Geartrade outpaces national resale growth while retaining focus on disrupting consumption-use-waste behavior

May 21, 2026

While the resale category is clearly enjoying the benefits of a broadening wave of buyers, sellers, and cultural acceptance, Geartrade is staying focused on its original goals

Salt Lake City, Utah (MAY 21, 2026) /OUTDOOR SPORTSWIRE/ – During Geartrade’s biggest week amidst the biggest year ever for resale nationwide, the premier online platform for used outdoor gear and apparel re-sold 2.6 items each minute from their Salt Lake City warehouse.

Occurring during the “Black Friday” week of Thanksgiving, Geartrade’s resale efforts officially tallied 3862 units of used gear and apparel, and led the way to the company’s +40% revenue growth from October 2025 through March 2026 – easily outpacing the broader U.S. secondhand apparel market which grew +14% last year.

Yet while the resale category is clearly enjoying the benefits of a broadening wave of buyers, sellers, and cultural acceptance, Geartrade is staying focused on its original goals, according to Geartrade president Aaron Provine.

“What drives our everyday work at Geartrade is less of achieving some sort of carbon footprint purity test, and more about evolving how we’re thinking about our consumption and disposal behaviors,” said Provine. “At the end of the day, it’s just about keeping great gear in use as along as possible.”

Awareness of rising overconsumption and its downstream impacts was what originally drove Provine to the resale space, as in 2018 he struggled to find a location to resell, recycle or efficiently dispose of a pair of old ski boots.

Nearly eight years later, while his company has matured and refined its re-commerce platform – streamlining its operations and speeding processing times for incoming product by 76% since 2022, improving ease of use, and lowering per unit costs – Provine and the Geartrade team are still motivated by the original goal of finding a solution to the overlooked cycle of consumption-use-waste.

In addition to encouraging outdoor enthusiasts around the country to buy and sell their unused gear, Geartrade also makes use of all unsold resale items – sending unwanted apparel to partner Birdie Blue for up-cycling; shipping unusable snowboards to partner Jones for deconstruction and recycling; or simply keeping it in their Utah warehouse until a true home is found (“we know a few people who make flower pots and chairs and things out of old gear.”)

And yet, while beneficial on a small scale, Geartrade’s efforts to disrupt the creation of waste in the outdoor community pale in comparison to the broader picture, as the average American still throws away more than 81 pounds of clothing each year.

“It’s sobering. Even in our record week, in the middle of a record year, we’re still just diverting a fraction of a fraction of a fraction from the landfills. As a community, an industry, and a culture, we simply make too much stuff and are far too casual about getting rid of it,” added Provine.

ABOUT GEARTRADE: Geartrade is the leading independent online resale platform for outdoor gear and apparel. Family-owned since 2019, Geartrade makes it easy to buy and sell used gear, extends the life cycle of all outdoor products, and minimizes their environmental impact wherever they can. Geartrade sellers include individuals, retailers, and manufacturers; and selling options include both self-listing as well as consignment – which includes free boxes, free shipping, and complete hassle-free posting of all items. For more information or to sell that great old backpack hanging in your garage, please visit www.Geartrade.com