Thank you!!!
How I shop on Thredup is that I filter by size, brand, and then “fabric content”. Then, I look to find stuff that is merino wool (that’s my pref). If they don’t have the percentages for fabric content or you don’t know what the clothes look like on, you can often search for the original listing for big brands by searching for like “Banana republic striped sweater black white zippers” and find all product details.
If I’ve identified a specific piece I want that is hard to find second hand, I set up ebay/poshmark/mercari alerts for it. This is how I find most athleta stuff 
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Ten tree
Prana
Lole (for that one shirt)
That scottish company that made my pink merino sweater
Realistically listen to animalilky
Is your REI still a co-op and do they have an ethical house brand?
IMO everything is ethical second hand
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They are still a co-op and they do have an ethical house brand now with a broad size range!
https://www.rei.com/b/rei-co-op
It’s relatively new so I haven’t tried it yet so no field tests from me.
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REI merino is 1000 times better than Smartwool for daily wear, and cheaper than icebreaker (the other two brands most common at REI). I’ve had a base layer shirt I got in the garage sale section for three years now, worn literally every day for six months a year, with no wear, even in the armpits. My last Smartwool shirt had holes within a few months and my last ibex shirt had holes after about a year.
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I should try it! My Black icebreaker shirt I have been rocking for 7 years now and worn it on many long distance bike trips and to like 25 countries and… it was doing fine until about 3 months ago when it starting sprouting more holes than I can reasonably darn. Definitely going to figure out what to turn the fabric into.
Icebreaker is very popular here because they have big warehouse sales. Also because rain
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This is kind of a WAY late reply, but I personally love Altra, which are all zero drop and have a variety of cushioning levels. I tend toward the mid-high cushion, but the escalante may be a good choice for more cushion than a minimalist shoe but still with many of the same principles behind it. A few of my friends really love Topo Athletic shoes, which are also zero drop and, like Altra, more “foot shaped”, but offer a decent amount of cushioning. I’ve not tried Topos mainly because pre-pandemic I worked at a running store that sold Altras and I got a big discount.
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Fun fact: icebreaker is the only wool I’ve tried that I don’t react to! I even react to Smartwool. But I had an icebreaker shirt for a few years that I really loved.
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I do love icebreaker and keep thinking I should budget for more underwear (that’s held up super well). And really it’s just the typical armpit wear/holes from backpack use, which I’ve always expected from merino. Whereas my last Smartwool shirt was popping holes everywhere and it’s the only very-used item I’ve returned to REI. The longevity of the REI merino was a surprise!
Hopefully it’s not a random thing with just my shirt
Oh wait I have a lower extremity base layer too! That also has held up for 4-ish years! Without bike saddle thigh holes!
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$35 for UNDERWEAR?!
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I know! 
That is why I have exactly one pair of them bought on sale They’re soooo nice to wear compared to cotton or synthetics though.
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how is this merino wool washed? Using special wool cleaners? I am certain all my merino wool would get destroyed by MrM.
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I labeled our tide powder “for cloth diapers only” and we use dropps pods for everything else. There are a lot of wool-friendly detergents that work pretty well. I’m not sure I’m 100% on the dropps pods, but I’ve used lots of fairly gentle detergents.
We have a bunch of mesh laundry bags and I put my wool in them and then into the hamper. When Mr. NB does laundry, he pulls out the mesh laundry bags and hangs anything that was in a bag, which makes it really easy and means he doesn’t have to do any sorting or thinking about it.
I LOVE merino underwear and got a bunch of smartwool stuff on sale once so I have a ton of it. I’m glad to hear the REI stuff holds up so well!
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I use laundry detergent from the bulk store (so just regular powder detergent) and line dry my merino.
I should also say that while I’ve been very impressed by the longevity of REI’s brand of clothing, I think their approach to size inclusivity (and diversity in general) has been really fucked up. So I feel a little weird recommending them at all even though there aren’t many better options for affordable merino.
Not many outdoor brands are good in that regard, really.
ETA my neighbor has talked a lot recently about how they’ve had a hard time finding merino and alpaca clothing in sizes that fit them comfortably. If I remember when I see them next I’ll ask where they got the pieces they’ve been wearing. They hike on Sundays so have a good layering wardrobe.
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I grow every day more crescent-like. Please share with me your most ergonomic sitting device. Knee chair? Yoga ball? Stool? Etc.
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https://www.fully.com/chairs/fully-balans-kneeling-chair.html is working for me well. I’ve used it as my only work chair for 7(?) weeks now and I feel substantially less creaky
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I came across this months ago and it has not ceased to be true. At least you’re being more proactive than I am. (She says, straightening up to type this.)
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Incredible! I lol’d
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I feel attacked. A gentle, tropical-water attack.
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My superpower is that I can slouch in every single one of these “no slouching allowed” chairs
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