A Note from Tanya

How it Started

I’m in a reflective mood. We just celebrated five years of Lucky Sweater, launched a new version of the app including a design system glow-up, and are really, truly so excited for what comes next in this very special corner of the internet that feels more like a group chat than a secondhand marketplace. 

So naturally I’m thinking about the origin of LS, and how it has shaped where we’re heading. And I wanted to share that story with our community. Before Lucky Sweater existed, there was the weekly STSF (Sell Trade Slow Fashion) post, moderated by our very own LS mod, Moria. Hiding in plain sight on Instagram of all places, a whole community ecosystem of like-minded folks was building something generous and real — one swap at a time. 

I was just another person in the comments trying to figure out the catch. Looking for spam patterns. But these were real profiles of real people. Wait… Who are these people? Why are they so nice? I love their clothes…can we be friends??

This was a real place. An actual community. Surviving against all odds on one of the most extractive apps on the internet. How? 

It was also the early days of the COVID pandemic, and the kindness of my local Plant Swapping group was sustaining my hope in humanity. Could it be that between us, we really have all that we need? 

And then the other part of my brain kicked in. What if there was a real dedicated home for this type of relationship building that starts with clothes but becomes so much more? A space built entirely around this collective abundance energy — the opposite of every digital platform I'd ever used. 

This, my friends, is how Lucky Sweater (then: Isthmus) was born. From observing something beautiful that already existed and wanting to nurture it mindfully to make sure it lives on in perpetuity. 

‍

How it’s going

Five years in and we're still building right alongside you. On the days when things feel really hard and sometimes impossible, my habit has become to open the app right away. I scroll through the Looks, discussion Posts, my inbox – and every single time, I feel restored and so motivated. It’s genuinely hard to believe some days that WE built this. 

One hard truth about a trade-only space as a founder, is that often new users don’t “get” trading, they download the app and want to immediately be able to participate or they’re out — we’re no longer in their set of considerations of apps to open and ways to spend their time. We’ve learned that some people need an easy gateway into understanding the full value of what we provide: a place to build a closet that changes with us— because as bodies fluctuate and styles shift, it can be exhausting to start over again from scratch — to build real community that translates into IRL friendships, to share our feelings and lives in a non-judgmental space, to get trusted recommendations on anything and everything from the perfect natural fiber swimsuit to how to navigate a major life transition with grace. The list goes on and on. And often making a purchase is the simplest “way in” for folks who have never had the chance to experience the trade economy.

We’ve also heard time and time again, from even our most fiercely trade-only cohort: sometimes you just want to buy the thing! The trade didn’t come together. The size match wasn’t there. You’ve been eyeing something for months and the right swap never materialized. Even the most trade-loving among us has felt that frustration – and wished they didn’t have to leave LS to get the thing they wanted in their closet.

In the early days of getting LS up and running, other founders, investors, and even friends all said there’s no way a trade-only platform could ever grow enough to keep the lights on. We smiled and kept building, intent on proving them wrong. And we did — because we’ve done it. But, we’ve also realized that in order to continue to grow to meet the needs of our community, we have to be flexible. And why not keep that circularity on LS? We’re building a fearless collective of kind, brilliant, funny, and creative folks who support each other, so why not allow that support to be financial as well, when a trade isn’t in the cards? You’ve proven to us that this is possible, and we’re ready to take the next step in making it an everyday part of LS.

During the brand work Molly and I have been collaborating on, we landed on Trade-Forward, Buy-Curious as a very LS way to talk about our evolving ethos. This space is and always will be trade-centric. It’s our founding mission and lifeblood. We’ve experimented with monthly Buy & Sell Days, and then a full month of trading and selling during Circular December, to see if adding monetary exchange changed the vibe or decreased the magic of this space, and overwhelmingly, you’ve told us that it hasn’t (more on our Circular December Survey results later). 

I truly believe that because we’ve co-created a culture of trust built on the wild idea of trading, we can do anything. There’s just something about the singular nature of a trade relationship that creates the feeling of endless possibility. If two strangers can send each other a favorite item in their closet, include a handwritten note when life allows, and keep the circularity flowing — literally what can’t we do, together? 

‍

What’s next

After experimenting with limited-time buy/sell “events” every month, expanding that idea to a full month of buying and selling alongside trading and gifting last December, asking for your feedback, actually listening, and months of hard work to get it right, starting May 19th, you’ll be able to purchase items that are for sale on Lucky Sweater, any day. We’ve designed this carefully, with your feedback guiding our design direction, and the simple (but complex) goal: to make purchasing feel like a natural extension of the magic we’ve built together on LS. 

Now we know there are members of our community who don’t want money to enter into this trade economy utopia we’ve built, and we respect that. So here’s what we did.

First, we kept prices out of your browsing experience entirely. Again, people in suits will think we’re insane. Let them! You’ll never see a price while scrolling the LS item feed — we believe it’s vital to remaining trade-forward. If an item is available to purchase, you’ll see a cute little coin purse denoting that – but the price only appears when you actively choose to pursue purchasing the item. The trade experience stays exactly as it’s always been – suggest an item, do the trade tango, keep the items circulating.

Second, you’re in complete control. Not in a spending place right now? Turn off buying and selling entirely in your settings. On a no-buy kick? We salute you — toggle it off! The app will look and feel exactly the way it always has.

The buy + sell toggle was designed because of something that came up over and over in our Circular December feedback that stuck with us.

The survey results were actually very encouraging: 70% of you felt no impact on your trade activity during the always-on selling event in December, while 16% said it actually improved your LS experience — more people on the app, more activity overall. Some community members said that having selling available all month actually took the pressure off that they feel during the limited-time end of month Buy + Sell days. Another key learning for us: 50% of you said seeing dollar values for items shifted how you used LS. Trades that previously felt blessedly removed from the clutches of late-stage capitalism started to feel like math problems. Trade-only members felt an added layer of transactional pressure that wasn’t additive to their experience at that moment.

We took that feedback seriously. Most of the time we spent designing and testing this feature was figuring out how to have items be available for purchase without letting their asking prices taint the trade experience. And we think we’ve found that balance.

We are not just another secondhand marketplace. We never will be. We’re a place where you explore new parts of your style identity, connect with people who care about sustainability and killer clothes, and find amazing items to add to your closet along the way. Every item on LS is — and will always be — available as a gift or a trade, and now some items will also be available to purchase anytime.

Just like with Buy & Sell Days, you have complete control over whether you want to list items for sale. But now you don’t have to wait a whole month to purchase an item on LS, and you can support this one-of-a-kind space by keeping your dollars here.

Check out our full FAQ for more info on all of this.

Whether you trade, buy, or gift an item with us, it’s never goodbye — it’s see you on LS. And that is so special. Thank you for being here with us as we experiment and evolve. Thank you for posting your Looks that are always more than clothes. Thank you for believing in us and trusting us. Let’s do this. 

‍

How to help us preserve our trade-forward space:

This space works because we all protect it together. And there’s a few things that go a long way.

‍

• Keep selling language out of item descriptions, profiles, and chats. 
• Pricing lives in its own optional field in the item listing, so members who prefer a trade-only experience can hide this functionality.
• No linking out to other resale platforms or external storefronts to promote your items for sale. 
• Respect trade-only preferences. If a member has listed an item as trade-only, do not pressure them to sell.

‍

📣A note on pricing: how an item is priced is entirely up to the individual listing it. There’s a lot of factors that can go into a person’s pricing strategy: rarity of the item, sentimental value, getting back what they purchased it for, and often folks on LS would rather trade — so they list at their top price with that in mind. LS will not weigh in on or intervene with individual pricing preferences, with the only exception being items that were gifted on the platform being relisted for sale.

‍

‍