The takeover of Milan’s high streets explained through Vinted’s latest moves

Given that not all young people in Europe are as vain as those in Milan and its surrounding area – who stormed the shop windows on Via Torino and in Brera shouting “oh mate, free clothes today”, planning a second trip back for that tracksuit they’d had to leave behind in the rush – and, of course, holding umbrellas for one another whilst they were on a shopping spree, because it was raining so heavily and they certainly didn’t want to catch a cold – since yesterday the Vinted platform has been flooded with hundreds of brand-new items of clothing and bags from top brands: Under Armour, Nike, Champions, Dries Van Noten and Dior – a far cry from that second-hand Shein dress.

For this reason, the world’s leading second-hand marketplace – a favourite among teenagers, even though they cannot sell items directly on it – requires the consent and identity card of an adult – and this alone should raise some questions about the management of the transactions taking place – immediately became suspicious and, following initial checks, made itself available to the investigating authorities in the countries where the devastation occurred, starting with France, which is also its largest market. It is a fine line between being a leading resale platform and a fence for stolen goods, and Vinted, valued at 8 billion euros, founded twenty years ago by two Lithuanians who wanted to get rid of their second-hand clothes and make a little money from them (the average transaction is just a few tens of euros, and the appearance of bags priced at 2,000 euros and above has obviously raised eyebrows), certainly has no desire to get itself into trouble. The company has therefore stated in a post and via email that it has “immediately identified and removed suspicious listings, thanks in part to reports from retailers” and that it has made itself “available to combat the resale of stolen goods”. Tracing who put it there is all too easy.