Urban Outfitters is selling ‘vintage retro’ iPods and millennials’ feelings are hurt
The trendy Philly-based retailer is selling several older iPod models from the 2000s for up to $350 each.
Check on your millennial friends today. Urban Outfitters is calling their old MP3 players “vintage.”
Recently, the trendy fashion retailer for teens and young adults started selling discontinued models of Apple iPods for steep markups.
The company’s website is featuring a variety of iPods, from classic to mini, from the early aughts listed for hundreds of dollars each. And those of us who used these bad boys when they first dropped are feeling a little sensitive about it all.
On X (formerly Twitter), users described feeling “distraught” by the retailer’s latest “vintage” designation.
One listing for a fourth-generation iPod Classic from 2004 calls the device a “genuine piece of vintage retro tech” and says it’s the “perfect blend of new millennium design with modern features.”
A blue, first-generation iPod mini from 2004 appears to have sold listed for $199.
This is not the first time URBN — which opened its first store in West Philadelphia in 1970 and is based at South Philly’s Navy Yard — has dipped a toe in selling secondhand goods. The company’s Urban Renewal brand sells an assortment of self-proclaimed “vintage” clothing, furniture, and accessories through Urban Outfitters.
Earlier this year, the company opened Reclectic, aiming to reach Gen Zers interested in secondhand shopping by offering clothes from URBN brands at hefty discounts.
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In this case, the iPods — as well as other tech listed on Urban Outfitters’ website — are sourced by Retrospekt, a Milwaukee-based business that restores and sells Polaroid instant cameras and other vintage electronics.
Some critics online say the companies’ resale values for the iPods are too high. Other resale websites — like eBay and Etsy — are selling similar iPods starting at around $35.
But Retrospekt says its goods are refurbished and restored with new batteries and additional memory capacity.
Younger generations pivoting to analog or less technologically advanced devices — like iPods — is not a new phenomenon.
As they embrace Y2K trends, falling in line with fashion’s cyclical nature, many in Generation Z — those born between 1997 and 2012 — are also turning to wired headphones, CDs, and film cameras.
And while iPods, which were introduced in 2001 and officially discontinued in 2022, are digital, they only hold the songs that have been uploaded to them, compared to today’s phones with access to endless streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. Fans of the older devices say they are a more intentional way to consume music.
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“Gen Z has grown up in the digital age, they’ve been surrounded by smartphones, computers, social media, and technology,” Arun Babu, who manages Fujifilm India’s optical devices and Instax division, told Elle. “While millennials had to adapt to technology over a period of time, Gen Z has had exposure from the start of their lives. Therefore, while millennials are enamored by new technology, Gen Z is driven to experience something more real.”
Babu also suggested flip phones could return in popularity, a trend analysts have been anticipating for years.
But Urban, this millennial begs of you, when you inevitably start selling my Blackberry Pearl from 2006, please don’t mark it up for hundreds of dollars.