thredUP created ‘The Tunnel of Pre-Loved’ out of over a thousand pounds of secondhand clothes, which will serve as the stage for a show with emerging singer-songwriter, Laufey -- open to thrifters only.

April 19, 2022 -- To celebrate Earth Day, thredUP, one of the world’s largest online resale platforms, created ‘The Tunnel of Pre-Loved’ -- an art installation made up of over 1,000 lbs of used clothes in the middle of Santa Monica Place, a major shopping center in Los Angeles. The brand is also staging a show at the mall with indie artist Laufey, and attendees must commit to swapping one new purchase for used to gain access.

Welcome to ‘The Tunnel of Pre-Loved’

thredUP created a ‘trash to treasure’ installation to demonstrate to consumers just how much life is left in the clothes we discard. Created using over 1,000 lbs of used clothes, ‘The Tunnel of Pre-Loved’ transforms damaged or otherwise unsellable clothes into an immersive, climate positive work of art.

If every item of clothing in 'The Tunnel of Pre-Loved' was bought used instead of new, we'd save:

• 14,000 lbs of CO2e, equivalent to 23,000 cars taken off the road in LA for a day.

• 160,000 gallons of water, equivalent to over 1,500,000 bottles of drinking water.

Following Earth Week, each item of clothing used in the installation will be repurposed and upcycled into a shoppable collection to be sold on thredUP to further extend the life of each garment.

“At thredUP, we’re passionate about arming consumers with the knowledge they need to make smarter, more sustainable fashion choices. But sometimes numbers and stats aren’t enough. With this Earth Day installation, we aimed to emphasize the magnitude of the fashion waste crisis, as well as the scale of the potential positive impact of thrift on the planet. ‘The Tunnel of Pre-Loved’ represents the optimism of a world where everyone thrifts more and wastes less.” -- Erin Wallace, VP of Integrated Marketing at thredUP

This Indie Artist's Show is a Thrifter Exclusive 

To kick off the installation at Santa Monica Place, thredUP has partnered with up-and-coming musician, Laufey, to offer a free show at the ‘Tunnel of Pre-Loved’, open to thrifters only. 

Aspiring attendees can visit thredup.com/IHeartThrift to commit to thrifting their outfits this festival season and beyond, and sign up to receive a text containing their password into the show.

thredUP’s show in LA occurs in the midst of Coachella, following thredUP’s Festival Shop launch with celebrity stylist Karla Welch to combat single-use fashion waste. Both the thredUP x Karla Welch shopping experience and this activation were inspired by data from thredUP which revealed that: 

• Nearly half (42%) of this year’s festival-goers say they plan to buy a new festival outfit. That’s an estimated 26.9M outfits purchased for the return of festival season.

• Nearly 1 in 3 festival shoppers say they buy festival outfits that they'll only wear once.

• 40% of Gen Z say it's unlikely that they will re-wear the outfits purchased for music festivals.

• If every festival shopper thrifted their festival outfit this year instead of buying one new, we would save 940M lbs of CO2E, equivalent to taking 564M cars off the road for a day.

“We created a unique ‘thrifters only’ concert experience at the intersection of Coachella and Earth Week in an effort to combat single-use fashion waste,” says Wallace. “Choosing used should be celebrated, and we hope to inspire festival-goers and shoppers alike to thrift more and waste less.”

Show Details

Artist: Laufey

Date: Earth Day Eve | 4/21/22

Time: 5pm PT

Location: Santa Monica Place shopping center

Entry Fee: Free to thrifters only! Visit thredup.com/IHeartThrift or text THRIFTLUV to 40272 to attend.

Thrift as an Act of Love for the Planet

This Earth Day, thredUP hopes to inspire consumers to choose used over new, and imagine what the world could look like if everyone thrifted:

• Every year, 36 billion items of clothing are thrown away. 95% of those items could be reused or recycled. [source: EPA Clothing and Footwear Waste Estimates]

• Extending the life of clothes diverts textiles from landfills and makes the most of the natural resources used to produce that item. Buying an item secondhand replaces the need to manufacture a new item, and can reduce CO2 emissions by 82% compared to buying new. [source: Green Story Inc] 

• To date, thredUP has processed 125 million unique items of secondhand clothing, equivalent to 1.1 billion lbs of carbon emissions displaced. The company is on a mission to inspire consumers to thrift more and waste less, keeping clothes in use and out of landfills.
  

More About thredUP’s Earth Day Impact

• thredUP encourages shoppers to commit to thrift. For every share of the pledge on social media using #IHEARTTHRIFT and tagging @thredUP, thredUP will double the individual impact by displacing 1 clothing item’s worth of CO2e through carbon offsets. The more people thrifting, the greater our impact on the planet. More details here → 

• thredUP is also poppingUP in Seattle! thredUP’s first OOH campaign launched in April for Earth Month, demonstrating the scale and impact of thrift. More details here → 

LINK TO PRESS IMAGERY HERE →

About thredUP

thredUP is transforming resale with technology and a mission to inspire a new generation of consumers to think secondhand first. By making it easy to buy and sell secondhand, thredUP has become one of the world's largest resale platforms for women's and kids' apparel, shoes and accessories. Sellers love thredUP because we make it easy to clean out their closets and unlock value for themselves or for the charity of their choice while doing good for the planet. Buyers love shopping value, premium and luxury brands all in one place, at up to 90% off estimated retail price. Our proprietary operating platform is the foundation for our managed marketplace and consists of distributed processing infrastructure, proprietary software and systems and data science expertise. With thredUP’s Resale-as-a-Service, some of the world's leading brands and retailers are leveraging our platform to deliver customizable, scalable resale experiences to their customers. thredUP has processed over 125 million unique secondhand items from 35,000 brands across 100 categories. By extending the life cycle of clothing, thredUP is changing the way consumers shop and ushering in a more sustainable future for the fashion industry.