Resale platforms are seeing more interest in secondhand cycling apparel
Demand for secondhand cycling apparel is picking up speed.
Archive, a service that runs resale programs for companies including The North Face, has brought on three cycling partners since late 2022. The newest, Velocio, launched with Archive last month. Meanwhile, Trove, another resale provider, told Modern Retail it does a “significant-sized business of cycling apparel” through its partnerships with brands like REI and Patagonia. Trove’s cycling business is growing year over year, according to Pete Small, vp of partnerships at Trove.
Athletic gear spiked in popularity at the beginning of the pandemic as people looked to get outside. Now, with some shoppers pulling back on spending, more consumers are looking to get these items secondhand. Cycling apparel tends to be more expensive than everyday apparel, with some jerseys listed for upwards of $200. Buying these items via resale, where price points are lower, allows people to test out the sport without spending big on products like high-tech bike shorts or cycling tights.
“I think brands in this space are thinking a lot about how they can get a more price-sensitive consumer into their brand to try out a sport, and then potentially fall in love with the sport, fall in love with the brand and keep shopping within that ecosystem over time,” Archive CEO and co-founder Emily Gittins told Modern Retail.
Even now, as a record-breaking number of people watch the Olympics, interest in secondhand cycling apparel is up. Google searches worldwide for “used cycling gear” spiked in the first few days of the 2024 Games, per Google Trends.
Like other outdoor gear, cycling apparel is designed for functionality and durability, making it a good candidate for secondhand, Gittins said. Archive has brought on three cycling apparel partners in the last two years. It began working with Pas Normal Studios — which normally sells jerseys for $220 and bibs for $290 — in December 2022, then Café du Cycliste in April 2023. Pas Normal Studios’ secondhand program, called “En Route,” allows customers to buy and sell gear and is live in Denmark. Café du Cycliste’s program, called “Recycliste,” also offers “buy” and “sell” channels and is live in France.
Archive’s new site with Velocio, “Velocio Renewed,” went online earlier this summer in the United States. Velocio worked with a different resale partner in 2021 but switched over to work with Archive this year. In this new iteration, fans can go onto Velocio’s website to trade in used gear for store credit or buy gently-used products that Velocio sanitizes and repairs with its partner Tersus Solutions.
The Velocio resale program has been so well-received that it outperformed Velocio’s initial estimates, Gittins said. “What surprised us is how much interest and demand there is for that product secondhand,” she explained. In the weeks before launch, Velocio had a several-month-long waitlist for the new program with Archive. Now, on the buying side, “Velocio Renewed” has one of the highest conversion rates of any Archive brand, at nearly 5%, Gittins said. (The industry standard for e-commerce conversion is around 2.5% to 3%.)
Branded resale — a channel in which a brand runs its own resale site, usually through a third-party partner like Trove, Archive or ThredUp — is becoming more popular with brands who are looking to make inroads with sustainable-minded customers but may not have the time or resources to oversee the process themselves. According to ThredUp’s 2024 Resale Report, a total of 163 brands had resale shops in 2023, up from 124 in 2022, 36 in 2021 and nine in 2020. Outdoor wear and athleisure programs have become particularly commonplace, with Fabletics, Smartwool and Arc’teryx all launching branded resale in the last three years.
Resale programs like these provide two opportunities to engage with customers, Sky Canaves, principal retail and e-commerce analyst for eMarketer, told Modern Retail. One is customer acquisition. Brands can bring in people who might be new to the brand and don’t want to spend full price. The other is loyalty. Existing customers may wish to participate in the programs, either as buyers or sellers.
Outdoor companies were some of the first to embrace resale, in large part because they focus on their environmental footprints. Patagonia, for example, began offering resale online in 2011 via eBay and in stores in 2013 via its “Worn Wear” program. REI launched online recommerce in 2018 but offered lightly-used product “for years” at in-store garage sales, per the company.
With this in mind, it makes sense that cycling brands would also explore this avenue, Canaves explained. “[Resale] is still very much in its infancy… and is another way to reach and engage with consumers,” Canaves said. “And brands, particularly if you look at cycling brands or premium brands, have to consider that customers are looking for more options, especially with technical products like these.”
Likewise, Gittins said Archive is actively in talks with other outdoor brands about coming on board the platform. “We definitely expect the outdoor and technical apparel space to grow as a portion of our business over time,” she said.