‘The high lasted for days’: The rise of Vinted addiction

“I use Vinted in the same way that other people scroll on TikTok or Reels,” Flossie tells me. Often, the 25-year-old finds herself absentmindedly opening the secondhand shopping app even when she’s picked up her phone to do something else. “It’s habitual,” she says. Sometimes she can’t resist scrolling through her homepage while in the office. “One time my boss came up behind me while I was on it. It was really embarrassing,” she recalls. “I think I’m addicted.”

Originally launched in Lithuania in 2008 by Milda Mitkute, a then 22-year-old who teamed up with a software engineer friend to create a platform to sell her old clothes, secondhand shopping app Vinted has since become a global phenomenon, today valued at around $9 billion. The reselling app is particularly popular in the UK, where some 17.4 million – around one in four people – are users. Vinted has even emerged as the country’s third-largest fashion retailer, outranking the likes of Zara, H&M, and ASOS.

As Vinted’s popularity has snowballed, so too have instances of users like Flossie reporting feeling ‘addicted’ to the app. From TikTok to Reddit, social media is awash with people reporting that their Vinted use is out of control; some even claim to have spent “thousands” on the platform. A 2025 study by French researcher Marie Boudi even found that secondhand shopping platforms – “sometimes presented as responsible consumption tools” – can often lead to overconsumption by encouraging “a repetitive buying cycle, fuelled by excitement and immediate pleasure.”

It’s a phenomenon I’ve noticed in my own life, too. I first joined Vinted back in 2021, having fallen out of love with Depop, which at the time was becoming increasingly overrun with former private school kids selling Nike sweatshirts sourced from charity shops at £50 a pop. Crucially, too, Depop charged sellers a fee – arguably its Achilles heel (the platform finally removed selling fees for UK sellers in 2024). Vinted, by comparison, seemed positively utopian: a place where you could find a truly one-of-a-kind bargain and sell your old stuff easily without being charged for it.

My first purchase was a pillow-soft, good-as-new fleece for £5, and it wasn’t long before I became something of a Vinted evangelist. To this day, some of the most-loved clothes in my wardrobe were bought via the app: like the mohair cardigan I got for £20 (RRP £95), or the vintage linen trousers that I’ve now wheeled out for five consecutive summers and counting. But over the past year, I’ve become aware of a change in my Vinted habits. While I used to seek out specific pieces, spending just a couple of minutes a day browsing, I now seem to check the platform compulsively on the tube; during work meetings; even in the bathroom. Often it’s the first app I check in the morning, and the last one I check at night.

I’m not alone. “I feel addicted to Vinted like I do with social media,” Anusha, 31, tells me. “I’ll be on the phone with my mum, or watching a show or movie, and just mindlessly scrolling and liking things.” She adds that while she doesn’t buy an excessive amount on the platform, she feels compelled to keep checking it in case a bargain is “just one refresh away”.

Why do so many people feel obsessed with Vinted? There’s the simple fact that getting a good deal can be a powerful high, says professor of consumer psychology Dr Cathrine Jansson-Boyd. “When we find something we think is a bargain, we experience an adrenaline rush,” she explains. “We know from fMRI scans that when people see a good price, the part of the brain that deals with pleasure is activated.” And, as Jansson-Boyd points out, given that you can haggle on Vinted, it’s often possible to get your hands on particularly good bargains. This kind of “thrill” is what keeps Anusha hooked: “I recently found a pair of vintage 2000s Prada sport loafers for £30 – that high lasted for days,” she says.

When people see a good price, the part of the brain that deals with pleasure is activated

On reselling platforms like Vinted, this is compounded by the fact the vast majority of items are one-offs; so if you see something you like, there’s pressure to snap it up before someone else does. “If there is the possibility of someone else beating you to it, that will instil this idea that you have to purchase it immediately, because we don’t like to miss out on good bargains,” Jansson-Boyd explains. This chimes with Flossie. “There’s an urgency because things can sell so quickly,” she says. “When you buy something that got uploaded ten minutes ago, you get this serotonin boost.”

But Vinted keeps users hooked through its design, too; it employs many of the same tactics used by addictive social media platforms like TikTok. There’s infinite scrolling, for starters, a feature which some experts have likened to gambling on a slot machine. Then there’s its advanced algorithm, which pushes users personalised recommendations based on their behaviour on the app – so, the more time you spend scrolling, liking, and searching on Vinted, the ‘better’ and more tailored your recommendations will become.

“I really like having a tailored algorithm,” Anusha says, adding that it feels “like a reward” for spending lots of time liking items on the app because “it makes finding good things even easier.” This makes total sense to consumer psychologist Kate Nightingale. “When people begin to feel like they are getting better at finding the best treasures it increases their sense of mastery, which can motivate them to return to the platform,” she says. “The more commitment you put into it, the better the result. That is psychologically rewarding.”

On the one hand, is it even an issue if Vinted is so successful? It is a secondhand shopping app, after all; the clothes are already in circulation, so it’s not like consumption on the app contributes to waste. If anything, Vinted saves clothes from landfill by giving them a second life. “Because I sell on Vinted as well, it’s like a circular process: I can buy and wear new clothes without feeling guilty about it,” Flossie says. “I definitely purchase a lot from Vinted, but at least it’s not from Shein.”

But ultimately, some users clearly feel disturbed by the app’s chokehold on them. 30-year-old Jenna – who describes clothes as her “kryptonite” – recalls how she ended up spending £500 on the app during a week where she was struggling with her mental health. “I felt like I’d lost the battle to its algorithm,” she recalls. “New clothing offers the possibility of a new life – or at least the appearance of one – and that in itself is intoxicating, nevermind all the other algorithmic incentives thrown into the mix.”

And despite Vinted’s green credentials, it’s not entirely guilt-free. After all, delivering parcels – particularly parcels delivered direct to your front door – contributes to CO2 emissions (relatedly, the app recently introduced international shipping between Europe, the UK, the US, and Australia – leading some to question how shipping a low-value item over thousands of miles tracks with the brand’s ‘eco-friendly’ ethos). “I would like to be a little more intentional about the things that I’m buying – not only for money reasons, but for climate reasons too,” Anusha says.

Vinted, of course, is nowhere near as poisonous as the fast fashion brands who grossly underpay the workers making their polyester clothes (that ultimately end up dumped in the Chilean desert). Flossie is right that it still is better to buy clothes from Vinted than Shein. But even though Vinted is more sustainable and cheaper than buying new, it’s still worth questioning why we are consuming in the first place. Is it because you’ve found a gem that you love the look of – whether because of its design, function, or both? Or is it because you just want to receive something – anything – in the post?

Evidently, it’s very difficult to resist the ‘easy win’ of shopping on secondhand platforms like Vinted, especially when the app is designed to hook you in. But trying to reflect on what’s really spurring on a purchase before hitting ‘buy’ can be a good habit to get into. Anusha recalls a recent instance where she felt “a bit sad” on the way to meet friends at a pub and bought a “fuzzy black scarf” on Vinted to make herself feel better: “Then when I left the pub, I was like ‘Oh’”, she says. “‘Maybe I just needed a pint with my friends.’”

Source link