ThredUP: Making Hand-Me-Downs Go Viral
Moms have swapped hand-me-down clothes with friends and relatives for years. Now a startup called startup ThredUP is trying to use the Internet to automate the process of sharing used kids’ clothes between people who don’t know each other.
ThredUP, which formally launches its free site this weekend, bills itself as a hybrid between DVD-rental service Netflix (NFLX) and second-hand tickets marketplace StubHub. Parents with extra clothes log them on the site, which coordinates and manages the exchanges and shipping.
Here’s how it works: A parent with a pile of outgrown but “gently used” kids’ clothes registers for the site to get free shipping boxes in the mail. Then he or she enters a few facts about all the used clothes they place in each box, like the age of the kids that can wear them, the season, and a few brand names. That box gets logged on the site, where another mom or dad looking for some clothes might find it fits their needs.
