Louis Harvey 
Editor
We asked the owners of secondhand shops from across the country
A week after President Trump announced massive tariffs on imports from over 180 countries, the consequences of “Liberation Day” are starting to become clear. The stock markets are in free fall. Our neighbors to the north are pissed. So are the very American manufacturers these tariffs were supposedly meant to benefit. Prices are expected to go up on everything from the unreleased Nintendo Switch 2 to shirts from small menswear brands.
In the past, shopping for secondhand clothing has offered a salve for the price conscious. But as menswear enthusiasts prepare for a world where major fast-fashion exporters like China and Vietnam will be levied with some of the US’s highest reciprocal tariff rates, they might be surprised to find that costs at their local vintage stores have also gone up.
Dr. LaTanya Brown-Robertson, professor of economics at Howard University in Washington, DC, says Americans should expect to start having to pay more for used clothing in a post-tariff world. “If secondhand and vintage clothing is seen as a close substitute for imported apparel, this will boost consumer demand and lead to a rise in the market prices,” she said.
Indeed, increased demand is one of the primary factors many secondhand sellers say has been driving up the prices of vintage for the last few years. Jaime Paoletti-Wong first opened Raggedy Threads in Los Angeles in 2002, before expanding with a Brooklyn outpost in 2016. The cost of used goods has significantly increased since COVID, she says, mainly because there are now far more vintage sellers competing for potential inventory.
Brian Davis—who has been operating Wooden Sleepers since 2010, first as an online-only shop and currently out of a space in Tuckahoe, New York—has noticed the same thing. “The explosion and popularity of vintage has caused prices to skyrocket, making sourcing more difficult.”
Even some of the more green vintage sellers have noticed great, affordable inventory has become harder to find. “We have definitely seen a price bump at the wholesale level,” said Adam Joseph Schnitzer of Stitches Vintage in Austin, Texas. He started his secondhand business with a stall at the Soco Makers Market five years ago and opened a brick-and-mortar store in 2023. “Everything is more expensive [now] and unfortunately, we have to put that cost on the customer at times,” he said.
To stay solvent without immediately increasing prices, Paoletti-Wong and her partner made efforts to stay updated on sourcing. They also decided to close their LA location in 2024, which wasn’t performing as well as the one in New York. They stayed on top of expenses, noting with worry when the wholesale prices of one of the few new items they stock—socks from Japan—increased from $1 to $3 per pair over the past year.
The tariffs, she says, threaten to upend these efforts. That’s because Paoletti-Wong and other vintage sellers often source their best homegrown wares from overseas—in countries like Mexico, Canada, Thailand, and Pakistan—where she says “a substantial amount of American-made clothing was shipped” both during and after World War II. “People often overlook that some of the more affordable items are actually from these countries, [and] then imported back into the US,” she said.
Additionally, Paoletti-Wong is bracing for the European workwear she sources from France and Italy to get more expensive. But until she actually receives a shipment from either country, “it’s still uncertain.”
Davis is also worried about the effect of the tariffs for his international customers. If more countries retaliate to US tariffs with some of their own, as China and Canada already have, he might lose potential business from people who don’t want to pay high-percentage customs fees. “[That] is going to impact my bottom line,” he said.
Some vintage sellers are more optimistic. Kelly Callison, owner of a2vintage in Ypsilanti, Michigan, told me she is anxious about the tariffs, but also hopeful that they will “push people to shop small and shop sustainable.”
Callison started her business 15 years ago and opened a brick-and-mortar store 11 years ago, but still struggled to stay open through Covid. “Thankfully our community rallied and helped us to come back,” she said. Recently, she was able to move into a larger space.
The experience gave her reason to believe that when people are forced to spend more on essential items and have less indiscriminate spending money, they’ll remember that small businesses help shape communities. “It’s shops like mine that donate to your kid’s sports teams or give away back-to-school supplies,” she said.
Schnitzer, on the other hand, is more bleak about his fate. “[The tariffs] are ultimately going to make it harder for us to profit off the business,” he said. “But really, what choice do we have other than to keep moving ahead?”
A week after President Trump announced massive tariffs on imports from over 180 countries, the consequences of “Liberation Day” are starting to become clear. The stock markets are in free fall. Our neighbors to the north are pissed. So are the very American manufacturers these tariffs were supposedly meant to benefit. Prices are expected to go up on everything from the unreleased Nintendo Switch 2 to shirts from small menswear brands.
In the past, shopping for secondhand clothing has offered a salve for the price conscious. But as menswear enthusiasts prepare for a world where major fast-fashion exporters like China and Vietnam will be levied with some of the US’s highest reciprocal tariff rates, they might be surprised to find that costs at their local vintage stores have also gone up.
Dr. LaTanya Brown-Robertson, professor of economics at Howard University in Washington, DC, says Americans should expect to start having to pay more for used clothing in a post-tariff world. “If secondhand and vintage clothing is seen as a close substitute for imported apparel, this will boost consumer demand and lead to a rise in the market prices,” she said.
Indeed, increased demand is one of the primary factors many secondhand sellers say has been driving up the prices of vintage for the last few years. Jaime Paoletti-Wong first opened Raggedy Threads in Los Angeles in 2002, before expanding with a Brooklyn outpost in 2016. The cost of used goods has significantly increased since COVID, she says, mainly because there are now far more vintage sellers competing for potential inventory.
Brian Davis—who has been operating Wooden Sleepers since 2010, first as an online-only shop and currently out of a space in Tuckahoe, New York—has noticed the same thing. “The explosion and popularity of vintage has caused prices to skyrocket, making sourcing more difficult.”
Even some of the more green vintage sellers have noticed great, affordable inventory has become harder to find. “We have definitely seen a price bump at the wholesale level,” said Adam Joseph Schnitzer of Stitches Vintage in Austin, Texas. He started his secondhand business with a stall at the Soco Makers Market five years ago and opened a brick-and-mortar store in 2023. “Everything is more expensive [now] and unfortunately, we have to put that cost on the customer at times,” he said.
To stay solvent without immediately increasing prices, Paoletti-Wong and her partner made efforts to stay updated on sourcing. They also decided to close their LA location in 2024, which wasn’t performing as well as the one in New York. They stayed on top of expenses, noting with worry when the wholesale prices of one of the few new items they stock—socks from Japan—increased from $1 to $3 per pair over the past year.
The tariffs, she says, threaten to upend these efforts. That’s because Paoletti-Wong and other vintage sellers often source their best homegrown wares from overseas—in countries like Mexico, Canada, Thailand, and Pakistan—where she says “a substantial amount of American-made clothing was shipped” both during and after World War II. “People often overlook that some of the more affordable items are actually from these countries, [and] then imported back into the US,” she said.
Additionally, Paoletti-Wong is bracing for the European workwear she sources from France and Italy to get more expensive. But until she actually receives a shipment from either country, “it’s still uncertain.”
Davis is also worried about the effect of the tariffs for his international customers. If more countries retaliate to US tariffs with some of their own, as China and Canada already have, he might lose potential business from people who don’t want to pay high-percentage customs fees. “[That] is going to impact my bottom line,” he said.
Some vintage sellers are more optimistic. Kelly Callison, owner of a2vintage in Ypsilanti, Michigan, told me she is anxious about the tariffs, but also hopeful that they will “push people to shop small and shop sustainable.”
Callison started her business 15 years ago and opened a brick-and-mortar store 11 years ago, but still struggled to stay open through Covid. “Thankfully our community rallied and helped us to come back,” she said. Recently, she was able to move into a larger space.
The experience gave her reason to believe that when people are forced to spend more on essential items and have less indiscriminate spending money, they’ll remember that small businesses help shape communities. “It’s shops like mine that donate to your kid’s sports teams or give away back-to-school supplies,” she said.
Schnitzer, on the other hand, is more bleak about his fate. “[The tariffs] are ultimately going to make it harder for us to profit off the business,” he said. “But really, what choice do we have other than to keep moving ahead?”
