RESKINNED: The future of Takeback and Resale

What inspired you to start Reskinned?

Logistically, we as a business were already in the perfect place to be able to expand into takeback and recommerce.

We have a sister business, LMB Textiles, that has been dealing in textile recycling for over 20 years (and longer if you count family history!). We were already getting our hands on lots of good quality clothes that didn’t need to be recycled, so it seemed a natural fit to launch our own resale platform. On top of this, we also recognised a growing need from brands to introduce take back schemes. We were already doing a lot of this sort of work through our recycling business and it was a simple progression to offer takeback services to brands.

More philosophically speaking, what inspired us is a genuine passion about doing the right thing for the environment and for people, even if it's challenging or not always the most glamorous thing. Our team is driven by the need to find sustainable disruptions in the fashion industry.

What does “slow fashion” mean to you?

A system that works more in sync with our environment and works better for people in the supply chain. Encouraging individuals to keep clothes around for longer, and inspiring brands to innovate the way they make clothes and take responsibility for end of life clothing.

What information do you wish people knew or understood about sustainability and fashion?

There is a lot of public misunderstanding on how textile recycling works. Many think the services available are a lot more advanced than they are already. It would be great if more people understood quite how complex a process it is to recycle textiles, and how important it is for us to avoid recycling altogether. I would love for them to also know about the innovation that is going on in the industry, and it would be great to see more funding to support those innovations.

Where does Reskinned sit in the roadmap for a more sustainable fashion future?

I see us as an integral middle person, at the centre of a large web of innovators and changemakers. We’re in a great place to educate and inspire people in an individual sense, whilst also making genuine industry advancements behind the scenes by investing in research and connecting those who want to be part of the change. We’re already helping the brands we work with to develop roadmaps for what a fully circular clothing model might look in five years time. At Reskinned, our takeback process enables us to inform brands on consistent manufacturing issues and we also help them plan future collections with end of life in mind.

How is Reskinned realising circularity?

Keeping clothes out of landfill through resale, repairs, reinvention and recycling. We’re also investing in development of new ways we can recycle materials into new fibres which we believe is the game-changing stuff of the future and is genuine circularity in action.

What do you hope brands will be able to take away from the work we’re doing at Reskinned?

That takeback isn’t a complicated thing to introduce. We can get your takeback and recommerce scheme up and running in 3 weeks. If you’re not quite ready for resale, we can start with just introducing take back for your customers. Ultimately, we also want our recycling insights to inspire the way clothes are made in the first place so that they’re fit for end of life solutions.

What’s your big vision for the future of Reskinned?

We want people to reevaluate their relationship with their wardrobe and for us as a society to get the most out of clothes already in existence. That means more people wearing clothes they own for longer, and for people to do the right thing when they’re done with their clothes. We hope clothing reuse will become part of the everyday fabric of life because of easy-to-use, reliable takeback, resale and recycling services.

In terms of Reskinned’s future as a business, we want our resale brand to grow and for more brand take back schemes to be powered by Reskinned. We’d also love to expand into offering a physical presence to make it easier for people to shop preloved - whether that’s pop up stores at festivals, or more long term brick and mortar stores.

We’re a very agile business and can expand pretty quickly. The way we work means we can grow with opportunity and don’t have a limit to the number of brands we can collaborate with.