In a Bristol garage filled with racks of Carhartt jackets, Patagonia sweaters, and Ralph Lauren tops, Sam Lucker has transformed a side hustle into a lucrative full-time business. The 27-year-old resells second-hand clothing through the online marketplace Vinted, generating monthly revenues between £6,000 and £10,000 by selling 10 to 15 items daily.

Lucker’s journey began in 2023 after a colleague introduced him to Depop, another second-hand clothing platform. As a fan of Ralph Lauren quarter zips, he started buying the jumpers for about £10 each, despite their retail prices exceeding £150. By reselling items that did not fit him, he recognized the profit potential in reselling and expanded his inventory to include brands like Carhartt and Patagonia. The earnings eventually surpassed his marketing executive salary, prompting him to pursue reselling full time. The business has grown to the point where Lucker employs his mother to manage garment steaming.

This shift is part of a broader trend in the second-hand fashion market, which has surged amid rising inflation and cost of living pressures, pushing consumers toward more cost-conscious purchasing behaviors. Data from bulk clothing marketplace Fleek shows that 60% of resellers are operating full-time or aspiring to do so, with 76% of full-timers reporting second-hand sales as their primary income source. On Vinted alone, the value of merchandise listed climbed 47% last year to €10.8 billion, while platform revenue increased 38% to €1.1 billion.

To manage his growing operation, Lucker established himself as a sole trader and emphasized the importance of inventory management, describing it as a critical component for scaling a reselling business effectively.

Despite expanding demand, resellers face challenges, including sourcing quality stock. According to a survey of 339 Fleek customers across 22 countries, the second biggest frustration for sellers after competition is finding good inventory. Fleek co-founder Abhi Arora attributes this to a fragmented supply chain with no standardized sourcing methods.

Much of the post-consumer clothing from Western countries is shipped to regions such as Pakistan and India, where it is sorted by hand. This process grades items for resale, but rising costs and declining quality of textiles are increasing operational complexities. Fleek is developing artificial intelligence tools to streamline sorting in response to mounting volumes of post-consumer textile waste that current Western infrastructure struggles to handle.

As used clothing gains popularity, competition among resellers intensifies, making it difficult for individuals like Lucker to find low-cost items on consumer resale platforms. To address this, he purchases bulk lots from companies like Fleek, which sells bundles ranging from ten pieces of branded tracksuit bottoms to large, mixed batches of hundreds of items from retailers including Zara, H&M, and Uniqlo.

With plans to expand his business further, possibly by moving into larger premises, Lucker exemplifies the increasing professionalization of the second-hand clothing trade, turning a once niche hobby into a thriving commercial enterprise.