Why men lag behind in resale

Sponsored by

Partnerships, now with receipts. Retailers need trust and data. impact.com helps brands discover, manage, and scale partnerships in one platform, then measures what moves shoppers to buy. With brands that combine influencer and affiliate programs seeing 46% higher sales, the “growth engine” of 2026 is already here. The new State of Affiliate Marketing report reveals how top retailers are driving measurable, long-term growth. Download the report.

James Reinhart, founder of the popular resale marketplace ThredUp, attributes his “aha moment” that led him to start the company as wanting a simple way to get rid of his own unwanted clothing. So it is an enduring irony that when ThredUp launched in 2009, it did not, and does not to this day, accept men’s clothing for resale or list men’s items for sale in its marketplace. (ThredUp does accept men’s clothing on behalf of the retail partners whose branded resale programs it administers, however.)

Reinhart has said that ThredUp doesn’t carry men’s clothing because men were not as enthusiastic about clothing resale as women, and while on aggregate the data still bears this out, industry executives note that there are some categories, like sneaker resale, where the men’s category outpaces women.

One sure indicator that resale skews toward women is how many more women’s products are available in online marketplaces.

Depop, the resale app that eBay recently purchased from Etsy, listed 30.9 million articles of women’s clothing at the time this was published, more than double the 13.6 million men’s.

While eBay doesn’t list the number of listings in the broad clothing category, it does for types of clothing, and many results are similarly lopsided.

• There were 3.2 million pairs of women’s jeans listed compared to 1.5 million on the men’s side.
• There were 3.3 million women’s sweaters listed compared to 1.2 million men’s.

One category where men’s products outpace women’s on eBay: sneakers. Men’s sneaker listings nearly doubled women’s, with 3.2 million compared to 1.7 million. (Resale marketplaces sell some new products too; we counted all listings for our comparisons.)

“Men generally shop differently and so when you look at their trend in the secondhand space, it makes sense,” Jake Disraeli, co-founder and CEO of Treet, which partners with brands on their resale programs, told Retail Brew.

The average annual household expenditure for 16+ adults on women’s clothing is $655 compared to $406 for men, according to a 2025 report from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) based on 2023 data. In an analysis of BLS data, Capital One Shopping found that single men spend 1.8% of their take-home pay on clothing, while single women spend 2.5%.

Among Treet’s roster of 214 brands it partners with on branded resale programs, 55% are women’s only and 13% men’s only (with the remainder adult and kids’ brands with both or unisex accessories like backpacks).

Once men’s brands launch resale programs, they rival women’s brands, Disraeli said.

“From a revenue standpoint, the amount of secondhand sales they’re generating is the same, and oftentimes more than a woman’s brand,” Disraeli said.

Treet specializes in peer-to-peer programs, with sellers having an option to either take cash or a greater amount in store credit, which brands prefer because it engenders loyalty. Among its partner brands, 71% of men opt for credit over cash, compared to 58% of women.

“Men may be more brand loyal, and want to use the profit made from resale to shop the brand again,” Disraeli told us in a follow-up email.

You’ve got male: At Trove, which also partners with brands on resale programs, there are some categories where even for brands that offer men’s and women’s products, men are more avid.

Trove ran data for Retail Brew for four (unnamed) partner brands that specialize in technical outdoor products, performance footwear, and premium outerwear. While Trove did not dispute that resale skews toward women overall, it did find that among these selected brands, men are taking big swings:

• For an outdoor gear brand, 7 of the 10 bestselling used products were men’s.
• For a performance outerwear and apparel brand, men’s products accounted for all but seven of the top 25 products when it comes to revenue (as opposed to units sold).

While these categories and brands may be outliers, they also may suggest that men’s future participation in resale shows promise.

“The commonly held assumption that resale skews female and that male engagement is marginal is not supported by these programs,” Trove CEO Terry Boyle told Retail Brew over email.

Rick and mortar: Winmark owns several brick-and-mortar resale chains it licenses to franchisees, including Play It Again Sports, Plato’s Closet, Once Upon a Child, and Music Go Round.

While the company doesn’t track the gender of shoppers, Brett Heffes, who’s been an executive at the company for more than 23 years and CEO for the last decade, has educated estimates.

Heffes said that while both the sports and musical instrument resale stores still skew toward men, both have gained with women in recent years, particularly Play it Again Sports with the ascendance of women’s professional sports.

“Women’s lacrosse, softball, hockey—those are big categories for us,” Heffes told Retail Brew. “So their moms are the target market.”

Men’s clothing accounts for about 20% of Plato’s Closet; another Winmark clothing franchise, Style Encore, added men’s clothing in 2022 and Heffes estimates it now accounts for nearly 10% of the stores’ sales.

Heffes thinks men’s participation in resale will continue to grow, partly because men play such a big role in the trade.

“Half of the people that own our stores are men, so they are firmly in the resale industry,” Heffes said. “Men care about value, men care about assortment, men care about sustainability…They’re no different than women in that regard.”

And growing with consumers who identify as men is an imperative for the resale company.

“Our mission is to provide resale for everyone,” Heffes said. “And men are a very important subset of everyone.”