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ThredUp: Netflix for Clothes-Swapping

by Matthew Zuras on October 9, 2009 at 06:10 PM


ThredUp, a new "peer-to-peer" clothing exchange site started by two Harvard Business School grads and another friend, adopts a model that's a little closer to Netflix than it is eBay. The idea is to take your unwanted threads, ship them off to the ThredUp warehouses, and then get something really awesome in return. Make a list of brands you like and the good folks at ThredUp will try to match you with other people's undesirable rags via your virtual closet. The only catch is that you must use prepaid ThredUp envelopes ($25 for three) to send in your old clothes.

The site doesn't use pictures and you don't know exactly what you'll be getting; it's more like a clothing lottery, which does sound like a whole lot of fun. But ThredUp also raises some questions. It asks for clothing in "like-new" condition, but also says that if you send in vintage items, you'll receive vintage items. Still, in the ThredUp FAQ, the company answers the completely reasonable question "Wait, I don't get to choose my exact item?" with the following examples: "When you go to a comedy at the movies – you hope it will be funny, but you can't be sure. When you order a steak – you hope it will be good, but you can't be sure."

But we generally watch a movie's trailer before we see it, just so we're not walking into the theater totally blind. And we don't go to restaurants and say, "I'd like something made of beef," understanding that we might end up with either a succulent filet or some unrecognizable digestive organ. The concept sounds intriguing, but it seems like, in the end, we'd be shelling out 25 bucks for three envelopes and the possibility of mystery meat. We'll stick to eBay, at least until ThredUp is out of beta testing. [From: NYTimes]

Tags: clothing, fashion, p2p, thredup, top

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