The fashion industry is said to be the second most polluting industry after oil. And as someone who writes about fitness and wellness for a living, my closet contains more than my fair share of synthetic-based leggings, sports bras and sport-specific 'gear'. Synthetic fibers never biodegrade. Instead, these plastic fibers wind up in our water systems as microfibers. From there, they might go on to be ingested by fish or other wildlife and make their way back up the food chain, often to our own plates. A recent Guardian story included data from a 2011 paper by Mark Browne that found that microfibers make up 85% of human-made debris on shorelines around the world. Yikes. So, in an effort to minimize my own personal contributions to this scary statistic, and help existing synthetics stay away from our food chain, I'm actively transitioning away from any apparel made from new synthetics. To get me going, I'm testing out Poshmark, a peer-to-peer shopping site that has received $153m in funding to-date and seems to sell the largest variety of second-hand clothing.
Sign up was easy Poshmark and I spent a lazy Saturday morning liking and bidding on various items made by sustainable clothing brands. By the end of thirty minutes, approximately the amount of time it takes me to get to and park at a local shopping area, I had created handy filters for searching just for my sizes, scrolled through endless items of clothing and negotiated listing prices with around ten sellers. On my first shopping day, I ended up purchasing two dresses, by two different, LA-based and sustainable womenswear brands.
After my first little shopping flurry, where I clicked 'buy' as soon as a listing price felt within striking distance of fairness, I learned how Poshmark works for buyers who have been on the app for more than 30 short minutes. The many other items that I 'liked' but didn't purchase had issued alerts to their respective sellers, who then could privately message me offering additional discounts on the item or shipping. Clever. Knowing now to 'like' things and wait if it was something I didn't immediately need (note: nothing in any of my searches was a real necessity), I went on a like-fest - liking shoes, dresses, tops and skirts that I didn't love but for which I was curious to see if a seller would be tempted enough to message me better pricing. I realized I should have been doing this in the first place, as my first purchases were really just items I was lukewarm about but couldn't resist a deal and felt I was acting sustainably so what was the harm in getting just one more thing.
When my first item arrived, I realized the error in my hasty ways during that first digital shopping excursion. The dress was actually part of a capsule collection for a more mass-market brand and thus the super deal I thought I was getting was really just okay. But more importantly, the hem of the dress didn't even reach the tops of my thighs. It was somewhere between a tunic and a children's dress. I'm guessing the sizing was based on how the collaboration partner sizes their clothing. The second dress fit better, but its darting didn't exactly line up with my body and had I found it in-store I likely would have passed.
Returns on Poshmark are not nearly as easy as purchases. Because it's a peer-to-peer site, understandably the return policy is not going to be like Nordstrom's famously generous one. But it's also not buyer-focused like second-hand e-commerce site The Real Real is, where buyers have 21 days to return an item for a full refund. Instead, Poshmark asks for images and then assesses whether a return is valid. Fit issues are not a valid reason for returning. So what happened when I suggested the sizing was off for the dress I purchased that barely hit my hipbone, sharing images and explaining the possible reasons for the mixup? Return denied.
But on a second round of buying - I paid more attention to measurements and focused more on items that were less likely to have major issues with fit: button down shirts from brands from which I already know my size. I took fewer risks, and was less impulsive. Buying a cart-ful of clothing on traditional e-commerce sites is easy to do on impulse, because you know you can return what doesn't fit. But with Poshmark and similar peer-to-peer sites with stricter return policies, it's something that has to be more carefully considered. The items I more thoughtfully purchased fit better, and the condition of all items I purchased were as-advertised. I would say that about 75% of my second-hand purchases were successful, and the ones that didn't work I will re-post to sell to women more petite in stature than me.
As a way to stave off synthetics from reaching our water system and lessening my carbon footprint, Poshmark and it's peer-to-peer shopping competitors are a wonderful resource. Shopping this way does require paying more careful attention to return policies and specific measurements (when shopping, have your tape measurer at the ready). On my own journey into sustainable shopping, I will continue to buy the lower size risk items on sites like Poshmark, and for any more specific styles, I will go to sustainable and ethical clothing brands offering completely natural fabrics or those upcycling synthetics that otherwise would have been discarded.
