Whether you’re looking for a brand new fleece jacket or a secondhand backpack — you can now buy both on Patagonia.com.
As of Wednesday, Patagonia merged its used gear site, Worn Wear, with its primary online store. Patagonia created Worn Wear in 2017, selling secondhand apparel and packs on a separate site with a different URL. But now all of Patagonia’s online sales — both new and used — will occur on the same platform.
This seemingly small change has a broader significance for Patagonia. In 2022, brand founder Yvon Chouinard gave control of the company to a nonprofit, ensuring that Patagonia’s primary mission would be fighting climate change.
By bringing secondhand gear to the company’s primary website, the brand’s leadership hopes for two outcomes: improving sustainability through support of the “circular economy,” and showing other outdoor brands that promoting used gear is both good for business — and the planet.
“I have a 15-year-old daughter who loves thrift shopping. This is a trend that has staying power,” Sam Brown, head of resale at Patagonia, told GearJunkie. “We’re in business to save our planet, but this is also financially sustainable … We sell more used things so we can make fewer new things.”
Sustainable and Affordable
Worn Wear has steadily grown since Patagonia created the used gear site in 2017. In fiscal year 2026, the site sold 160,000 items, generating about $13 million in sales. Most of the used inventory comes from trade-ins at the brand’s brick-and-mortar stores, where customers receive gift cards in exchange for used apparel and packs.
However, only about half of Patagonia customers are aware that Worn Wear is an option. By bringing it to Patagonia’s main website, the brand hopes to expand its market reach, especially among younger customers.
“Affordability has become an important thing for consumers, which is driving the secondhand marketplace,” Brown said. “Our stuff is expensive. Engineering for durability costs money, and that’s reflected in the price of our gear. You’re seeing secondhand markets becoming proving grounds for outdoor brands, whether it’s durability or something else.”
The used outdoor gear marketplace has expanded rapidly in recent years. Online platforms like GearTrade, which sells used gear through partnerships with outdoor brands, continue to grow. And several major brands have also rolled out their own resale programs, including Arc’teryx, Fjallraven, and The North Face. A new marketplace, The Gear Project, is becoming popular on social media. There’s also still some resistance, however. In 2025, REI Co-op removed used gear inventory, called Re/Supply, from its online stores, though used gear remains available at REI’s physical stores.
Patagonia, meanwhile, continues to expand its focus on used gear. Last year, the brand started accepting trade-ins through its website as well: “Most of this is a truly circular program,” Brown said. “We’re looking to grow through returns and warranties.”
An Opportunity to Revisit Past Gear
As Patagonia expands its secondhand inventory, the brand hopes to replicate some of the fun of thrift store shopping.
And that’s an easy lift for Patagonia because of the brand’s rich history of gear that lasts for a very long time, said Roos VanDeWeerd, the head of marketing for Worn Wear. Searching through used inventory online can be tiresome, so VanDeWeerd is focused on “curated experiences” that highlight various aspects of Patagonia’s history. That includes “Prints from the Past,” which shows off vintage designs that remain sought-after items among Patagonia aficionados. Another is a collection of favorites from Patagonia snowboard ambassador Austin Sweetin.
“The viability of our secondhand business is a proof point of the quality goods we’re making,” VanDeWeerd said. “It’s also an opportunity to pull in new people, and we see that in the data.”
For the moment, Worn Wear is only available to customers in the U.S. But Patagonia hopes to continue expanding this side of the business to Canada and the rest of the world.
In the meantime, Brown and VanDeWeerd hope to lead the way for even more outdoor businesses to embrace the used gear marketplace: “The reality is that even if Patagonia emissions went to zero, our planet would still be in bad shape,” Brown said. “We need to show other brands that it’s a way to do business.”
