Why do donation centers and secondhand shops struggle with large amounts of low-quality fast-fashion clothing?

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Off-White fashion show — fashion industry A model walking the runway wearing an outfit from Off-White women's spring and summer 2020 collection during Paris Fashion Week, 2019.

Donation centers and secondhand shops face significant challenges due to the business model of fast fashion, which prioritizes high-volume production, low costs, and frequent replacement of garments. This model creates a surplus of clothing that overwhelms the capacity of these organizations to process and manage donations.1

The struggle is primarily driven by two factors:

Excessive Volume: Because fast fashion encourages consumers to discard items after only a few wears, the sheer quantity of donated clothing has surged, making it difficult for centers to keep up with the influx.1
Inferior Quality: Fast fashion items are often manufactured using inexpensive synthetic fibers and mass-production techniques that result in poor durability. Consequently, many of these garments are of such low quality that they are difficult to resell, leaving shops with inventory that lacks market value.1

Ultimately, the overproduction of these low-quality goods forces donation centers to manage a massive stream of items that are often unsuitable for reuse, complicating their mission to divert textile waste from landfills.1