Ukraine is famend for its second-hand and classic clothes markets, a nationwide level of pleasure that developed as a byproduct of the nation’s transition from a communist system to a market economic system. In Ukraine, “a thrift shop could be in a former Soviet house of culture or an old industrial warehouse,” photographer Vitalik Galanzha informed the style journal i-D in 2016. The occasions of historical past may create new technique of manufacturing: “In Zaporizhia, in south east Ukraine, I photographed a market in a bunker of a former secret factory that used to produce materials for military industry. The bunker could still be a bomb shelter, but now it’s just filled with clothes.”
Ukraine’s flourishing secondhand clothes market has proliferated on platforms like eBay, Etsy, Grailed, Poshmark and the like. The Russian invasion slowed enterprise, however hasn’t stopped it.
Last week on Grailed, a Ukrainian vendor’s listings included a classic teal Yves Saint Laurent pullover, a Burberry baguette and a pair of soppy, chocolate brown Prada boots. “Hi all!” account holder lugangstore wrote. “Due to the war in Ukraine, I can not send parcels, as soon as everything is over, I will send everything! Thank you all for your understanding!”
Ivan Dychka, a.okay.a. lugangstore, has been in enterprise for 5 years. “Since school there was a need for good things and I wanted to look good,” Dychka informed Observer utilizing the Grailed messenger characteristic. “And like all happy people, it all started from a hobby that became the main activity.” Dychka lives in Svalyava, “fortunately the safest city in Ukraine,” and mentioned he’s protected and may speak with a cool head.
Russia’s ways have resulted in excessive congestion: Shipments from Ukraine are being intentionally delayed en masse, air capability is restricted and port cities have turn out to be navy targets. “Delivery services were not available for the first week of the war, but in the right part of Ukraine, where hostilities are now taking place, there can’t even be talk of delivery,” Ivan mentioned. When it involves his classic resale enterprise, Ivan says gross sales have grown because the invasion.
“But I’m not sure if this is due to the situation in the country, since buyers find out that I’m from Ukraine only after the purchase,” Ivan mentioned, “and there were cases when people refused to buy because of this.”
Shopping for a Good Cause
On March 9, the US House of Representatives permitted a spending invoice allocating $13.6 billion in emergency help to Ukraine; the nation is in deep want of funding for munitions because it copes with Russia’s assault. As sympathetic onlookers around the globe have felt compelled to assist, a number of standard on-line marketplaces have emerged as novel conduits for folks seeking to funnel cash on to Ukrainians who want it.
Recognizing this, platforms have responded. To help Ukrainian sellers, Etsy introduced it could cancel present balances owed to the corporate by all sellers in Ukraine. This week, Etsy unveiled a curated assortment of Ukrainian Etsy sellers made by the location’s editors, whereas additionally highlighting extra stringent protecting strategies for sellers.
EBay is taking comparable measures. While an eBay itemizing for a Russian tank posted on Facebook on March 2 proved to be a pretend, the location hosts many authenticated Ukrainian sellers. “We stand with Ukraine and are taking a number of steps to support the Ukrainian people and our sellers in the region,” Trina Somera, a spokesperson for eBay, informed Observer this week. “These include waiving seller fees, protecting sellers from late shipment penalties and negative feedback, and matching our employee donations to organizations supporting Ukraine at a 2:1 ratio.”
Somera added that eBay has briefly suspended all transactions involving Russian addresses, and transactions involving addresses within the Ukraine could also be delayed.
“Usually my packages arrived in the USA in 3-4 weeks, but sometimes there were delays of up to two months,” Dychka mentioned. “The main problem is that there is no way to look for new item [sic] things, since the country is currently frozen. Nobody knows what to do, including me.”
Igor Zakharov, the founding father of classic clothes retailer hodkotom.com, informed Observer his enterprise is without doubt one of the most profitable classic retailers in Ukraine.
“Our store was founded in 2011 and until 2014 we worked in the local market and Russian market,” Zakharov wrote in an e mail. “After Russia’s first military aggression in 2014, when they occupied Crimea and part of the Donbas, we shut down work with Russia and began to expand into the international market.”
Zakharov’s enterprise now has profitable on-line outposts on Grailed, eBay and ASOS. But hodkotom’s primary workplace can be situated in Zaporozhye, one among many Ukrainian cities which were focused by Russian airstrikes because the battle started.
Anything But Business As Usual
On Feb. 1, Zakharov was having fun with a trip together with his spouse and kids in Turkey. By the tip of the month, the whole lot had modified. “On February 24th we had to stop the work of our shop completely, because the movement of the Russian army on our front was developing very dynamically and unpredictably. Every day, sirens were working in the city and all the time there was a threat of air strikes against the city,” Zakharov mentioned. “All of our team members have been in bomb shelters for a long time.”
“Fortunately, our army was able to hold off the attack on our city, [and] at the moment the Russian army is 50 km away,” Zakharov mentioned. “Our city now looks like a World War II military fortress.”
Zakharov longs to return to his former lifestyle, however doesn’t have any concept how. For Ukrainian enterprise house owners and civilians alike, one essential lifeline has been Ukrposhta, the state postal service. Heavily focused by the Kremlin and the Kadyrovites paramilitary group, which attacked and killed two postal staff this week, Ukrposhta has been delivering drugs, pensions, and groceries, in addition to coming by way of for export operations like Zakharov’s.
“If they used to use the air for delivery, now they use trucks for delivery to Poland on a narrow ‘safe corridor’ all across the country,” Zakharov mentioned. “Drivers of these trucks risk being hit by enemy bombardment at any moment.”
None of his colleagues in Ukraine classic resale have spoken to him about reopening their outlets—“Hard to think about work when tanks drive down the street and missiles fly into residential neighborhoods,” he wrote—however Zakharov resumed operation at hodkotom on March 9 and refuses to be deterred, regardless of the hazards concerned.
“We decided that some members of our team will be organized to come to the office 3 times a week, but only if there are no sirens in the city and the risk of an air strike,” Zakharov mentioned. “We will try to resume work to help our country’s economy. We need to pay salaries, pay taxes, donate [to] our army and volunteers and allow others to work, including Ukrposhta. Attracting foreign exchange earnings into the country is very important now.”
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