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2nd STREET, a Japanese secondhand apparel retailer, opened its newest location in Harvard Square on June 20, selling everything from vintage sports jerseys to Diesel denim and Michael Kors handbags.
The company, which was founded in 1996, operates 1,000 stores worldwide, including locations in Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, and the U.S. This year, it burst into the Boston market — another Boston location in Brookline’s Coolidge Corner opened on March 28.
2nd STREET’s shelves offer a mix of thrift and vintage designer clothes, and the prices reflect that — with some items below seven dollars and others in the hundreds, often mixed together. Sometimes a $6 bathrobe hangs next to a $400 leather jacket on a rack. The most expensive items are enclosed in glass cases.
The spare, white-walled interior of the Harvard Square location looks almost like a department store. Clothes are sold off racks with labels like Y2K, Vintage, Designer, and Contemporary Modern, rotating with the seasons.
Eliza A. Glaeser ’28 said she had shopped at 2nd STREET locations in New York City before visiting the Harvard Square store, which she described as an “interesting and different” addition to the Square.
“The price range is definitely more on the expensive side in terms of thrifting, it’s more equivalent to consignment store pricing or vintage store pricing, but the selection is great,” Glaeser said.
The chain, which buys and sells secondhand goods, decides whether to accept items that its customers bring in based on trends and seasons. In Japan, 2nd STREET customers can buy and sell everything from refrigerators to office supplies, but its U.S. locations mainly focus on clothing.
Shogo Otsuki, the store manager at the Harvard Square location, said the chain’s business model focuses on minimizing waste.
“This type of secondhand clothing store is a little bit more sustainable than selling a bunch of mass manufactured clothes,” they said.
Otsuki says it’s important for the store to find high-quality material and clothes that are more likely to sell when purchasing items for its selection. They examine the brand and condition of clothes before buying them, sometimes feeling leather jackets to determine whether they are genuine. The process requires knowledge from both Otsuki and the prospective sellers.
“There are some standards,” they said. “The buyer needs to be somehow knowledgeable about the clothing.”
Otsuki said that most of 2nd STREET’s Harvard Square customers are younger, but that the location is looking to expand its customer base. It’s also hoping to build up name recognition among locals and expand its online presence.
“We need to get exposed by people more and more, we need to have a stronger presence in an online social network platform,” they said.
—Staff writer Mackenzie L. Boucher can be reached at mackenzie.boucher@thecrimson.com.
—Staff writer Christiana P. Foufas can be reached at christiana.foufas@thecrimson.com.
—Staff writer Claire Jiang can be reached at claire.jiang@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X at @_clairejiang_.
