODAY, bought a clothing auction site called Crown Jewel in June of last year. The deal in fact symbolised the growing acceptance of used clothing, and START TODAY has even integrated the business into ZOZOTOWN, encouraging those buying new to send in old apparel at the same time. START TODAY expects 10% of sales to come from recycling old threads within a few years.
This is in line with industry projections as a whole. Funai Soken’s research suggests the market has grown from less than ¥100 billion a decade ago to close to ¥400 billion in 2010 and, given current growth rates, forecasts a market of ¥1-1.3 trillion within a few years, about 10% of the apparel market overall.
Today, the country recycles about 12% of its two million tons of textile waste for either reuse or conversion to fuel. This sounds reasonable, but Japan remains way behind South Korea, which recycles or reuses 80% of its old clothes, and the US, which recycles around one-third.
There have been two key hindrances. One is consumer sensitivity, with many wrinkling their nose at the idea of wearing someone’s trade-offs, and the other is low supply of decent product. The first is a question of time, as younger generations are increasingly exposed to well-marketed online and retail used-clothing stores. There are now more than 10 rapidly expanding chains ranging from mass-market like 2nd STREET to hip stores like DonDonDown on Wednesday, along with luxury brand specialists like Komehyo. With more stores, chains are now marketing to local households to sell off old stock, solving the problem of supply too.