Thrifting doesn’t have to cost money.

Last quarter, students brought old, unwanted clothes to swap with other students’ clothes. The afternoon of Nov. 25 , clothes were piled in the PUB lobby for students to peruse. 

The event was organized by Professor Laurel Ecke’s General Psychology 100 class. The class had a special focus on the connection between psychology and climate change. 

The final was a project of their choice “to promote a low-waste lifestyle” so Natasha Kalui’s group “decided to host a thrift swap on campus to teach students here about thrifting and the benefits of it and to find ways to reduce their waste and consumption for the overall betterment of the planet.” 

Clothing swaps aren’t new; they can be traced back to at least the 1940s when necessitated by wartime rations. The activity has grown in popularity in recent years with 60% of Generation Z preferring to buy clothes secondhand and with the secondhand clothing market outpacing the regular retail clothing market. 

The student organizers, Haiqa, Zainab, Danielle, Nevi, Natasha, Nyx, and Mia, produced a pamphlet for the event explaining the benefits of thrifting as “saving money”, “living an environmentally conscious lifestyle”, and being helpful in “finding your style”. 

Following the event, the first National Clothing Swap Day was celebrated on December 6th last year, showing that there is interest in clothing swaps across the country. 

As the event wrapped up, the table wasn’t visible underneath the pile of clothes. The student organizers donated the leftover clothing to the Benefits Hub.

Looking to the future, Kalui said, “I heard the library was thinking about also doing another clothing swap. So we might also collab’ with them.”

Update: Professor Ecke’s former students are hosting another clothing swap on February third from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m in the Ray Howard library. This is part of their new Climate Club on campus. The clothing swap will also giveaway sustainable prizes and share future events the Climate Club is hosting.