When designer Wayne Hemingway promoted Traid’s 1999 launch during his fashion segment on popular British morning show The Big Breakfast, it brought the brand — and charity retail — to the attention of a new demographic. But in the following years, Traid CEO Maria Chenoweth began to feel celebrities were attaching themselves to charities in a way that was disingenuous, to further their careers.
She put the brakes on further celebrity affiliations until a journalist introduced her to the concept of shopping hauls and influencers in the 2010s. “We had to wake up and realise that [celebrities and influencers] are the new marketing generation,” says Chenoweth, who is now also co-founder of multi-charity retailer Charity Supermarket alongside Hemingway.
Today, Traid is one of many secondhand clothing retailers — including Vinted, Ebay, Depop and Oxfam — that leverage celebrity status to uplift the profile of secondhand shopping, reach new demographics, broaden representation and tap into market niches. But such platforms don’t just sell products: they tackle themes of reducing waste, fighting fast fashion, and, in the case of charity retailers, supporting underserved and vulnerable communities. In an era when celebrities race to put their names to an endless stream of products, some of which might be part of the problem secondhand platforms hope to address, it takes precise handling to land on a perfect partnership.
Finding the right fit
Where to start? For Traid, it’s a matter of finding ambassadors with broad appeal. Take, for example, its annual Closet Clear-Out Challenge, which aims to generate 250,000 donations over the summer months (a curated edit then forms the autumn ‘Shop the Drop’ campaign to turn donations into revenue). This year, the initiative is being promoted by celebrities including: actors Martin Freeman and Sharon Horgan; comedian Jim Moir (also known as Vic Reeves); fashion commentator Caryn Franklin; and Patrick Grant, founder of the Community Clothing brand and judge on British TV programme The Great British Sewing Bee.
“If you look at the demographic of celebrities we’ve used this year, it’s really broad. Having people like Jim Moir might seem an odd choice [but] it represents Traid’s shop floor,” says Chenoweth. This approach appears to be working. This year, Traid hit over 420,000 items donated, up from just under 300,000 in 2024, when ambassadors included singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor, presenter and stylist Sabrina Grant, and actor Michelle Dockery.
“One of the audiences the charity retail sector is keen to attract is men. [It wants to] challenge assumptions that secondhand and charity retail isn’t for them,” says Emma Slade Edmondson, retail and sustainability strategist and founder of conscious marketing consultancy Good Form, and the architect of Charity Fashion Live, which recreated London Fashion Week looks using only charity shop clothing. There’s a sizable gender gap in both charity purchases and donations that campaigns such as Traid’s aim to shrink, she says. “Someone like Martin Freeman is that grounded, unpretentious, authentic vibe people can relate to. It’s functional style that feels attainable and relatable.”
On the other side of the celebrity ambassador coin, says Edmondson, is model and actor Jameela Jamil as the face of Oxfam’s 2025 Secondhand September campaign. Highly active on social media, outspoken and well established in fashion circles, Jamil can speak to both a progressive, liberal audience and those that are style conscious.
A brand doesn’t just get the ambassador, but also taps into their audience and their values. Jamil, for instance, speaks out on issues spanning from plus-size accessibility to transgender rights and Palestine. “The choices allow retailers to subtly align with political stances that are more difficult for them to overtly align with in this polarised political world,” says Edmondson.
Authenticity sells
Being able to tap into a celebrity’s established ethical views and values can be a big draw for secondhand platforms. “It’s more than just looking for ambassadors with a huge reach, it’s important for us to stay authentic and partner with talent who reflect the values of our community,” says Jill Fisher, global director of marketing at Depop. “We look for genuine fans of thrifting and vintage — those who have a natural affinity to circular fashion.” For example, singers Charli XCX, who confessed to having a secret profile to shop on the platform, and Olivia Rodrigo, who often tagged Depop-sourced items on her Instagram account earlier in her career, were enlisted to open curated Depop shops (the former fronting a marketing campaign aligned with her store launch).
Rival platform Vinted has partnered with the likes of model Alexa Chung, known for her extensive vintage wardrobe, and actor Paul Mescal, often spotted in vintage tees, worker jackets and sportswear, to sell their coveted wardrobes. It also looked for authenticity for the cast of its new TV show, Re/Style, which sees young designers turn secondhand clothes into new looks. Airing on 13 October on Prime Video, the series is fronted by presenter Emma Willis in the UK (it’s also showing in France, Spain and Italy with a different host), with judging from stylists Melissa Holdbrook-Akposoe (also known as Melissa’s Wardrobe) and Zadrian Smith.
“[Casting] was a combination of looking at their expertise and their relationship with secondhand. It was important for us that it was a genuine part of their story,” says Jessie de la Merced, VP of corporate affairs at Vinted. The bonus of working with Willis, she adds, is that as a household name and former model, she ticks the boxes for both mainstream appeal and fashion credibility.
Values versus visibility
As with all ambassador appointments, it’s a balancing act. Big celebrities are naturally high on so many brands’ lists for partnerships and advertising, and some secondhand ambassadors have overlapping deals with companies that follow a linear take-make-waste model of fashion production. Holdbrook-Akposoe and Willis, for example, have both posted sponsored content for British high street retailer Marks Spencer.
When asked, de le Merced didn’t specify whether ambassadors’ previous affiliations are taken into consideration, instead stressing that they should feel “authentically connected to the mission and the goal of Vinted”.
Chinese secondhand platform Zhuanzhuan Group recently signed actor Zhu Zhu as an “endorser”. Zhu Zhu, who’s known for posting lots of fashion content, is also an ambassador for British brand LK Bennett, and has posted promotional content for other brands including Arket, which is owned by fast fashion conglomerate H&M Group. But Zhuanzhuan Group was willing to look past these affiliations with the primary fashion market. They may even work in the platform’s favour. With Zhu Zhu, and other celebrities, presenting secondhand as just another way to shop, they inherently normalise it among those more familiar with luxury and high street brands, which can be especially useful in markets where shopping secondhand is still stigmatised.
“Rather than focusing on the endorser’s past collaborations with other brands, we place greater emphasis on whether their public image and personal values align with Zhuanzhuan Group’s brand,” says a spokesperson, adding that the star’s commitment to environmental protection — which includes advocating for low-carbon lifestyles in public appearances and posting tips on how to repurpose secondhand goods — aligns with its own mission of making the world more sustainable through circularity.
Chenoweth is more direct. “We treat people as people, rather than just a celebrity face. However, if [the person] was a big fast fashion ambassador from the onset, we wouldn’t put them in affiliation with Traid,” she says.
When it comes to charity campaigns, Grant believes non-fashion influencers may be more believable “versus someone who is always getting paid to flog you stuff”. “The ambassadors are expressing support for the charity’s work and ethos as much as they are for the fashion,” he says.
But what if it’s a fast fashion audience a secondhand platform is trying to reach? Ebay has dipped its toes into those waters with its partnership with reality TV show Love Island. Taking the reins from a string of fast fashion sponsors, it outfits the show’s influencer-in-waiting contestants who, after filming, often vie for lucrative deals with the likes of PrettyLittleThing and Boohoo.
The reality dating show is arguably more famous for turning contestants into fast fashion influencers than helping them find love. A new sponsor in Ebay is hoping to bring sustainable fashion to the forefront.
“There needs to be a balance. Of course, there needs to be a broader appeal, but this should be coupled with someone who also lives and breathes the business and can authentically communicate their cause,” says Dr Brett Staniland, a model and secondhand ambassador who previously appeared on the show and refused the free clothes from that year’s fast fashion sponsor.
Staniland cites previous contestant Tasha Ghouri, who became Ebay’s first ‘pre-loved ambassador’ in 2022, as a successful example of striking a good balance in taking secondhand fashion to an audience who might consider it undesirable. “She has mass appeal, is dedicated to this new cause, and has immersed herself [in the subject of sustainable fashion] well,” he says.
What does success look like?
Aside from public opinion on whose face fits and whose doesn’t, the measures of success for celebrity endorsements vary.
For Chenoweth, it was far outstripping Traid’s donation target. For Vinted’s new show, it will be seeing how many people engage in it in real time and buy the winning looks as they’re added to the Oxfam UK shop on Vinted, says de la Merced. More conventional indicators will include view-through rates (number of completed views), reach and click-through rates.
Some indicators are less easy to track. “Word of mouth [WOM] is a huge driver of new users to Depop and while it’s something that’s incredibly difficult to measure, we do consider the WOM potential for any new celebrity partnership,” says Depop’s Fisher. “We track signs-ups, engagement and sales, but for us, success is as much about cultural relevance as it is about numbers. Celebrities have helped us make secondhand exciting, elevate it and essentially normalise what our community has been driving for years.”
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