A photo of my mother from 1994 has her in a nearly identical outfit to what I would wear today—baggy jeans, crop top, oversized button down, Doc Martens. While she handpicked her outfit during days spent roaming the mall, mine was curated through visits to thrift shops and secondhand sites.
I’m far from the only one rummaging through Goodwill bins. Thrifting is more popular than ever, with the US secondhand market reaching $56 billion in 2025, up 14% year over year.
A 2026 consumer study reports that 83% of Gen Z purchase clothing secondhand, 11% more than the average for all age groups. In fact, more than a third of Gen Z shop exclusively secondhand.
It’s easy to chalk up the popularity of thrifting to the influence of social media—algorithms allow aesthetics like 90s grunge or Y2K to spread rapidly. TikTok and Instagram are loaded with videos tagged “thriftmas hauls” and “thrift styling.”
Meanwhile, Depop, an app entirely built on reselling vintage pieces, boasts 56 million registered users, 90% of whom are under the age 26. As members of the most cash-strapped generation since the Great Depression, an astounding 82% of Gen Z shoppers consider the resale value of an item before purchasing it.
Declining quality
The rise of thrifting is more than just a trend driven by influencers. There’s a material reason why the top you just bought is already wonky and discolored, while your dad’s old Alice in Chains T-shirt is perfectly worn-in: they were produced entirely differently.
As the economic boom of the 1990s waned, clothing brands sought to cut manufacturing costs while maintaining profits. They shifted away from higher-quality materials. Older clothes were often made with natural materials, heavy fabrics, and stronger stitching. Today, most clothes are made from synthetic fabrics prone to pilling and losing shape.
Synthetic materials like polyester are incredibly cheap to produce, costing half as much per kilo as cotton. Between 1995 and 2023, natural fibers declined from 54% to 27% of the global textile market, while synthetic fibers increased to 73%.
While trying to capitalize on the throwback trend, Gap re-released a collection from the late 90s called Happy Stripe. While the originals were 100% cotton knit, the re-issue used synthetic mesh. “$54 for the flimsiest polyester tank top you’ve ever seen in your life btw,” one Tiktok commenter wrote. Other comments get right to the point: “We want sustainable and natural fibers,” and “I’m so tired of plastic clothes!”
In addition to being less breathable and comfortable to wear, synthetic fabrics depend on fossil fuels to produce. In 2015, polyester production for textiles alone produced emissions equivalent to Mexico’s annual greenhouse gas emissions. More than 85% of textile waste in the US ends up in landfills, where it will take up to half a millennium to decay. Recent studies have even found that synthetic fibers account for 92% of microplastic pollution in the Arctic ocean.
Nostalgia
The search for quality isn’t the only thing driving the trend. 90s nostalgia reflects a deep despair with the present state of society.
Young people entered adulthood amid rising inflation, stagnant wages, and soaring housing and healthcare costs. They are the most educated generation ever, but they face the worst job market in over a decade. Many live paycheck to paycheck, drowning in student loans or other debt.
Gen Z’s image of the 1990s comes primarily through old photos, television, music, and the internet. For many, the 90s seem more authentic and less commercialized. It’s easy to look back through rose-tinted glasses and see a period of American life that appeared more optimistic, economically stable, and socially connected. Gen Z is nostalgia chasing—looking back to a period where work didn’t seem as draining and consumer goods were higher quality and more affordable.
The way young people dress today is not only a reflection of changing tastes, but the symptom of a system no longer able to provide a quality life, or even quality clothes. The only real solution is to take society forward through the socialist revolution, instead of harkening to a utopian vision of the past.