An Interview with Competition Therapy | The World’s First Vintage Wholesale Competition Site

Senior Writer Daisy Culleton spoke with the brains behind the world's first vintage wholesale competition site, Competition Therapy, to learn more about how it works and how they hope to revolutionise the resell scene.

Coming Soon: ‘Competition Therapy’ The World's First Vintage Wholesale Competition Site. Image Credits: @competition_therapy on Instagram.

Over the past few years, the vintage fashion scene has expanded rapidly, driven by increasing consumer demand for sustainability, nostalgia, and ethically sourced clothing. According to the latest Resale Market and Consumer Trends Report by online second-hand marketplace ThredUp, this growth is set to continue, with the global second-hand apparel market expected to reach $367 billion by 2029.

Despite its surging popularity and immense saturation, there are still a few ‘firsts’ left to be had in the market—it just takes a keen eye and an innovator to spot them...

That’s where Girl Vintage Wholesale—a UK supplier of handpicked Y2K Italian vintage—comes in. Recognising a gap in the market, they’ve established Competition Therapy, the world’s first vintage wholesale competition site, designed to make vintage accessible to everyone and keep clothes in circulation. Think of it as retail therapy that’s both fun and good for the planet.

Wild Magazine Senior Writer Daisy Culleton sat down with the team behind Competition Therapy to find out how it works—and, most importantly, how you can get involved.

Here’s what they had to say!

You describe yourselves as the first vintage wholesale competition site—can you explain what this means in more detail? How does the process work, and how can people get involved?

As I'm sure lots of people know already, vintage can usually be bought in retail stores, on online platforms, or as wholesale bundles. We wanted to do something a bit different that would allow people to get their hands on exclusive products for a fraction of the cost.

Each month, we are releasing a competition to win various vintage and high-end items in a raffle format. A limited number of tickets are released on our website for each competition, each ticket costing only £0.99. When the comp closes, we draw a random winner, and that person wins everything that is up for grabs!

Where did the idea for Competition Therapy come from? What inspired you to launch it?

We wanted to create a new, fun, and exciting way to shop for fashion that has never been seen before. We have seen lots of other competition sites, mainly focused on cars, hobby gear, or houses that seem to be doing really well and generating lots of buzz. We wanted to bring this into the vintage industry in our own way.

Aside from the chance to win, why should people buy a ticket? Do you offer any additional incentives or perks?

Every time someone makes a purchase from the competition website, they receive £10 in store credit to spend at Girl Vintage Wholesale! This way, everyone's a winner.

Why did you choose a ticket-based purchasing process? Was it to add an element of surprise, make it more engaging, or give people the chance to win a substantial prize for a small cost?

We wanted to give as many people as possible the chance to get involved. Whether someone has £0.99 to spare or wants to increase their chances of winning and spend £90, everyone has a chance to win and get involved, and you never know what might happen when the winner is drawn!

Competition Therapy launched very recently— why now? Were there any key trends in the second-hand fashion industry that made you believe this was the right time to enter the market?

We are always looking to grow and expand in the vintage industry and have built up a really active and engaged audience over the last two years with Girl Vintage Wholesale. We thought this would be something that our audience would be interested in. Additionally, we felt that it might attract people who may not be interested in buying wholesale but love the idea of vintage fashion and what it represents!

Seeing other competition sites in different industries doing so well made us feel like now was the time to act on our idea and make good on it.

Your competitions offer a unique opportunity to rehome large quantities of vintage clothing— for example, the March competition, held before your rebrand from Thrift Competition to Competition Therapy, featured 70 premium items. Why is this important, and why should more people choose sustainable fashion?

With a background in vintage wholesale, lots of our existing audience are resellers or store owners, and the chance to win a bundle of 70 vintage items for £0.99 doesn’t come along every day! We felt like this competition would be a great prize for someone just starting out on their reselling journey, or for someone more established to take their stock offering to the next level!

Sustainable fashion is great for the environment and prevents clothing from ending up in landfills. There is also a great community of people who surround themselves with buying and selling vintage daily, and that trend is only set to continue growing over the next 5 years.

At just under a pound per ticket, which could win you a large bundle of vintage clothing, Competition Therapy offers an accessible entry point into the reselling scene, ensuring that the vintage landscape remains attainable even during a cost-of-living crisis.

Check out Competition Therapy on Instagram and TikTok—and get entering for the chance to win premium vintage without breaking the bank—or the planet!

About the Author:

Daisy Culleton is an American Studies and History graduate from the University of Nottingham. She works as an Editorial Assistant for BusinessBecause, writing for Raandoom and Fetch London also.