Mardi Gras and its preparation are among the most significant sources of financial stress for Tulane students during the Spring semester. Much of this burden stems from buying outfits; the culture of treating the holiday like one’s personal fashion show continues in full effect. Also, purchasing upwards of six outfits, especially if they are brand new, contributes to environmentally harmful practices of textile waste. So why don’t more people shop secondhand?
There are a variety of public platforms available for those interested in thrifting their Mardi Gras outfit or shopping in general, such as Depop and Facebook Marketplace; however, at Tulane, many students are part of one or more GroupMe chats for buying and selling used clothing to and from other students. Even so, these GroupMe chats are laden with flaws. As dozens of items are listed daily, messages become lost easily, there is no way to mark whether an item has already been sold, and the experience generally lacks organization.
Once Tulane students Alex Leiman and Blake Anderson realized these problems, they began collaborating together to figure out a solution. The duo were inspired by the sheer amount of GroupMe clothing chats that existed and desired to create a more effective platform for localized buying and selling. “When I see people using a tech product in a way that it wasn’t designed to be used” said Leiman, referencing the GroupMe chats, “a flag goes off in my brain of, ‘There’s functionality missing here.’”
After surveying different students, Leiman and Anderson realized that the GroupMe chats were so popular “because they know exactly who’s buying and selling, so there’s a level of trust that’s already established,” said Leiman. Also, knowing that the seller lived on or near campus meant that one could easily walk over and try on the clothing before committing to purchasing it; this system is much simpler and more efficient than spending money ordering an outfit online, waiting for it to arrive, and then having to return it if the fit doesn’t work.
Holly, a college-only marketplace for buying and selling used goods, is the solution to the issues that plague Tulane’s thrifting community. Sam Conrad, who developed the initial IOS software under the name Thriftlet, designed Holly to be another general marketplace app where anyone could create an account to buy and sell. In conjunction with Leiman and Anderson, however, the pair ended up spending ten months developing Holly to gear it more towards younger people and local communities.
The app’s main selling points are safety, convenience, and ease of connecting with other students. Holly is radius based, and to become a user, one must register their student email. This ensures a more reliable shopping experience and that one doesn’t entail being scammed by a stranger posing as a student. Further, one of Holly’s main aims is to foster a more inclusive environment for buyers and sellers. “The GroupMe chats are splintered in terms of who is able to access each one, so we wanted a place for all students to be able to come together with ease,” said Leiman.
For convenience, Holly users can filter items by item type, price, gender, condition, and friends. Also, when looking for a specific item, one can use the search bar or post an In Search Of message on the Community Board page. This was not an option in the GroupMe chats, and one’s request would quickly become lost in the other messages. Now, it will stay on the Community Board page until the user marks it as resolved, massively increasing one’s chances that another Holly user who owns the item they’re looking for will eventually see their request and reach out.
Conrad, Leiman, Anderson, and Holly’s other creators, Evan Dray, and Danielle Drislane, are already looking ahead to see how to expand the app’s functioning capacity. For example, “if someone doesn’t go to your school, but you see you have ten mutual Holly friends, then they would appear as an option to connect with. Then, one would have a wider network but still overall more trusting, better buying experience which is part of our larger goal for people to connect in a safe way where everybody feels comfortable,” said Leiman.
Holly is still in the very early stages! If you have any ideas on how to evolve the app to better fit consumer needs, please email alex@hollyapp.co.
If you’d like to download Holly, use this link: http://hollyapp.co/download
Featured Image via Sylvie Kirsch.
About Sylvie Kirsch
Sylvie Kirsch is a writer for The Crescent’s College Life section. She’s a junior majoring in History and English and minoring in Classical Studies. Although an unfortunate sucker for love stories, Sylvie enjoys writing about design, music, and the everyday lessons she’s learned while coming of age in a post-pandemic world.
Sylvie Kirsch is a writer for The Crescent’s College Life section. She’s a junior majoring in History and English and minoring in Classical Studies. Although an unfortunate sucker for love stories, Sylvie enjoys writing about design, music, and the everyday lessons she’s learned while coming of age in a post-pandemic world.
