(Dunusa: Life of a Garment by Jack Markovitz, Sante Chiweshe, Khumo Morojele, Hlagu Junia, Tracy Mokgopo, Zano Nkosi, 2023)

Across Africa, roughly a third of the population wears secondhand clothes, not as a trend, but as their primary way to access clothing.

Yet when we talk to investors and European fashion consumers about sustainability and fashion in Africa, we keep hearing the same thing: "Buying secondhand fashion is not popular yet in South Africa/Africa."

This is an interesting perspective.

Let's unpack why this misconception persists, what it costs us, and what we're missing.

The Benchmark Problem: Europe's Model

When people say shopping secondhand fashion isn't popular in Africa, they're comparing us to what's happening in more developed markets, particularly Europe.

And it's true: in Europe, secondhand shopping is mainstream, trendy, and deeply connected to sustainability culture. The resale market there is mature and well-developed, supported by platforms and tech solutions that make buying and selling secondhand clothes as easy as ordering groceries online.

People buy secondhand largely to ease their guilt around fast fashion - you get the thrill of something "new" while doing the "right" thing for the planet at a much lower price. And there is nothing wrong with that.

The numbers back this up: according to McKinsey's State of Fashion 2024 and a BCG x Vestiaire Collective report, new clothing sales are growing in the low single digits (2–4%), while clothing resale is scaling roughly three times faster. Platforms like Vinted, one of Europe's biggest resale sites, grew 61% in 2023 and hit profitability, proof that secondhand shopping is now completely mainstream.

So yes, secondhand is a big deal in Europe. We are not disputing that.

The African Reality: Already Thriving at Scale

(Dunusa: Life of a Garment by Jack Markovitz, Sante Chiweshe, Khumo Morojele, Hlagu Junia, Tracy Mokgopo, Zano Nkosi, 2023)

In South Africa and Africa at large, people buy secondhand fashion, alot!

Let's look at what the data actually tells us:

• Kenya: The mitumba trade supports around 2 million livelihoods and brought in about $300 million in imports in 2023, moving nearly 184,000 tons of clothing annually. (Apparel Views, 2024)
• Ghana: Kantamanto Market in Accra handles about 15 million garments every week, employing roughly 30,000 people. (The OR Foundation, 2025); (Vogue Business, 2025)
• South Africa: The South African market sized can be conservatively sized at $50 million to $100 million annually including the retail of imported garments, resale of garments not imported through customer-to-customer transactions and charity shops, with 70% to 80% of the market being informal. (Trend Economy, 2024; Stats SA, 2025; Standard Bank, 2025; Guzzle, 2024).
• Continent-wide: Africa's recorded imports of secondhand clothing sit around $1.7–1.8 billion (2022)—and that's just the formal numbers. Once you factor in mark-ups, repairs, and resales, the true market value is easily in the billions of dollars annually. (Business Insider Africa, 2023), (Fibre 2 Fashion Report, 2023).
• One estimate suggests roughly a third of Africans wear secondhand clothes, and in many markets each tonne of imports supports nearly two full-time jobs. (Hissen Global, 2023)
• It’s also reported that the market recirculates about 25 million pieces per month through resale, reuse, repair and remanufacture. (Fashiondive, 2025).

This is not a niche market. It's not "emerging." It's already here, operating at massive scale, we just don't frame it that way because it doesn't look like Vinted or Depop.

The Class Bias: Who Gets to Define "Popular"?

(Waste Files for Dazed Magazine by Jack Markovitz, Khumo Mojarele, Khanyi Masina, Thato Ndzimande, Lombe Khosa, Zano Nkosi, Intima Studios, Hlengiwe Lala, Alain Kassa, Shakirah Sithole, Neo Lekhu, Kgosi Maleka; 2025)

Let's be honest about what's really happening here.

In South Africa and across Africa, secondhand shopping isn't "newly emerging", it's been a staple for decades. For many, it's the primary way to access clothing. Shopping "new" or firsthand is a privilege reserved for a minority.

But because this market is informal, meaning it operates outside formal retail structures, without digital platforms, brand partnerships, or VC backing, and because it's driven primarily by working class and poorer communities, it's rendered invisible.

Here's what "informal" means in practice: street markets, roadside vendors, community trading networks, person-to-person sales. No Shopify stores, no slick apps, no sustainability marketing. Just commerce at scale, driven by necessity and economic and resource efficiency.

When working class communities drive the secondhand market, it's not celebrated. It's dismissed as a sign of poverty or being "behind." But when the middle class and upper class start buying vintage or "pre-loved" pieces, suddenly it's framed as "an emerging trend".

That's the class bias at work.

Whenever something is adopted by the middle or upper classes, we treat it as new or use it as the stamp of what makes something "mainstream." And in a context like Africa, where most of the population is working class from poorer communities, how many of our innovations and economic systems are we discounting merely because the middle and upper class minority haven't yet adopted them?

This is not a minor framing issue. It has real consequences.

The Missed Opportunity

By undervaluing our existing secondhand ecosystem, we're leaving significant impact and economic value on the table.

Because the market is mostly informal, it's not seen as a legitimate part of the fashion and retail economy. That means we're missing opportunities to:

• Formalise the sector to create more structured jobs and businesses
• Grow complementary industries: clothing repair, upcycling, textile sorting each with huge job-creation potential
• Build localized digital and logistics platforms that serve African needs and contexts. Not just copying Depop or Vinted, but creating solutions that work for informal traders, mobile-first consumers, and local payment systems
• Connect it to the retail of locally produced firsthand
• Position Africa as a sustainability leader, not just a follower waiting to catch up to Europe

There is no reason we can’t grow both the firsthand market for ethically and locally made products that creates local jobs, as well as the secondhand market to extend the garment lifecycle, while making locally produced apparel accessible and affordable.

What Investors Miss

Here's what investors and retailers need to understand: we're not "behind" Europe. We have a different model entirely.

Europe's model: Ethical consumption as a moral choice, supported by digital platforms, venture capital, and sustainability marketing.

Africa's model: Resource efficiency as an economic reality, operating through informal networks and driven by affordability.

Both keep clothes in circulation. Both reduce waste. Both are circular. One could even argue that circularity motivated by practicality and necessity has greater potential to drive lasting behavior change than trying to convince people to shop secondhand for moral reasons.

By mischaracterising Africa's secondhand market as underdeveloped or "not yet popular," investors and retailers are missing a massive opportunity. This market doesn't need to be created, it needs to be recognised, supported, and formalised.

What Needs to Change

We need to shift our mindset and our metrics.

Instead of measuring "progress" by whether African consumers adopt European-style sustainability shopping, we should recognise that we already have circularity and sustainability embedded in our economic DNA. It just looks different.

The question isn't "How do we get Africans to shop secondhand?" They already do.

The real questions are:

• How do we formalise and support existing networks without destroying what makes them work?
• How do we build infrastructure and platforms that serve the actual users of this market, not just the middle class minority?
• How do we value and measure the economic and environmental impact that's already happening?
• How do we position this market and the innovation opportunities within it accurately to investors and partners?

The African secondhand clothing market is not a sign of poverty or lack of development. It's a sophisticated, massive, resilient economy that's been operating sustainably for decades.

It's time we saw it and invested in it as such.