🧥 Leather Flight

Howdy, thrifters.

Monday was National Thrift Shop Day, which I assume means we all took PTO to go thrifting?

National Thrift Shop Day comes around every August 17, giving us one completely legitimate day to explain to the normies that hitting the scene and working the racks at our local thrift stores for six hours is not a problem — it's a nationally recognized activity.

On theRack this week:

Let's get into it.

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We are one month away from the official end of summer according to the Astronomical Calendar, with Sept. 22nd marking the seasonal change. And with seasonal change comes trend and fashion change along with the perfect opportunity to start working through your death pile.

We've talked about the death pile before.

And yes, I understand the irony of me giving anyone advice on controlling theirs.

But right now may be the best time all year to dig through it.

Our Fall 2026 Sourcing Guide has August firmly in the SOURCE HARD phase for these items:

September shifts into outerwear, layering, tailoring, loafers and darker fall styles, while October becomes prime time for leather, wool, boots, statement knits and the Whimsigoth/Halloween crossover.

But before buying another 25 pieces...

Look at what you already own.

Seriously.

There's a decent chance your best fall sourcing trip already happened three months ago.

Get access to our new Fall 2026 Sourcing Guide

Simply share theRack with your thrift besty and have them subscribe using your custom referral link below.

Shipping quickly sounds simple until you're selling just enough that it starts becoming a process.

You don't need a full warehouse setup. You just need to remove the little things that slow you down and have an inventory management process that works for you. Some small things you can do to start:

If you're consistently shipping 10+ orders a week outside of Poshmark that's when I'd start considering a basic home setup:

You absolutely don't need any of that to start (or if you are exclusively selling on Poshmark).

But once you're making regular trips to print labels, weigh packages, or hunt down supplies, the convenience starts paying for itself pretty quickly.

theRack Take: Fast shipping isn't about working harder. It's about organization and making a process boringly easy enough that you don't put it off.

Think less Sons of Anarchy.

More: "I found this jacket in my dad's closet and somehow it looks better than anything at Zara."

Leather Flight is the aviator bomber, the shearling collar, the slightly-too-big silhouette that reads as inherited rather than bought. It's rugged, but not costume-rugged — the leather is worn in real places from real use, not distressed on purpose in a factory. Zippers over studs. Patina over polish.

Our Fall Guide puts Leather Flight in the High Conviction category for Fall 2026, with leather bombers and aviator silhouettes getting particular attention.

The silhouette matters.

We're hunting:

Not every leather jacket qualifies. That ultra-slim moto jacket someone wore to the club in 2012? Probably leave it there.

Brown is your friend.

Specifically:

We're looking for leather that feels rich and lived-in. A little patina can help. Decomposition cannot.

Extra points for:

Those details separate the jacket someone's specifically searching for from generic leather outerwear.

For this trend, our Fall Guide puts the conservative sourcing target around:

But that's a ceiling, not permission to stop comping. A beautiful $18 jacket with peeling bonded leather is still an $18 mistake.

Know these terms:

And don't sleep on "aviator."

It's exactly the kind of garment term another seller forgets to use — and the kind a knowledgeable buyer searches directly.

Especially if you're finding genuine vintage leather below $25.

Best first list: eBay.

The right buyer for obscure vintage leather could be anywhere, and eBay's search-first audience makes it the strongest starting point for this category.

Thank you to those who submitted finds this week! If you want to show off your finds next week, submit them here.

Want to show off your best finds to 5,000+ people? Submit them here to be in our “Finds of the Week” section in the future.