InsideOutdoor | SPRING 2022 25 More than 45,000 pieces of outdoor clothing and goods found a new home in 2021 thanks to Geartrade’s UnNew recommerce marketplace. Nearly 17,000 outdoors goods have moved through the recommerce marketplace in the first quarter of 2022. The 20-plus-year-old company believes its resale statistics point to increasing awareness and acceptance of the resale market among outdoor gear consumers. It’s not a far-fetched notion, especially considering consumers’ need to stretch dollars and the current supply chain issues challenging traditional retail channels. Online resale leaders ThredUp recently estimated the secondhand market would double in the next five years, when it will reach $77 billion. ThredUp estimated that 33 million consumers purchased secondhand apparel for the first time in 2020, and three-quarters of them plan to increase their spending on reused apparel during the next five years. Meanwhile, a 2021 Jungle Scout survey found that about one in three U.S. consumers reported to looking for pre-owned items online, with 44 percent claiming to have purchased or sold used equipment online during the last 12 months. About two-thirds of that took place through Amazon. “At Geartrade we’ve always considered the outdoor industry’s climate impact as our most important challenge to face,” says Aaron Provine, Geartrade president. “When you look at the amount of gear we have kept in circulation, we’re both proud and daunted by the numbers. Over 45,000 units in a single year is incredible, but also proves how far we have to go as the collective outdoor industry.” Of the 45,590 pieces of used gear recirculated by Geartrade in the previous year, 21,201 were apparel. And according to ClimateScience.org, creating 1kg of fabric releases 20-23kg of greenhouse gasses. Assuming the average weight of a single apparel piece is 250g (the weight of a lightweight shell), Geartrade estimates it helps reduce the carbon footprint of the outdoor industry by 106,005kg of greenhouse gasses – which would be required to create 21,201 new pieces of gear based on this weight assumptions. “In concrete terms, that’s the equivalent amount of carbon sequestered by 1,753 tree seedlings grown for 10 years, according to the EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator,” said Geartrade executives. Apparel was by far the most sought-after item on the UnNew marketplace, said Provine, with bike, ski and climbing gear filling out the second, third and fourth spots. For vendor and retail brands looking for opportunities in recommerce, Arrive recently expanded its existing enterprise rental platform to include resale. While most resale platforms are focused on a customer take-back model as their core driver, Arrive’s primary focus is turning the major returns problem that retailers and brands face into a revenue-driving channel. With The Arrive Platform, Arrive builds and manages the circular commerce experience design and technical infrastructure, takes on all rental and resale inventory management and offers a fully branded customer support experience. “We know that roughly 25 percent of e-commerce orders are returned and there are a significant percentage of those returns that cannot be resold full price. Instead, these returns are often sent to off-price retailers, brand outlets, or even destroyed,” said Rachelle Snyder, Arrive CEO and co-founder. “Our model accepts these rejected returns where we refurbish, clean and grade them to be resold directly on a branded resale e-commerce site – ultimately turning a cost center into a profit center for our partners.” Geartrade Helps Keep More Than 45,000 Units Away from Landfills in 2021 Brand Watch also found that 94 percent of surveyed consumers rate sizing as the key barrier to purchasing garments online, reiterating the need for solutions to measure online customers and remotely match them with well-fitting garments, said 3DLOOK executives. Overall, the independent research concluded that the tool had “made a positive impact on Dickies brand image and was perceived to be strong in delivering a young and innovative image and sense of style.” Dickies also was able to reduce its customers’ reliance on support staff and improve the efficiency of the purchasing process, since about half of all support questions received are related to size, said the company. To use the solution, shoppers on Dickies Tmall store select a product, clicked on the measurement widget, and let the voice assistant guide them through the quick photo flow. From two photos — front and side — 3DLOOK’s technology obtains landmarks and more than 80+ measurement points using a patented combination of computer vision and 3D statistical modeling and compares the results with product data to determine the best size and fit for the customer’s body. Size and fit recommendations on 3DLOO
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