GOAT Is Showing Us the Next Evolution of Secondhand Fashion – Esquire

There are a million ways to frame this. Nothing gold can stay, if youre feeling poetic. Turn! Turn! Turn! if youre feeling musical. A vibe shift is coming, if youre feeling like a particularly logged-on denizen of the internet this week. However you express it, the gist is the same: things change. Which brings us, of course, to sneakers.

The value of the sneaker resale market jumped from $6 billion to $10 billion between 2019 and 2021, according to research firm Piper Sandler, as reported by Grey Journal. It might grow to $30 billion by 2030, according to Cowen Equity Research. And as anyone with a SNKRS account knows, the boom time for limited-edition sneakers is still very much booming. Scoring a W on a particularly coveted release at retail remains rare, which sends people in droves to spots like StockX, eBay, and GOAT to buy those releases at a handsome markup.

But after a couple of pandemic years and the tentative feeling that were reemerging into a world thats fundamentally shifted, it should come as no surprise that some folks predict changes in the general cultureentertainment, food, fashionare not only coming but already underway. And when it comes to shopping, GOAT may just be showing us a glimpse of what the future of the secondhand marketplace will look like.

I think its really transcended the sneakerhead, honestly, says Eddy Lu, co-founder and CEO of GOAT. We dont even use that term in the office, because for us its about this new generation of shopper whos fashion forward. Hes forthright about the role sneaker resale plays in the platforms success; it was the foundation of the business when it launched, and still represents the lions share of revenue. But the idea now is to really tap into people who care about fashion and just care about what they wear.

Courtesy

Thats just plain good business. After all, as The New York Times reported, the secondhand clothing market could go from $36 billion in 2022 to $77 billion in 2025, according to ThredUp, a resale platform, and GlobalData, an analytics firm. But the move also represents, if not a major reappraisal of the way one of the biggest sneaker marketplaces out there does business, at least a blurring of the lines between two customer bases (sneakerheads and fashion fans) who were once considered separate. Lu points to game-changers like Virgil Abloh and the increasingly porous relationship between streetwear and high fashion as big influences. But it also might come down to something as simple as an evolving customer base thats finally realized, in defiance of peak NikeTalk-era jokes about poorly dressed sneakerheads, that putting together a whole fit is something worthwhile.

I mean, it's just so complementary, Lu says. Thats why we're seeing such quick growth because apparel completes the whole look. We don't just sell apparel. We sell accessories as well. So we're selling sneakers and we know what sneakers you buy, so it's like, Hey, this is the apparel that will look amazing with the sneaker that you buy.

Courtesy

That said, its not just sneakerheads flocking to GOATs seemingly endless scroll of items for inspiration. Its young heads newly enamored of 90s and 2000s fashion. Its people in search of an in-season item thats sold out at department stores. Its deal-hunters looking to save a few bucks (Lu says about 30-40 percent of GOAT transactions are for items below retail price). And more than anything, its people who, perhaps exhausted by digital homogeneity, want to put together a look that feels a little different, a little less cookie-cuttera little more like themselvesand want a platform that sells things both old and new, mass-market and rare, to help them put it together.

All the toys and all that stuff are digital now, Lu says. But when you go out, the stuff that you wear really represents who you are and what you're about.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io

Read more:

GOAT Is Showing Us the Next Evolution of Secondhand Fashion - Esquire