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The purpose of this study is to explore the process of scaling second-hand fashion and how different strategic paths develop over time. This is theoretically grounded in two distinct scaling logics synthesised from the literature: a process that includes strategies for organisational growth (breadth-scaling) and a process that influences change in formal and informal institutions (depth-scaling).

The paper presents a process-based study based on the growth of a second-hand fashion retail organisation over 20 years. Qualitative materials such as interviews, observations and documents were collected and analysed.

The findings illustrate how a circular business model (CBM) can make use of a mix of strategies aiming for both organisational growth and impacting practices and habits within the fashion industry. Strategies building on breadth-scaling logic are found to be a prerequisite for engaging with depth-scaling strategies since they contribute to necessary resources and confidence, while depth-scaling secures future scaling opportunities by changing the conditions for scale.

The study contributes to the relatively scant literature on the process of scaling CBMs by exploring how different strategic paths unfold over time. The process-based approach, in combination with the two scaling logics, gives new insights into how CBMs go from niche to mainstream and thus influence the transition to a circular economy (CE).