The world’s largest online marketplace to buy and sell secondhand women’s and kids’ clothing, thredUP, opened a new distribution center and office in Phoenix and became operational in November 2018. This 120,000 square foot space located in Phoenix at 7775 W. Buckeye Rd. will provide up to 500 new jobs.
Founded in 2009, thredUP started as a pilot for online sharing of men’s shirts. Today, this digital resale marketplace gives shoppers the opportunity to browse, buy and sell gently used clothing and accessories across 35,000 brands, ranging from lower-priced to luxury without having to step inside a retail store. This online thrift store has been growing rapidly and developing new initiatives to not only grow their brand but prevent clothes from ending up in landfills.
“In order to advance our regional brand and build our economy, we need companies like thredUP to expand and create jobs in Greater Phoenix,” says Chris Camacho, president and CEO of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council (GPEC). “We are excited to not only have this online marketplace in our own backyard, but to also bring more advanced engineering jobs for our expanding community.”
“We are thrilled to be a part of the Phoenix community with the opening of our latest distribution center,” says James Reinhart, founder and CEO of thredUP. “These centers are a key part of thredUP’s growth and success, enabling us to process 100,000 garments every day. The move to Phoenix offered lower costs and greater value. This larger location will allow us to implement thredUP’s proprietary automation technology, processing more clothing, faster – delivering greater value to our customers and diverting more textiles from landfill.”
Its headquarters are located in downtown San Francisco with distribution centers across the country including Pennsylvania, Illinois, Georgia, and now, Phoenix. thredUP toured multiple markets throughout major cities in Texas and Utah to ultimately choose a distribution center in Phoenix because of the competitive costs to do business, availability of talent and access to local resources.
“Phoenix is a national leader in the emerging circular economy. Fashion and textiles has historically been one of the most wasteful industries, so I am excited to see thredUP’s innovation and its focus on sustainability. It makes the company a great partner in fulfilling the Phoenix vision for diverting 40 percent of waste from landfills by 2020 and reaching zero waste by 2050,” said Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego. “The expansion of companies like thredUP is an important piece in making Phoenix a hub for sustainable business and helps us build a truly 21st century economy. By keeping clothing out of our landfill and putting it back into the market, thredUp’s leadership in secondhand fashion is creating hundreds of new jobs for people in Phoenix.”
The careers available at thredUP’s new Phoenix location include a variety of occupations from warehouse associates to engineers. Phoenix will house a third of their open engineering jobs, including mobile iOS developers, machine learning engineers and senior software engineers.”
thredUP joins a growing number of eCommerce clothing retailers that expanded to Greater Phoenix, including Gwynnie Bee and Stitch Fix. Greater Phoenix businesses supported the expansion of thredUP to the market. Bill Honsaker from JLL represented the building and Anthony Lydon from JLL represented the tenant.
