Ebay might be responsible for some of our most dubious purchases since launching 15 years ago, but we should also credit it with changing the way young people shop.
Take Wavey Garms. One of the many e-commerce sites spawned from eBay (which is celebrating its birthday this week), the Facebook selling group was set up 18 months ago on a small scale and has since become the go-to site for discerning youth after new and vintage streetwear. It’s now at the point of dictating what young people wear, ahead of even trend forecasters.
Set up by Andres Branco, 25, a former chef, and later joined by his girlfriend, Gabrielle Roberts, 24, a fashion graduate, it was created in part as a reaction to Branco’s experiences of eBay: “He was fed up with all the fees and having to trawl through tat to get what he wanted” explains Roberts. Their main goal was to create a “cool” environment for like-minded people to buy and sell niche clothing.
18 months on, Wavey Garms has over 70,000 users between 16 and 30-ish, three groups (Wavey Garms, Wavey Garms Ladies and Wavey Kicks) and 7,050 people on the waiting list. As Vice put it more succicntly, Wavey Garms is “Reddit for people selling old Hilfiger windbreakers instead of atheism”.
Streetwear seems to be the overriding theme on Wavey Garms, and the pair have accidentally or not hit upon a largely untapped market: “We knew streetwear was big, but we never thought it was grow at the rate it has,” says Roberts.
Streetwear is undergoing a terrific resurgence in popularity thanks, it is thought, to the merging of minor labels with major-league wearers. Hood By Air is a case in point. Since launching in 2006, it has become a cult brand thanks to its celebrity fans including Kanye West, A$AP Rocky and Daniel Sturridge. Equally, Business of Fashion credits the influence of designers such as Raf Simons and labels like Supreme for propelling streetwear into the luxury market while simultaneously bolstering the status of affordable pieces by Nike and Puma. The trickle-down effect has been tremendous for Wavey Garms, which has cornered the vintage end of things: “It’s mainly the 1980s and 1990s, which people want, and things will sell out in minutes.”
Wavey Garms works like this: users request to join the Facebook group and then post pictures of things they want to sell. These are the wavey (cool) garms (garments). Other members can then direct message them and negotiate a price which is then paid, usually via PayPal, and delivered either by hand or posted. Most things go for less than £100 unless they are really sought after. The owners can’t check every item so it operates on trust and as yet, it hasn’t had any official complaints although it will ban people who seem to be using it for the wrong reason.
As yet the pair are making very little – “a bit via advertising, pop-up markets, things like that” – but the idea is turn it into a profit-making e-commerce site.
More importantly, though, Wavey Garms has become a yardstick for what people are actually wearing and coveting: “Andreas is from south London so he knows what’s current. It’s very instinctual for him. He just looks at what his friends are wearing, what people look like at parties, it’s streetwear in the real sense.”
So what are people wearing? “The most coveted items seem to be printed Versace shirts, anything with the Moschino logo on it, Supreme, which is still huge despite being quite mainstream, 1990s Fendi items and these sweaters by Champion, the tennis brand. There was a pair of Moschino printed shorts on there the other day. It was sold in less than five minutes.”
Whereas the Asos Marketplace – a subsite of online retailer Asos and not dissimilar to Wavey Garms – is fairly indiscriminate, Wavey Garms is very selective about the quality of merchandise, although much of the vetting is down to the group remembers themselves who aren’t shy of “tearing something apart” if it feels a little bit late. If trends move fast in real life, they move 10 times faster on social media: “Six months ago we had loads of postings for Nike Huarache trainers. Everyone wanted them. Since then there’s been a serious influx – if you try and sell a pair people will post: ‘Bit late mate’.”
Having tapped into the pace of changing trends, and in particular streetwear, Wavey Garms piqued the interest of a trend forecasters who keep “secret” tabs on their Instagram page. In essence, trend forecasters are looking to them to tell them what’s cool. “WSGN [one of the biggest trend forecasters] told us we’ve changed the way people dress,” says Roberts.
As to what happens next, forecasting or consultancy seems like the most obvious move – “although we are also meeting with investors and expanding worldwide”.
Wavey Garms now have sellers and buyers in the Netherlands, as well as interest from Australia and Denmark: “One of the voluntary admin guys is from Copenhagen so it’s made it there,” says Roberts. It’s even become a status symbol: “When he tells people what he does they’re very impressed, especially the girls. People have hooked up, or formed friendships through a shared love of style. It’s beautiful.”
