Donald Trump:
And now it’s going to the Supreme Court. Now we’re going to be asking for early admittance.
Kennedy Felton:
The White House has vowed to fight an appeals court ruling that found President Donald Trump does not have the power to impose his latest tariff campaign.
Apparel and textiles have been subject to tariffs for decades. If the latest are reinstated, can Americans find relief in the form of gently-used clothing?
FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF | 1986
In 1930, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, in effort to alleviate the effects of the, anyone, anyone, the Great Depression, passed the, anyone, anyone, the tariff bill, the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act.
Kennedy Felton:
The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 increased levies on foreign made goods imported into the U.S. by roughly 20%.
In the nearly 100 years since – the American Apparel and Footwear association says the fashion industry accounted for just five percent of imports by volume but faced more than 25 percent of tariffs imposed through trade policy.
Steve Lamar:
We’ve paid them. Just to be very clear.
My name is Steve Lamar. I’m the president and CEO of the American apparel and footwear Association
we still have these very high tariff rates, and we’re the most heavily tariff sector in the US economy still.
Kennedy Felton:
In the years that followed Smoot-Hawley, Lamar says many industries were able to reduce their tariff burden. But not the fashion industry.
Steve Lamar:
we still largely pay the same high tariffs that existed back in 1930
Kennedy Felton:
The appeals court is allowing the tariffs to stay in effect until at least October 14th while the White House fights it out in court. The Budget Lab at Yale says the effective tariff rate – or the actual average duty paid on all imports – for August was roughly 11.5 percent. That’s considerably lower than the statutory rate — or rate established by law – which was set at 18.2 percent in August according to Yale. That statutory rate is the highest since 1935.
When it comes specifically to clothing. In the short-term Americans will pay 39 percent more for leather products, 37 percent more for apparel and 21 percent for textiles. In the long-run, they will adjust to 19, 18 and 11 percent higher respectively.
But avoiding tariffs on clothing is harder than checking tags.
Steve Lamar:
3% of what’s in your closet was made in the United States. 97% was made somewhere else, in another country and imported into the United States.
Kennedy Felton:
Lamar says some products may be labeled “Made in USA” but have inputs from somewhere else. The opposite is also true when items made in other countries contain American content like fabrics or yarns. But the President’s goal isn’t making America a textile heavyweight.
Donald Trump:
“We’re not looking to make sneakers and T-Shirts, we wanna make military equipment, we want to make big things.”
Kennedy Felton:
While tariffs are up in the air for now, in August, the Trump administration officially ended a trade exemption that allowed more than $60 billion dollars in goods to enter the country without facing levies in 2024.
Alon Rotem:
So the de minimis loophole is essentially been. Long standing part of our trade policy in the United States, and has helped, you know, the small manufacturers, producers of items, import anything under $800 per package into the United States, into the United States, duty and tariff free.
My name is Alon Rotem. I’m the Chief Strategy Officer at thredUP, and I help manage our resale as a service, programs,
when that loophole was closed, we really think that that help is going to help level the playing field between domestic resale, like what we do at thredUP and fast fashion and really help, you know, comparatively improve, like the domestic offering.
Kennedy Felton:
In recent years fast fashion brands like Zara, H-and-M, and Shein have offered inexpensive options for people hoping to stay on-trend.
Jennifer Le Zotte:
Fast fashion means that new, albeit fairly disposable clothing is nearly as cheap as some secondhand clothing
My name is Dr. Jennifer Le Zotte, and I am a associate professor of history and material culture at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington,
And the the price differential between what I could get at thrift stores in the 90s and how much stuff cost even at Kmart, was much bigger than it is between, you know, Shein and the Salvation Army today.
Kennedy Felton:
Fast fashion has been the subject of criticism. In March, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres highlighted the impact of fast fashion during his remarks on the International Day of Zero Waste..
According to a survey from YouGov – millennials and Gen Z are gradually becoming aware of the concerns with fast fashions’ impact on the environment.
The closure of the de minimis exemption is expected to make products from the likes of Shein and Temu more expensive moving forward.
And that opens the door for a booming secondhand market, which is expected to reach $367 billion dollars by 2029.
Alon Rotem:
Now we’re seeing tariffs, you know, sort of change, change supply chains, and really shift prices. And so secondhand clothing is really been like a great place to find value.
Kennedy Felton:
Those types of shifts have been important throughout the history of the secondhand market.
Le Zotte, who wrote “From Goodwill to Grunge: A History of Secondhand Styles and Alternative Economies” explained it took the prevalence of mass production at the end of the 19th century for there to be enough goods to support a secondhand market. Prior to that, if something got stained or worn out, you would remake it or even use the scraps to stuff a pillow.
According to YouGov, Americans are pretty split on their preference for buying secondhand versus new. But owning and showing off pre-loved clothing hasn’t always been in vogue.
Jennifer Le Zotte
Places like Goodwill and Salvation Army rebranded that because in the 19th century, used clothing especially was really the province of peripatetic Jewish salespeople, and so anti semitism discouraged other Americans from really exploring that avenue. But Salvation Army obviously Christianized that and also sanitized it. Talked about, we wash all these things. This is a great way to, you know, shop if you don’t have enough money.
Alon Rotem:
One of the things we’ve been working on at thredUP over, you know, the 15 years we’ve been around is really helping to de stigmatize secondhand and making that sort of a normal part of the shopping experience.
Kennedy Felton:
Shortly after the turn of the 20th century, thrifting took off as a hobby. But through the 1930s there was still an issue keeping stores like Salvation Army and Goodwill stocked. At the time, Le Zotte says they made their money by recycling paper products.
Jennifer Le Zotte
there’s evidence as early as like 1906 that people were doing it kind of recreationally. Post World War Two is really when it takes off, and part of that has to do with you get this change in the technology related to clothing.
Kennedy Felton:
While she says it’s hard to quantify the impact Smoot-Hawley had on secondhand markets as it was somewhat of a grey market, economic conditions and the state of the country definitely affect the market for previously worn goods.
Jennifer Le Zotte
in the 1970s you see other economic downturns, you know, as part of, you know, the United States losing its global primacy in a lot of main sectors of production. And here you definitely see people shopping secondhand out of necessity, but with a twin political purpose, right? Like saying, you know, I’m kind of mad at the government. There’s the context of the Vietnam War too, so it’s rebellious and practical at the same time.
Kennedy Felton:
As young people searched out individuality through the way they dressed, second-hand became fashionable.
Jennifer Le Zotte
But the interesting thing to me is that every generation of young people kind of rediscovers secondhand shopping right in whatever mode, wherever it’s found, whatever model, whether it’s online or at the thrift store up the street. And I think that there’s a big sort of identity crafting phase in young adulthood.
Kennedy Felton:
As secondhand shopping increases in popularity, Rotem says the sheer number of marketplaces make it easier than ever to get previously worn goods. But both he and Le Zotte know it can be harder to find unique, statement pieces at a good price.
For more on the state of the secondhand market and even how it affects sneaker culture, head to S-A-N dot com or the Straight Arrow News app and search “thrift.”