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What happens to the estimated 20 billion units of baby and kidswear sold annually when they grow out of them? Ideally these items are kept in the loop, rather than sent to landfill, and that’s where secondhand marketplaces come in. Retykle is one of them, and it also happens to carry a variety of Good On You’s top-rated brands to help consumers find more sustainable items for their little ones. Read on to discover some of the designers on the platform.
Why secondhand kidswear is great for circularity and affordability
There’s something so exciting about back-to-school season and its annual promise of new stationery (and we’d argue that appeal runs far past childhood). But school clothes? Not so much. If you’re shopping for kids, you’ll know how quickly they grow out of things and how wasteful and expensive that can become. In fact, there are roughly seven sizes of clothes that kids grow through in their first two years, which equals a whole lot of garments.
Fashion executive Sarah Garner noticed this almost a decade ago after having her first baby, and it prompted her to create Retykle—a secondhand marketplace dedicated to keeping such items in circulation. Because according to the platform, of the 20 billion units of baby and children’s clothes sold every year, just 5% is secondhand, and that’s not enough to implement the level of circularity that the fashion industry so badly needs.
Retykle’s founder, Sarah Garner
While there are plenty of ways to find secondhand garments, Garner’s solution specialises in items for babies, children, and maternity. It also gathers all items at its facility (rather than working as a peer-to-peer resale platform), which means there’s a dedicated quality control process. Retykle’s team checks over everything that users send in for sale to ensure it’s clean and safe for little ones. The platform won’t accept items without care or brand labels either, so you can be confident in authenticity, fabric composition, and how they should be washed and cared for.
Secondhand kidswear is also a great way to reduce costs since items are cheaper than they would be new, with items on Retykle’s site between 50% and 90% below the original retail prices.
16 top-rated brands for secondhand childrenswear on Retykle
So, how to make the most of Retykle’s offering? The platform has roughly 100,000 secondhand items from a carefully selected roster of brands focused on quality, and it doesn’t accept items from fast fashion giants like Zara. You can search for exactly what you want using the detailed style and size-specific filters, as well as by pattern and occasion. Happily, there is a variety of brands rated “Good” or “Great” for their sustainability impact against Good On You’s methodology. Scroll on to discover them.
