Why ThredUp’s CEO was giving literal high-fives after Trump’s tariff policies
Could competition getting trounced by trade restrictions help the resale giant turn a profit?
You’d have been hard pressed to find many clothing company execs celebrating a single one of President Trump’s new trade policies last week — but that’s exactly what ThredUp CEO James Reinhart did.
Reinhart, the cofounder of one of the biggest names in the online clothing resale industry, reportedly high-fived a colleague on hearing that the Trump administration will close a loophole that’s allowed Shein and Temu to dominate by dodging import taxes on packages under $800 for years.
While a lot of retail stocks were hammered in the aftermath of “Liberation Day,” as key international manufacturing hubs were slapped with 30% or higher tariffs, ThredUp held up pretty well, its share price having risen modestly over the last five days. As Reinhart himself observed in the same interview, “Our supply chain is domestic,” which could help make the company become an “outlier” in the space across the coming quarters.
Still, it might take a little more than the suffering of overseas (and overseas-exposed) competitors to get ThredUp into the black any time soon.
ThredDown
Since going public just over four years ago in March 2021, ThredUp shares have slumped more than 85%, as investors have grown weary of the long path to profitability for a platform where people go to resell their clothes, shoes, and other pre-loved items. However, ThredUp is hardly alone in the challenges it faces in the secondhand clothing industry: luxury reseller The RealReal has also struggled to reach profitability since going public, down over 80% since its IPO.
