Haley Boehning (00:03)
Welcome to Retail Unwrapped, the Robin Report’s weekly conversation on the trends, consumer behaviors, and issues at the core of retail. I’m Haley Boning. 17 years ago, James Reinhardt co-founded ThredUp with one mission: inspire the world to think secondhand first. Today, it’s one of the largest online resale platforms in the world, having processed more than 230 million.

secondhand items since their founding. Today, ThreatUps 2,200 employees at the home office and in warehouses across the country offer 55,000 brands with 50,000 new items every day and more than 4 million to choose from on their website. They also power resale for brands like J.Crew, Madewell, Reformation, and Codopaxi. They call themselves a mission-driven tech company first, retailer second.

The second hand apparel market is on track to hit 393 billion by 2030, growing twice as fast as the rest of the apparel market. But the easy growth.

James tells us is over. Resale is getting more competitive and it’s getting more complex. And that’s exactly why James is making some of his most radical moves yet. Behind every bold business, there’s a brand story that deserves to be told. This is ThredUp

Haley Boehning (01:29)
Well, James, thank you so much for joining us on the Robin Report.

James Reinhart (01:34)
Thanks for having me. Great to be here.

Haley Boehning (01:35)
Yes. So uh ThredUp has been around for two decades. Is that about right? Almost I’m gonna yeah, you’re getting there. Almost two decades. Yes.

James Reinhart (01:41)
Almost. Almost. I’m not that old. We’re getting there. Yeah. Still a teenager. Still a teenager. Yeah.

Haley Boehning (01:47)
Yes. But you your uh origin story is one that started with just one sweater. I wonder if you could tell us about that moment for you.

James Reinhart (01:57)
Yeah, I mean, um I you know, I was in business school at the time and I was a teacher before that and I just didn’t I didn’t have any money and so I actually went to sell some of my clothes at a local consignment store. And yeah, there is an infamous J. Crew sweater, cashmere sweater that I tried to sell and they just wouldn’t take it.

And I just couldn’t understand why. I thought, God, this thing has value, you know. And it they’re like, we don’t we don’t do men’s, we just do luxury. And it was at that moment I thought the second hand market was was a little broken that somebody didn’t value my cashmere sweater. And so um so there’s a little bit more to it that but that that’s kinda where it all started.

Haley Boehning (02:34)
Well, and that was quite a long time ago. The resale market and the second hill market has absolutely exploded since

James Reinhart (02:40)
Yes.

Haley Boehning (02:41)
that moment with your J.Crew cashmere sweater. How fitting that J. Crew is now one of your partners in the business and still

James Reinhart (02:47)
Yes, and still an iconic brand, you know? So

Haley Boehning (02:50)
an iconic brand. So I wonder if you can tell me a little bit about how ThredUp fits into um today’s uh resale market.

James Reinhart (02:58)
Yeah, so our business is a managed marketplace. And one of our the key insights for us in the resale industry was that there’s lots of people who wanna participate. Uh they like the idea of getting rid of the things that they’re no longer wearing. Um some people wanna sell it themselves. But but our insight was like the vast majority of people have closets full of clothes that they don’t wear.

And um we used to joke that eventually you’d decide you wanted to get rid of stuff and it would end up like in a in a bag, right? Like a trash bag of stuff to to and then that trash bag would get from your closet to your garage and then from your garage to your car, and then you know, six months later eventually it would it would it would get dropped off at a donation bin or something. And so we knew people had lots of stuff they weren’t wearing. And it was ultimately how do we recreate um some you know a better consumer experience so people can feel good about getting rid of

Of the things that they no longer wear. And so we invented this whole managed system. And then similarly for buyers, it was the same thing. It was the idea of like digging through racks at goodwill, you know, I think at times could be fun, but really people thought like that wasn’t an amazing customer experience. You know, and back at the time, you could really only shop on eBay for secondhand. And so we thought, what would it look like to build a truly like magical buying experience? And so we wanted to innovate for buyers online and rethink.

How suppliers participated, and you know, that’s the managed marketplace that we’ve built today.

Haley Boehning (04:24)
Well, and you you did something really radical early on when a lot of people were looking at building platforms. You actually built warehouses and decided to

James Reinhart (04:31)
Mm-hmm.

Haley Boehning (04:33)
touch every single piece of clothing that came through your business. Why make that decision? That that seemed at

James Reinhart (04:39)
Yeah.

Haley Boehning (04:40)
the seemed at the time to a lot of people to be pretty radical.

James Reinhart (04:43)
Yeah, I mean, well, it definitely was radical because everybody at the time wanted to build these asset light businesses, right? Where you’re just connecting, connecting people. And and look, I there’s some merit to that uh strategy, but we thought ultimately that it was how do you deliver a superior customer experience? And I think for us, delivering a superior customer experience meant getting more involved into the meat of the transaction and removing the friction for sellers, uh

establishing more trust for buyers. And so yeah, it was it was counterintuitive to um to go out and and build infrastructure, build distribution centers. But I’ve always thought that, you know, if you control the supply chain and you really do control the infrastructure around how this market operates, you can be very defensible over time. And I was somebody who was okay with the idea that the business would would grow slower over time.

But that ultimately we’d build real unique defensibility in the business. And I think that’s that’s what you see today, which is um, you know, among probably dozens of folks that were starting off trying to build asset-like businesses, you know, ThreatUp being more asset intensive is is the one that you know has been left standing. And so I think it speaks to the strategy.

Haley Boehning (05:58)
That’s interesting. Did that did that strategy teach you things about your customer that you wouldn’t have otherwise known?

James Reinhart (06:06)
I think what it was is I I think, you know, this this I’m I’m stealing this phrase, but I really do like it, which is I think when you’re starting businesses that are going to try and disrupt categories, you need to be contrarian and then you need to be right. And I think one of the things that we I think were contrarian about was the idea that um this infrastructure piece

uh while hard to build was ultimately like something that was going to play into how consumers were gonna behave in the future. And you know, one of the slides in my pitch decks over the years was that I just thought people were gonna get lazier.

And that if you’re betting on people just being lazy, which I think is in some ways the a bet on e-commerce, uh that um, or a bet on DoorDash, right? I mean, think about the delivery experiences that we have today. These are they’re great consumer experiences, but they also for the fact that we’re all like incrementally lazy, right? We want we want a car delivered right to our door, right? We don’t want to walk a few blocks to find a taxi. Um, and so one of our our theses was that.

consumers in this market are not gonna wanna do more work uh over time. And so uh I think we we had a hypothesis around that and that has proven to be true.

Haley Boehning (07:21)
Well you the way you’ve described your customer to me, it seems like that customer is at the intersection of lazy and also wanting to do good. Lazy lazy but

James Reinhart (07:28)
Yeah, yeah, something like that. Yeah.

Haley Boehning (07:29)
wanting to be good. Can you can you tell us a little bit about what what does being you know initially really a mission-driven business, seeing this this opportunity in the marketplace that had to do with sustainability? How how

James Reinhart (07:41)
Yeah.

Haley Boehning (07:42)
has that informed how you’ve grown as a business and become the business that you are today?

James Reinhart (07:48)
Yeah, I think the mission around sustainability comes from the idea that there’s lots of places on the internet in the world where you can get great brands at great prices. Right. And so I think whether it’s off price or, you know, we had started the business at the peak of flash sales, right? Guilt group and Ruala, like there was no shortage of places where you could get a good deal. Um our our point of view is that that

Is there was there a way to do that in a sustainable way? And so I used to say, you know, great brands at great prices, comma.

In a sustainable way, as a way to play into the fact that that I do think, you know, deep down people want to do the right thing and they want to be good citizens and they do care about the environment. But I don’t think people are willing to overpay for those things today. And so while, you know, while while there are some that do, the vast majority of people, you know, really need to figure out a way where they can get a great deal and be more sustainable. And I thought secondhand and our mission and our strategy could sort of wedge our way into that zeitgeist.

Of, you know, you can, we’re about to run a holiday campaign this Q4, and I laughed because the team came to me and said the campaign is you can have it all. Right. And I remember, you know, a decade ago talking about how, you know, secondhand, you don’t have to compromise your values, right? You can shop secondhand in a sustainable way. And so mission has been sort of woven into everything that we’ve done. I think the other piece that gets underappreciated about mission is what galvanizes the team.

And so your ability to recruit people, to retain people, to inspire them uh over time, I think mission is really important there. And I think sometimes um we talk about mission just as customer facing, but I think the mission internally, you know, around the four walls of ThreatUp is just as impactful, you know, given all that we’ve been through.

Haley Boehning (09:39)
Yeah, and you’ve do you’ve actually, I think it was in one of your impact reports in the last few years, you specifically listed not just your customer and not just your employees, but a whole list of stakeholders that you think about.

James Reinhart (09:52)
Yeah, yeah.

Haley Boehning (09:53)
And that’s kind of radical too. Like how how does having that stakeholder orientation rather than especially as a company that’s gone public being uber focused on the shareholder, how how is that

James Reinhart (10:03)
Yeah.

Haley Boehning (10:04)
different way of thinking about it i change the way you lead or the way the business

has operated.

James Reinhart (10:10)
Yeah, I mean it it’s it’s not because it’s so organic to who we are, you know, to be honest, Haley, I don’t even like think about it consciously. It’s just like being a good citizen, you know, of the world, right? And I think um that means everything from, you know, how we

do our packaging and our warehouses to how we think about recycling to um how we’re good corporate citizens in the city of Oakland, right? And so, you know, we support local causes here and we we care about all those sorts of things. Um we invest in healthcare, high quality healthcare for our employees and you know, I was just outside in the office and there was a whole big spread about pet insurance, right? ‘Cause one of the things was about like pets and caring for animals. Right. So I I I think part of our whole DNA is to not get too singularly focused on

Um, we just gotta like make the most money possible. Because I think sometimes when you take that approach in the near term, what you sacrifice is compounding advantages over the long term. And I think if you’re good stewards of capital and you pay attention to, you know, all the various stakeholders across the business, I think you can, you know, create a business of lasting uh value. And that’s what we’re trying to do.

Haley Boehning (11:17)
How how have your stakeholders changed over the 16, 17 years that you’ve been in business? You know, you you started with a with a customer, you you were at the forefront of delivering

James Reinhart (11:27)
Yeah.

Haley Boehning (11:27)
for. how maybe we can start with customers and speak a little bit more about some of your other stakeholders and changes in the environment.

James Reinhart (11:35)
Yeah, I mean I mean in the beginning, uh when you’re a startup, you’re trying to convince people to care about what you’re building, right? And um and anybody you who you can uh attract, right, is is net positive. And so we spent a lot of time convincing people to care about the category and uh trying to convince people that this was not a a fad. And I think that was the biggest thing in the early days was convincing people that this isn’t something that people were gonna do for a year or two and then decide wake up one day and say, I don’t wanna do secondhand anymore.

And so we spend a lot of time as a challenger brand really trying to establish the bona fides, right, of of the industry. And I think now as we’ve grown, um we’re really trying to cement that

the industry is here to s here to stay and you know how big it will be over time and the role that brands should play in it, the way the role the government should play in it, the role that, you know, logistics and supply chain companies and and so now the you know, we even have somebody now who, you know, whose job is um head of ecosystem, which you know is a is an idea that I never thought we would have, right? But there’s so many different pieces uh to the resale industry now that are important. Uh

that you know, we’re trying to be good stewards to get everybody kind of moving in the right direction. And um and so I think that’s both exciting and then also sometimes a little daunting to think about all the all the moving pieces now because, you know, we’re still a relatively small company, trying to make the world a better place.

Haley Boehning (13:07)
Yeah. How many how many employees do you have, James?

James Reinhart (13:10)
I you know, I just looked so I know it’s about four hundred corporate employees, salaried employees,

Haley Boehning (13:12)
Mm. Four hundred. Okay.

James Reinhart (13:15)
and then we have another eighteen hundred or so in in our warehouses across the country.

Haley Boehning (13:20)
Wow, that’s a bit that’s a big team. You you mentioned that the having a mission helps you get everyone kind of engaged. Can you

James Reinhart (13:27)
Yeah.

Haley Boehning (13:28)
maybe share a little bit about how you how you keep your team engaged in the work uh through the lens of the mission?

James Reinhart (13:37)
Yeah, I mean I think the thing about mission being mission-driven companies is when you establish a value system around how you work, it needs to be woven into everything that you do. And so, um even you know, just just in the last like few days I sent out a note to the team and I was making a number of points around

innovation and the product roadmap, you know, and embedded at all that was, you know, the types of values, things like think big and speak up and influence out. And so I really try and lead from the top around influencing mission and culture. And uh I think that all trickles down where people really do see themselves as uh you know part of building the future. And I emphasize to people that

Culture is like one of those things that like I really believe it’s either it’s either getting better or it’s getting worse every day. And it happens with all the small decisions that happen at a company. And I really encourage everyone to take that seriously because I, you know, I want Threader to be a hundred-year company, and you know, which means it’s going to need successive generations of leaders. And um, and I really instill on them that they need to carry that that torch, the way we the way we treat each other, the way we think about innovation, the way we think about stakeholders.

And um so I do my best to kind of live those values all the time. I encourage my team to live those values. We don’t always get it right. Um, but I but I think more often than not, when you kind of walk around the halls of threat up, you can sort of feel it. Everybody who comes to our office, it’s funny, you know, this like beautiful office in downtown Oakland, and people walk in and they’re like, I can just feel I can feel the brand and the energy here. You know, most of the office has like recycled wood and recycled tables, and you know.

it’s just um you can really feel who we are. If if you you know if you you couldn’t put another logo, you know, on on this office

Haley Boehning (15:25)
Yeah.

James Reinhart (15:26)
and be like it feels totally great. You know, it really is

Haley Boehning (15:28)
Uh

James Reinhart (15:29)
thread up through and through.

Haley Boehning (15:30)
feels you there’s something very authentic about all those decisions that you

James Reinhart (15:33)
Yes.

Haley Boehning (15:34)
just listed. And it’s uh it’s it’s interesting that idea that culture and brand are actually an outcome of everything that you do and say. And it sounds like you and

James Reinhart (15:43)
Yes.

Haley Boehning (15:44)
the team have a very sophisticated understanding of all of those things, little tiny decisions and really big decisions. Um, I

James Reinhart (15:52)
Yeah.

Haley Boehning (15:52)
wonder if you can.

maybe peel that back a little for us uh and maybe share some of the innovations that you’ve been able to bring bring uh into life by having everyone thinking through the lens of the mission um in order to to get their creative juices flowing.

James Reinhart (16:12)
Yeah, I mean like uh God, there’s so many I think the like one that’s more most recent is is how we’ve thought about um and it’s gonna sound sort of funny, but like packaging, right? And just like how do we tell stories, you know, through the materials that we deliver to customers and how do we make sure that

you know, we just redid a we just did a big brand redesign over the past year. And and I’ll tell you why I think that went okay and I’ll tell you why I think it it could be better is but as part of that, you know, what are the stories that we tell customers through our design design decisions? How do we bring people together to be to sort of live the brand and you know a brand that was started

you know, 15 years ago, and if you you sort of laugh when you go back and look at the brand, you know, back then where it you know versus where it is now, but brands have to evolve. And so we’ve really tried to get everyone, you know, from operations to our DC associates, you know, involved in those types of decisions. And you know, the packaging one I I brought up because the sort of the first version of it felt very unthreaded up.

You know, it was polished, it it felt elevated, but it lost what I think is like a signature part of how we think about the brand, which is our polka dots.

Haley Boehning (17:25)
Oh.

James Reinhart (17:25)
And

because we put polka dots on our boxes and on our bags and people love them and you know, there’s a whole Instagram feed of like thread up in the wild of people who see polka dots on people’s porches and stuff. And, you know, and so we as a team kind of work together to be like, okay, well what how does the polka dot live in a world of a brand evolution, right? And and we ultimately got to like a wonderful place that’s more subtle

Haley Boehning (17:48)
w that’s kind of where we’re at.

James Reinhart (17:49)
and more polished. Um, but it’s just like one small example how it would have been very easy for me to be like, yeah, sure.

let’s

Haley Boehning (17:56)
Mm-hmm.

James Reinhart (17:56)
like make it, you know, more elevated, more fancy, and yet Polka DOS was a core thing that resonated with our customers. It’s everywhere in our office and across our facilities. And so, you know, how do you preserve the through line, you know, of a number of those things is

Haley Boehning (18:08)
Yeah.

James Reinhart (18:09)
important.

Haley Boehning (18:10)
That’s a great example. Um, I think as I was reading uh one of your annual reports, I was really intrigued by the almost the Russian nesting dolls of your uh of your business. That you know you

James Reinhart (18:22)
Yeah.

Haley Boehning (18:23)
have the direct uh buying and and selling into consumers through your platform, but

James Reinhart (18:29)
Yep.

Haley Boehning (18:29)
then you also have what do we do with the clothing that

that we can’t sell and then what do

James Reinhart (18:33)
Yeah.

Haley Boehning (18:34)
we do with the clothing that we that can’t be sold in any way. Can you talk

James Reinhart (18:37)
Yes.

Haley Boehning (18:38)
about that um and how that came to be?

James Reinhart (18:42)
Yeah, I mean I think what what what’s clear is when people are sent so we’ve built something let me let me step back for a moment. Like from a supply chain perspective.

The innovation was you as the seller, right, who has c a closet full of clothes that you don’t wear, we want to make it as easy as possible for you to do the right thing, right? Put that stuff in a box or in a bag, send it to us, and we’ll take care of the rest. And as part of that promise as a brand, it was that we were going to be responsible for all the things that you send us. And so how do we do our best to resell all the things you send us? But inevitably you’re gonna send us stuff we can’t resell. And so

What is the next best use for those items? And so we developed this next best use type of framework um to make sure that we were responsible as best we could. And so so yeah, we try and sell all your stuff as best we can. If we can’t, we um we try and grade it and make sure that it can be available for domestic thrift stores. So a lot of the stuff that we reject is stuff that just, you know, it’s got a stain or it’s missing a button or

The genes have been hemmed in a way, right? And that stuff shouldn’t go in a landfill, but it’s very

Haley Boehning (19:53)
Yeah.

James Reinhart (19:53)
hard to sell online. And so can we move that through, you know, a store uh supply chain? And then inevitably we get stuff that just truly like can’t, you know, can’t be resold. And so we do our best to uh recycle that. Um, you know, last time we looked, you know, that’s like under under five percent of of what we get is stuff that truly needs to be recycled. Um

Haley Boehning (20:12)
Yeah, I think I think that I think that’s and is it just gonna be you and P or you need a P linear?

James Reinhart (20:16)
And so we treat we we think it’s like a really um you know good commitment to the environment and

Haley Boehning (20:21)
Oh.

James Reinhart (20:21)
to our customers that um they can trust us to do the right thing.

Haley Boehning (20:25)
Yeah, listening to you talk about the life cycle of a piece of clothing reminds me of Ben and Jerry’s in their early days

James Reinhart (20:31)
Mm-hmm.

Haley Boehning (20:32)
uh looking for ways to use their ice cream waste and

James Reinhart (20:38)
Yes.

Haley Boehning (20:38)
finding that they could partner with the local farmers and that it was fantastic for pigs. So pigs

James Reinhart (20:41)
Yep. Yep.

Haley Boehning (20:43)
have a fantastic uh ice cream diet

James Reinhart (20:46)
Ha ha ha.

Haley Boehning (20:46)
in the in the farms surrounding the Gen Ben and Jerry’s factory. So it’s uh it makes

James Reinhart (20:51)
Yeah.

Haley Boehning (20:51)
me

James Reinhart (20:51)
Well well yeah, and what’s interesting about that also is that um you’re trying you’re actually there’s a lot that we’re doing now where we’re waiting for materials innovation too. Because there’s a bunch of stuff for which like we can do grading and sorting and um but the technology of a just how do you recycle effectively um isn’t isn’t there yet, right? And so those supply chains are are still being built. Um

There are companies now that are thinking you know developing enzymes to break down clothing more efficiently. Um, I challenged the team a few years ago. Like, I’m like, hey, maybe in 10 years we’re composting clothing at home, right? Like, who knows? And um and and so I do think there is a technology curve that that exists, right? And we don’t know what that’s gonna look like over the next 10 years, but I want to make sure our supply chain is responsive uh to wherever the wherever the world is moving.

Haley Boehning (21:48)
Have to get you. We’ll get you on a panel with uh last week. I spoke with the folks from Seabags who are making

James Reinhart (21:53)
Okay.

Haley Boehning (21:53)
uh making bags out of used um used sales. And then I want to say

James Reinhart (21:57)
Yeah.

Haley Boehning (21:57)
it was about two months ago, we spoke with Maria, uh former uh fashion designer at Vera Wang, who has a company

James Reinhart (22:03)
Okay.

Haley Boehning (22:04)
called Simply Fiber, and they’re making

James Reinhart (22:06)
Yeah.

Haley Boehning (22:06)
3D printed uh fabric, so we can get a whole panel together. We can maybe maybe come up with a new business. Um, yeah.

James Reinhart (22:10)
Yeah. Yeah. I think that’d be great. That’d be great.

Haley Boehning (22:15)
Yeah. So speaking of of new businesses, um can you talk about the development of your uh resale as a service platform? How did how did that come to be and how does it work?

James Reinhart (22:27)
Yeah, so resale as service, we got RAS internally. We started

Haley Boehning (22:30)
Mm-hmm.

James Reinhart (22:30)
now, God, it’s probably seven years ago at this point, but we had built all this technology for um our own business. So how do we process clothing at at at scale? We get bags of stuff, we don’t know what it is. uh and increasingly what we realize is that brands could play a role.

in this ecosystem because they have strong relationships with customers, uh, and they want to encourage their customers to be responsible and and do the right thing. And so resale as a service really started as helping brands uh get their customers, right, to clean out their closets. And and the difference here is like in a world where where somebody would send us a uh

clean out bag directly, you know, you might earn fifty bucks, seventy five bucks, whatever it is. If you send it through one of our brand partners, you would earn credit at the brand. And so brands really like this because they whether it’s J. Crew or it’s Athleta or

You know, we work we’ve worked with Kate Spade, we’ve worked with with Tommy, we’ve worked with, we just launched with Code Epoxy. Um, all these brands, they really want to encourage their customers to be more circular. And this is a way that they can benefit uh from that supply chain. Um and so that’s part of the clean out process, is just helping brands do the right thing. And then the other piece is a lot of brands do wanna have small

resale businesses where they help customers understand the heritage of their brand and that you can find pieces that have been made over the past, you know, decade that still have some resonance. And so we power those resale businesses for brands because resale is difficult, you know.

single SKUs is it’s like a hard technology investment for brands to make. And so

Haley Boehning (24:11)
That’s that’s great. That’s

James Reinhart (24:13)
we run those businesses on their behalf. They live on their brand websites. You know, sometimes it’s collaborations and stores. Um but really

Haley Boehning (24:20)
Mm.

James Reinhart (24:20)
just helping brands participate in the resale industry in a way that makes sense for them.

Haley Boehning (24:23)
Yeah, I’m not saying

it’s not sequel, but you do that group. That’s great. Sounds like another win-win-win opportunity with your stakeholders, stakeholders that you might see as competitors in some ways for your customer.

James Reinhart (24:33)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, and I like we always talk to brands, like I think brands would acknowledge, yes, resale is not going anywhere. And so what role should a brand play in this? And um, you know, we always talk about, you know, brands need to stay relevant with their customers and resale is one way that they really stay relevant with what’s top of mind for their buyers and their sellers. And so we want to help them uh in that journey.

Haley Boehning (24:59)
It sounds you you’ve got such a laser focus ah on your business and your mission and and thinking creatively. Are there other industries or businesses that you look to for inspiration?

James Reinhart (25:12)
man. I mean y yeah, I mean I I love like great great design. So I’m always looking at uh businesses that build like, you know, really capable design products and so, you know, I just I have three kids and so, you know,

Our home life is really busy and so I’ve been really excited about uh this company Skylight, which is building sort of the smart board home operating system for helping families kind of figure out who who who’s who’s going where and when and what right. And so and I love like the elegance of that design. Um I love like the Aura frame product of just, you know, bringing our photo

journals on our phones and bringing them to life and sharing memories. It’s like one of the things my kids love the most about the dinner table is we have an aura frame right there and they just it’s just showing pictures and um, you know, it’s a great way to share experiences. So I’m always looking at like consumer

Haley Boehning (26:07)
Yeah.

James Reinhart (26:07)
products in the physical sense. And then I just love businesses that are disrupting digital experiences. I think what what WhatNot is doing in live selling, right, right now I think is fascinating. I was not

I was not a uh live selling bull, you know, a year ago. And I’ve really come around because what I’ve realized is that it’s fun. And you know what? Shopping’s supposed to be fun.

Haley Boehning (26:34)
Yeah.

James Reinhart (26:34)
And I think somehow, you know, some s there’s been great store experiences over the years, but I think e-commerce has and I think we’re all guilt has like stripped a little of the fun out of it.

Right. And so what I love about

Haley Boehning (26:46)
Yeah.

James Reinhart (26:48)
Live is just how enjoyable and dynamic and fun it is. And so um I get inspired by what those teams are building.

Haley Boehning (26:56)
Right. Well, what do you what do you see on the horizon for ThredUp and and for your industry? There’s a lot of change going on right now, isn’t there?

James Reinhart (27:03)
Yeah. Yeah, I mean I think it again, I think it’s one of these industries that’s just gonna I think it’s gonna methodically grow for a very long time. And I think the reason I’m confident in that is that when you look at the generations of young people kind of being raised in this environment, they I like to call them resale natives. Right? They’re they’re they’re kids who are growing up for which there there wasn’t there’s zero stigma attached to secondhand. And I don’t think as like

Uh like as like older, you know, I’m in my late forties, right? And it’s just like there was a t like thrift and secondhand was not cool and then it went through this transition of becoming cool and now I think like my like thirteen and six year old, like they’re just like, Well of course we go to the secondhand store. Of course we buy it used. Um it doesn’t even like register that that would be something people didn’t do

So, you know, like

Haley Boehning (27:55)
Yeah, that’s it.

James Reinhart (27:57)
it’s like I think it’s equivalent to being like, Wait, you guys didn’t have mobile phones or computers growing up? I mean, I think it’s gonna be that substantial for uh

Haley Boehning (28:04)
Yeah.

James Reinhart (28:04)
for apparel. And so I think you’re just gonna see successive generations adopt it more and I think it’s gonna be incumbent on retail leaders to think about, you know, how they play in this ecosystem. And so so yeah, resale is like a tough business in many ways. Um, but I think it’s it’s certainly here to stay.

Haley Boehning (28:22)
In your Q2 call with investors, you talked about the um this line between like more premium buyers and more price sensitive buyers.

James Reinhart (28:33)
Yeah.

Haley Boehning (28:33)
Um how do you see that um evolving and changing this year?

James Reinhart (28:39)
I mean, I think premium buyers, and I think, you know, if you look at the, you know, the broader sort of K-shaped economy, right? I think premium shoppers are doing uh doing better, right, than I think um more more budget shoppers. Um, but I do think that you’re seeing folks who, you know, can spend on new goods increasingly adopting secondhand because it’s just a more responsible.

you know, decision. Not only is it better for their wallets, right, but it’s it’s better for the environment and it allows them to find things that other people don’t have. I think one be one thing that people underestimate about second hand is it’s it’s sort of an expression of like what you care about and like how you can accessorize and like it’s more creative.

You know, one of the things when talk about talk to customers all the time that and they we ask them why do you shop secondhand? Yeah, the deal is part of it, but it’s like, I got to it’s like a it’s an act of expression in creativity when I put things together that aren’t just like off the rack at, you know, XYZ department store. Um and so I think what you’re seeing in sort of the segmentation of customers is those who do have you know the ability to pay retail are choosing secondhand as expression of you know of their creativity. And I think budget shoppers

I think um I I think our struggling, you know, frankly, folks, you know, making sixty thick sixty thousand dollars a year and under, I think it’s a tough time in the American economy. And so while those customers might have purchased secondhand more uh out of necessity, probably than than expression, I think are now probably purchasing less and less. You know, I mean in California you’ve got gas prices at at eight bucks a gallon, right? It it really

Haley Boehning (30:16)
Yeah.

James Reinhart (30:16)
is, I think, stressing uh that consumer. And so

Um I think sometimes there’s a misnomer that secondhand is cheaper all the time. And you know, that’s that’s not really true, right? Um there’s there’s a

Haley Boehning (30:25)
Okay, so you’re gonna talk to me on the meeting.

James Reinhart (30:29)
lot of places to go to buy uh very cheap apparel and um so anyway, that was sort of the point I was trying to make on the call.

Haley Boehning (30:36)
Yeah, that makes sense. And I as you talked about the uh the ability of people to draw their identity and and perhaps have some creativity with second hand in a way that they don’t

James Reinhart (30:44)
Yeah.

Haley Boehning (30:45)
see in the marketplace. I wonder, do you see uh the impact of AI and social media, you know, creating a a a blandness to a sameness out

James Reinhart (30:54)
Yeah.

Haley Boehning (30:55)
there that that this is a reaction to?

James Reinhart (30:59)
I mean I I think certainly ah

There c there can be that, right? Where there is where generative AI and and uh is is is creating this like everything looks and feels the same. Uh but I actually think there might be some of that, but there also might be this real explosion of creativity um with with second hand. I think about it, even some ways you can look at the music industry, you know, there’s a lot of stuff that sounds the same, but you’ve also seen this explosion of long tail artists and discovery on Spotify and like and so you can

can

discover and and find um the long tail easier. And I think second hand has this incredible long tail, right? 35,000 brands, 100 categories. That’s just what we sell on ThredUp. And so you can find really unique items and you know create ways to express yourself. And so I I like to believe that the actually AI might create sort of a creative flourishing as much as it might create some generic output.

There’s been plenty of generic clothing in the universe for a long time. ah and maybe AI helps us be a little more creative.

Haley Boehning (32:07)
Yeah,

maybe it does.

So you mentioned uh recently that you think the resale market was just an incredible growth story, but it’s entering a phase that’s gonna be more complex. Um, can you talk about what you see that complexity being?

James Reinhart (32:25)
Yeah, I mean I think what you’re seeing now is is the wide acknowledgement that second hand is here to stay.

And so uh the resale industry, I think, you know, has been a growth story and I think will continue to be a growth story. But I think you’re now seeing you know new technology companies come apart, you know, come into existence with how to you know thrive in secondhand, right? Whether it’s apps around selling uh or it’s apps around styling and merchandising. I think you do have more brands now that are participating and trying to put their own like unique spin on secondhand in in really great ways too. I mean, I think about a brand.

Like Arctaryx, right, which you know has their own repair uh shops in store. ah and you can go in there. I think it’s the rebird is like their collection. And so I do think you’re seeing some maturation uh of the industry, and I and I think that maturation is actually causing some fragmentation. Um and because customers are now there to buy.

Haley Boehning (33:19)
Yeah they have to just clean up the whole meaning also make sure it’s all taking in time. But

uh yeah, this is this is the pile.

James Reinhart (33:24)
And so you no longer have to validate

that customers, if you could sort of go back 10

Haley Boehning (33:28)
Yeah.

James Reinhart (33:28)
years ago, you had to prove as a brand or as a as a uh returns provider or somebody you had to prove there was a market for second hand before you did anything. Now it’s it’s more like these brands can be like this or these companies, this market exists. How do we

Haley Boehning (33:43)
Mm.

James Reinhart (33:44)
now participate and capture you know a piece of that market? And so that’s what I mean by you know levels of of complexity across sort of the supply chain.

Haley Boehning (33:53)
Makes sense. are you now the uh are are you able to say that you are the leading reseller? Uh what w tell us a little bit about this the size and and scope of of ThredUp today.

James Reinhart (34:05)
I I mean I don’t know, you know, I always it’s like the the m you know, the there’s lots of ways to to skin the the largest. Um but I will say that, you know, we we we certainly uh have a breadth of selection that I think is is is pretty uh pretty unrivaled. You know, we’ve got five million

you know, high quality, authenticated items, you know, across our facilities. You know, we’re putting more than a hundred thousand unique uh items online every day, right? That are photographed and processed and the metadata is attached. So I do think from a kind of managed curated experience, it’s hard to find something that’s that’s bigger and better than Threat Up. Um and so we pride ourselves on really that elevated customer experience. and I think we’re gonna stick with that.

Haley Boehning (34:53)
What would people be surprised to learn about the business?

James Reinhart (34:59)
I think they’d probably be surprised at how much uh of our resources we spend thinking about the industry over the next three to five years. You know, because I think resale is one of those industries that is evolving. And I think to our prior conversation, you know, lots changing around how to capture this customer. So I think people might just see us as, oh, you know, this is a managed marketplace. They, you know, they process items online and they

attach buyers to it, uh but really under the hood we’re we’re thinking a lot about innovation and um what does the future of of selling online and secondhand look like. where does the technology need to move for agentic commerce uh for example where does generative AI really like transform the experience in a positive way? You know, where do we need to stay away? So I think people just they often underappreciate what a technology

uh company we are and um people sometimes see us as like a retailer and and frankly like I don’t think about us as a retailer at all. You know, I think about

Haley Boehning (36:05)
Mm.

James Reinhart (36:05)
us as a technology and in operations and an infrastructure company that happens to sell

Haley Boehning (36:10)
That’s interesting.

James Reinhart (36:10)
secondhand apparel online um because

Haley Boehning (36:12)
Mm.

James Reinhart (36:13)
that’s really how we spend our money and our resources. And I think it keeps us ahead of the curve.

Haley Boehning (36:15)
That is interesting.

That is interesting. So without uh asking you to share any trade secrets or anything that’ll be on the next call uh with your investors,

James Reinhart (36:24)
Yeah.

Haley Boehning (36:26)
is there is there anything you can tell us about what to expect from ThredUp in the future?

James Reinhart (36:34)
Um, I I think that uh what we’re thinking about right now is we we’ve spent so much time

building infrastructure and supply chain and we’ve really come to, you know, we’re really the only place, right, that that where you can just send a bag or a box of stuff and we take care of it all, you know, any, you know, 35,000 brands, 100. Like we’ve really solidified this this supply chain piece. And I think what we’re thinking a lot around is like what do those competencies mean for other points of distribution?

And um and so how do we leverage that, not just for like what we do today historically, which is brand like direct to consumer, right? It’s an it’s an online, you know, buying proposition, but you know, what does it look like in physical footprints? What does it look like in live selling? What does it look like in wholesale? And like we’re just exploring kind of a broad set of distribution and thinking about where do our assets leverage, you know, particularly well.

over time. And so I’m not saying we’re like doing any of those things like, you know, neck next week, right? I mean we obviously launched live selling on whatnot, you know, a month ago, but um really thinking about what what our unique assets can do for us over time. And um and you know, and I think we’re not sitting still thinking about how we do that. And so I think that’s what’s really makes the business it’s really a fun time actually to be in the business

Haley Boehning (37:50)
I don’t know if you and I full that white basic.

James Reinhart (37:53)
to see

see the opportunities ahead of us. I mean, we weren’t even talking about agents, right? The the

Haley Boehning (37:58)
Yeah.

James Reinhart (37:59)
muses and the instincts, even just six months ago, and to to now think about what they’re gonna do for how people shop secondhand, which

Haley Boehning (38:06)
That’s amazing.

James Reinhart (38:07)
we think is can be substantially uh improved. Um and so yeah, it’s exciting.

Haley Boehning (38:12)
Hmm.

So as the as the business evolves and changes and you’re exploring all of these uh opportunities, what what will never change about ThredUp? Or what do you hope will never change?

James Reinhart (38:25)
I mean, I think that, you know, where we started around, you know, you know, mission and culture. I just think this culture of innovation and and constantly trying to skate to where the puck is, you know, to use the old Wayne Gretzky uh quote, I think is like part of our DNA. My co-founder happens to be Canadian, so he likes when I say that.

Um, you know,

Haley Boehning (38:43)
Ha ha.

James Reinhart (38:43)
but but you know uh I I think w we will constantly be pushing kind of the investments in innovation, you know, sometimes too

Sometimes to the detriment of people wanting us to, well, why don’t you just like stay focused on this one little thing? And and I think if you if you close the aperture, you know, too much, I think you miss what’s next. And I think if you’re going to sell apparel to this rapidly evolving consumer, you need to go where they are and you need to think about how your business adapts. And I think um Thrip has proven, if nothing else, that we’re adaptable and it’s a big part of we do.

Haley Boehning (39:19)
but I wonder, you know, I know a lot of our uh a lot of our audience for the Robin Report is in the retail space.

James Reinhart (39:26)
Yeah, yeah.

Haley Boehning (39:26)
And uh

and you said, you know, you think of yourself as a technology company first, with a, you know, in vi with

James Reinhart (39:31)
Yeah. Yeah.

Haley Boehning (39:32)
at the at the heart an environmentalist, you know, a sustainability, but but a technology

James Reinhart (39:35)
Yeah.

Haley Boehning (39:36)
company. I wonder as you look at the retail industry, where do you think the industry maybe needs to think differently or do differently to kind of keep up with the world as you see it evolving?

James Reinhart (39:51)
I think that the what what’s what’s become clear to me over the probably the last couple of years, and you know, maybe it’s already maybe I’m slow, maybe, maybe the rest of the world is caught on is just um how like the online experience, the traditional online experience, is very much the same as it was twenty-five years ago. If you think about the browsing experience.

The navigation, how we use apps, like so much of this stuff, Haley, is like, I mean, it’s not that different than it was, ah you know, a long a long time ago. I always laugh, like, you know, we I obviously like I’m a male shopper. And so when I go to websites, why are they showing me kids and baby and right? I just like, you know, in this day and age, you know so much about me, and yet I have to navigate through piles of pages that are irrelevant to me. So I just

Haley Boehning (40:40)
Yeah.

James Reinhart (40:40)
think like there is going to be this um breakthrough, and I don’t know whether it’s age.

agents or it’s something else that’s gonna change the way a more personalized online journey is going to happen. Um so that’s one where I I just think we’re still we’re still trapped. We’re trapped in the two thousands internet. Um

And I think that’s gonna change. And then the other piece is I do think there’s going to be, and again, this is just in my little James Reinhardt crystal ball. I do think we’re going to continue to see enormous penetration of AI and and agentic. And then I think there’s gonna be a backlash where people are really gonna revert to, you know, in real life experiences and stores and all those types of things. And so

I’m sort of a betting man that this in person experience for the next couple generations of of kids that are growing up is gonna be real. And so thinking

Haley Boehning (41:33)
Yeah.

James Reinhart (41:33)
about experiential retail, thinking about, you know, how to meet cut how to meet people in the real world, I think you’re gonna see more of that. Um, because I don’t think we all wanna spend our times at home with agents doing everything sitting on our phones. I just I don’t think that’s the human condition. So it might be

Haley Boehning (41:50)
Yeah.

James Reinhart (41:51)
a a period of transition, but that’s my bet.

Haley Boehning (41:54)
Yeah, we’re humans first.

James Reinhart (41:56)
Yeah, we’re humans first

and I think um yeah, and I think we wanna be around other humans o over time. And uh and it’s possible that, you know, the next great retail experiences are gonna be built in ways that we we haven’t even thought of yet. So

Haley Boehning (42:11)
I wonder if I could could ask one last question. So I say, you know, a lot of our Robin Report listeners are in the retail world. And we do have a lot of listeners and readers who are entrepreneurs as well, or spying

James Reinhart (42:24)
Yeah.

Haley Boehning (42:24)
entrepreneurs. And they’ll they’re looking at you and saying, you’ve made it, you’ve got it, you’ve got

James Reinhart (42:28)
Ha ha.

Haley Boehning (42:30)
a really successful business, and you’re still the CEO as a co-founder, which is pretty pretty rare.

James Reinhart (42:34)
Yeah. Yeah.

Haley Boehning (42:36)
I wonder if you

share any insights that you have for those folks who are thinking about launching an entrepreneurial venture like you have, any advice

James Reinhart (42:45)
Yeah.

Haley Boehning (42:46)
that you’d share.

James Reinhart (42:47)
I mean I think I always tell people and people often are like, Man, aren’t you tired? You know, and I always tell the story of my best friend who’s a school teacher. And you know, I’m like, nope when he’s, you know, he’s seventeen years into his teaching career, nobody says, God, aren’t you tired? Right? Like, you know, you’re

Haley Boehning (43:01)
Yeah.

James Reinhart (43:02)
you’ve you’ve committed to a vocation and a profession and you know, he takes it seriously. And and so I I still am in love with this problem. Like I think the problem that we were setting out to solve at th right up

remains endlessly fascinating. And so, you know, the advice I always give to other entrepreneurs is, you know, find a problem like that you really are falling in love with and and then work on that idea until you find a different problem to fall in love with. And I think too often entrepreneurs start off like falling in love with like the idea of a product or an idea. And they’re not in love with a problem. And so, but I think like it’s the problems that drive

It’s the problems that drive me. And so um I think if you if you fall in love with the problem, you know, and you you love it and you keep working on it, like it’s a great way to

It’s a great way to be in the world, you know? Um, as a side note, I’ll tell you it’s funny, all this like AI work of um solving these big math problems, there’s been like this huge breakthrough in solving these like age-old or making progress against these age-old math problems. And I was reading in the New York Times the other like two weeks ago, a guy has been working on one math problem for 35 years, right? And I thought, I thought.

Wow. Right. And when they interviewed him, he said, I’m just obsessed and I love this problem. And so I’m teaching and I’m learning and I, you know, and and so, you know, I don’t know if you need to just fall in love with the math problem, but I do think there’s something to be said of falling in love with a problem hard as an entrepreneur and then just, you know, working it to death. So that’s my advice. Big focus on a big problem.

Haley Boehning (44:37)
Well, you’ve you

you have focused on a really big problem. and

James Reinhart (44:42)
Ha ha.

Haley Boehning (44:42)
it’s it is an absolute delight to watch your business uh attack that problem and find solutions and find more solutions and and you’re you’re making you’re having a huge impact and you’ve built a

James Reinhart (44:54)
Thank you.

Haley Boehning (44:55)
really successful business. So thank you so much for sharing your story with us at the Robin Report. And I’m looking forward to finding you in a year uh to see.

What are the things that have happened in the last twelve months that we couldn’t have imagined today?

James Reinhart (45:06)
Sounds great. I’m

here. I’m here. I’m ready. I’m ready. Thank you.

Haley Boehning (45:11)
Thank you, James.

James Reinhart (45:12)
Thanks, Haley.