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From packing parcels in our kitchens and holding interviews in the parking lot, to 30+ brand partners, three warehouses, a team of 30 and 24,500 followers across our social platforms, it’s safe to say that Reskinned has come a long way. It’s been three years of crazy challenges, incredible successes and more cardboard boxes than we could count. We always believed that Reskinned would grow into something special, but we’ve still been totally blown away by just how much love, curiosity and support the platform has received along the way. So we thought it was about time to tell the story properly. Consider this a little walk down memory lane, a behind-the-scenes look at how it all began, and how far we’ve come. Our story is definitely still in the early chapters though, we have a feeling that the best is yet to come.
How it all started…
Like so many great ideas, the story of Reskinned began in the most ordinary of places: the school gates. Our Operations Director, Michelle first met Matt here, our co-founder. As they waited for their kids, they got chatting, and before long their chats turned into a friendship.
When Michelle introduced Matt to co-founder Ross, the spark was immediate. A shared love of problem-solving, sustainability and doing things differently meant that the pair couldn’t stop talking, and soon enough their conversations turned into ideas… and those ideas turned into the beginnings of Reskinned.
Now, Ross and Matt come from two completely different worlds, which is probably why it works so well. Ross comes from a family of textile recyclers and is absolutely bursting with knowledge on the ins and outs of it all. From the best ways to extract fibres, to the fibres that are better off being turned into something else, we’ve never met someone who knows so much (we’re not convinced they actually exist).
Matt’s background is in marketing, tech and digital innovation. He’s the kind of big-picture thinker who can turn pretty much any idea into something that people will actually use and love. He’s always first to know about the latest technologies and shifting trends, and what sorts of things can make Reskinned really stand out. (Matt was talking about AI long before any of us had heard of it).
Together they made a unique team, with a 360° view of sustainability, from the old-school systems to the brand new tech. And with that combination, Reskinned was born. It was almost inevitable.
The spark…
A major sports brand had just set up a takeback scheme, and asked Ross to sense-check it. As he dug in, it became clear that the system was missing something fundamental: a real understanding of how to sort, grade and give new life to pre-loved clothing. It was evident that very few people had any awareness of what the global resale and recycling market actually looked like beyond the UK. And lots of takeback schemes had started cropping up.
Over a few beers, Ross told Matt about it. The flaws in the sports brand’s plan, the opportunities that most brands were clearly missing, and all the potential of what their takeback scheme could be, with the right resources. Matt’s brain immediately started whirring with ideas.
Together they began to sketch out what a truly circular model could look like. One that worked for brands, but also customers, and most importantly, the planet.
Fast forward many late-night strategy sessions and three group holidays later (of course those were necessary for the brand’s development), Reskinned officially launched in 2021.
Launching Our First Partnerships
Our very first takeback service launched with Finisterre, we had taken the plunge and invested our own money to get things off the ground as we knew we were onto something good. Finisterre was soon followed by Sweaty Betty. The brands we’d been eyeing up as dream partners were suddenly contacting us, wanting to get involved, it was a pinch-me moment for all of us. At that time it was just Michelle, Matt,and Ross doing absolutely everything: customer service, parcel processing, accounts, HR, recruitment, you name it.
When the Sweaty Betty takeback scheme went live, things got crazy.
Hundreds of parcels started landing on our doorstep every week, and with barely a team in place, it was all hands on deck. We had the tech built but no team so we’d load up the van, drive everything home, and spend the weekend sorting parcels at the kitchen table. We’d love to say it was done with a drink in hand and plenty of laughs, but honestly, it was a precision operation. There was so much to get through that chatting had to wait!
Thankfully, those days are behind us. Our warehouses are far more fun now; our team definitely doesn’t have to shoulder the kind of pressure we put on ourselves in those early months.
Because yes, those early months were absolutely chaotic, to say the least. Full of pressure, but also full of so much love, adrenaline, and that electric feeling of building something from nothing. It was messy and intense but it was working. Somewhere in the middle of it all, things started to feel real.
December 2021 brought one of our first big moments: Sweaty Betty’s Global Recycling Day campaign. They organised a major shoot, and we convinced the team to model in Reskinned sweatshirts. Michelle caught COVID that morning, which added to the madness, but luckily we still managed to successfully launch the campaign in March 2022.
Building the Reskinned Team
At that point, we still didn’t have an office. Our “meeting rooms” were cars and cafes, and sometimes both at once. In fact, Huy, our Operations Manager’s first interview took place in a parked car on a video call.
In April 2022, Coco joined as Marketing Manager, followed by Francesca as Brand Partnership Manager and Huy as Operations Manager. That same month, we signed the lease on our first proper office in Shoreditch, which was one of those huge moments that made everything feel real.
Nearly everyone from that chapter is still with us today, which says a lot about who we are and how we work.
Growing, Growing, Growing
With Coco on board, we launched the resale part of Reskinned on our website, and our very first Finisterre drop completely sold out. We were over the moon.
When Huy joined, we expanded to eBay, and at first, we were thrilled to see just one order come through. Fast forward to now, we ship thousands most days.
Back then, we were still a tiny team, hand-typing addresses one by one because our labelling system wasn’t working properly! Those days often involved weekends in the warehouse nursing group hangovers, and eating lots of doughnuts, but it also marked the moment we realised just how fast things were growing.
Our First Pop-Up
In December 2022, we teamed up with Good Store to open our very first Reskinned pop-up shop.
This was something we had to turn around in a very short space of time, so it was all hands on deck to prep the space. We hosted a little party to celebrate, with Huy’s sister Debbie bringing a crew of her influencer friends to liven up the party.
It was the first time Reskinned existed in real life, where our customers could shop, try things on, and give us real-time feedback about the experience. It felt like a huge moment for us.
Our eBay Investment
In August 2023, we secured an investment from eBay, a moment that cemented our place as a true leader in circular fashion and deepened our partnership with one of the world’s biggest marketplaces. With a name like that backing us, momentum started to build and build.
New brand partners began joining us almost weekly, and our team grew to 30 brilliant people. And we’ve had plenty to celebrate along the way: awards, launches, and more than a few unforgettable team nights out (including Grace’s now-iconic caterpillar dance, which lives rent-free in company lore).
The Challenges (And the Wins!)
Like any start-up, the road hasn’t always been smooth (or ever been smooth, really!) COVID 19 was a huge challenge, as most brands were simply trying to survive. But it also gave people space to slow down and think about what really matters, which made circularity feel more urgent than it ever had.
In the early days, waiting for brands to move from “interested” to “signed” was so nerve-wracking for all of us. But just as we started to worry, another partner would reach out and want to join. Word of mouth became our greatest growth driver, and we’re lucky to work with incredible brands that share our values.
The moment we knew we were going to be successful was when a huge brand called us, and let slip that they were “fact-finding” to build their own in-house takeback system. Knowing how complex and challenging the industry is, we knew they’d be back… and sure enough, within a few months they wanted to sign up.
This kind of thing just confirmed what we already knew. Circular fashion is complex, and it makes a lot more sense for brands to partner with experts like us, rather than try and do it themselves.
While we don’t do any of this for the awards, we’d be lying if we said it isn’t incredibly rewarding to be recognised along the way. In 2024, we won the Fashion Recommerce category at the Marie Claire Sustainability Awards, were Highly Commended for Best Use of Technology for Good at the Drapers Awards and we’ve already been shortlisted for the Recommerce category at the Drapers Conscious Fashion Awards next year, which feels like another exciting milestone for us. And of course, we also became B Corp accredited, which still feels surreal and is something we’re incredibly proud of as a team.
Winning a few accolades isn’t the goal, but it certainly makes the journey even more meaningful.
The Big Vision
From day one, our vision has been simple: make it easy for people to give their clothes a new life, whether that’s through resale or recycling.
We knew the volume of clothing waste was staggering, and that way too much ended up in landfill. By creating a process that was simple, rewarding, and scalable, we could make circularity mainstream.
What we didn’t expect was how few people, even within fashion, really understood textile recycling, or how big the issue of unsold stock was for brands. Helping to solve both became one of our biggest opportunities and proudest achievements.
We’ve shown that change is possible, and that when we collaborate, we make bigger leaps than we could possibly have made alone.
So What’s Next?
With things moving so quickly here at Reskinned, we’ve got two major shifts on the horizon.
First up: AI. Not because it’s the buzzword of the moment, but because the pace of innovation is genuinely staggering (and yes, this is absolutely Matt’s playground). From streamlining operations to sharpening the data insights we provide to our brand partners, AI is about to transform what sustainability can achieve behind the scenes at scale.
The second shift is the wave of innovation happening in materials and recycling. Since the invention of “shoddy” in the 1850s, that classic grey fibre hiding under carpets and inside sofas, textile recycling hasn’t exactly changed much. Until now. Across a wide range of disciplines, experts are reimagining clothing from the soil up: regenerative farming, natural dyes, purposeful design that considers the end of a garment’s life before it even exists.
At Reskinned, we believe clothing should never become waste. It should always be treated as a resource that continues its story, again and again.
We’ve come a long way. But really, this is just the beginning, so stick around to be part of the journey.
