Patagonia blurs the line between secondhand and new clothing

Patagonia has folded its secondhand clothing line, called Worn Wear, into its main website instead of keeping it on a separate site. Shoppers can now browse used and new items side by side, add either to the same cart, and check out together. Both new and used items come with the company's standard warranty.

This is a shift from how most clothing brands handle resale. Many keep used or refurbished items on a separate site, partly out of worry that secondhand options might cut into sales of new products, and partly because used inventory is harder to manage — each item is unique, supply is unpredictable, and pricing varies by condition. Patagonia collects worn items through its stores, website, and mail-in returns, then has a team in Reno, Nevada clean, repair, and verify them before resale. About 80 percent of what comes in can be resold. In the past fiscal year, the company sold nearly 160,000 verified secondhand pieces, bringing in about $13 million.

For Patagonia, the change is meant to make buying used clothing feel like a normal part of shopping rather than a separate errand, and it ties into the company's broader effort to cut emissions tied to making raw materials, its biggest source of greenhouse gas output. The redesign took several years of work updating inventory, pricing, and website systems to handle secondhand goods alongside new ones. There's no direct homeowner action here — this is a retail and sustainability story about how one outdoor apparel company is reshaping its sales site, not an energy or rebate program update.