What Is a Clothing Takeback Programme, and What Actually Happens to Your Clothes?

So, what’s a clothing takeback programme?

A takeback programme is a simple way to send clothes, shoes or other products back once you’re finished with them, without having to figure out what should happen next.

And we don’t just mean the stuff you bought, never wore and missed the return window for. We mean the jeans you wore on repeat, the jumper that’s seen better days, the dress you loved for years and the things you’re just done with now (no explanation needed).

Sometimes a piece has well and truly reached the end of its wearable life. It’s stained, stretched, ripped or very thoroughly loved. Other times, nothing that dramatic has happened. It doesn’t fit, your style has changed, or it’s been sitting untouched for long enough that we can probably all agree it’s time to let it go.

That’s where takeback comes in.

You send it back through one of our brand partners, we sort it, then work out its best next life, whether that’s resale, reuse or recycling. We’ll break that bit down too, don’t worry.

Instead of gathering dust or disappearing into a bin with no clear next step, your old clothes get another chance to stay in use.

That’s what we do at Reskinned. We run takeback programmes for some of the UK’s best-known fashion and lifestyle brands and really, we’ve only got one simple goal: keeping great clothes in circulation for as long as we can.

How does Reskinned clothing takeback work?

The good news is, we’ve made it very easy.

Head to our takeback page, choose the brand you want to return through and tell us what you’re sending via the dropdown menus.

Depending on the programme, you can send back eligible clothing or footwear and get a reward to spend with that brand.

And if your label isn’t one of our takeback partners, no problem, you can still use the Reskinned takeback programme to send us clothes from pretty much anywhere else.

Then pack it up and send it our way. And there’s absolutely no need to buy a shiny new mailing bag for the occasion, in fact, we encourage you not to.

An old delivery bag, a cardboard box, that perfectly good parcel you were about to put in the recycling, anything goes. As long as it’s clean and secure, we’re happy.

From there, your clothes head to our sorting facility, where our experts will work out what their best next life looks like.

What actually happens to your clothes?

When something arrives with us, our team knows exactly what to look for. Every item is assessed individually to work out the best possible next life for it, and wherever we can, our priority is to keep a garment as a garment rather than breaking it down into something else.

That means one of three things: resale, reuse or recycling.

1. Resale

If a piece is still in good wearable condition, our first thought is simple: let’s get somebody else wearing it!

It might end up on the Reskinned website, on one of the resale eBay stores we run with our brand partners, a pop-up shop for one of our brands, or somewhere else designed to connect it with the person who’ll actually wear it.

Conveniently, that means you can also find great pieces from the brands you already love without being limited to whatever happens to be in their newest collection. Check out the latest Reskinned drop here.

The past-season favourites, those sold-out pieces, the dress you almost bought last year and have thought about ever since. The jacket that disappeared in your size before payday. You can find it all, and the prices are significantly less than getting your hands on it brand new.

Before anything ends up back on the shelf, it has to go through the Reskinned processing system. And let us tell you, it’s a rigorous one.

It starts with a full ozone cleanse using our water-free technology, which removes bacteria and odours from deep within the fibres of the garment or pair of shoes. And listen, we’re not talking about a quick freshen-up. The aim is to get every item feeling properly reset before it goes anywhere near its next owner.

And because the process is water-free, we can clean garments without putting them through a traditional wash cycle. We try to keep things as low-impact as possible around here, and the standards at Reskinned HQ are high.

From there, our team gets to work restoring each item to the best condition, removing marks and signs of wear where we can, before grading everything carefully so you know exactly what you’re buying.

And sometimes the difference between “not sellable” and “somebody’s new favourite” is very small. A missing button, a dropped hem, a tiny rip.

That’s where our repair specialists come in, making the little fixes that put garments back into circulation, so that a missing button never means the end of a perfectly good piece.

2. Reuse

Not everything is quite right for resale, but that doesn’t mean it’s done.

A pair of leggings might have stretched out. A t-shirt might have a permanent mark (spag bol we’re looking at you). Something might be damaged in a way that means nobody is realistically going to buy it and wear it exactly as it is.

So this is when something goes into the “reuse” category. Before we break anything down into fibre, we look at what else the item, or the material it’s made from, could become.

Sometimes that means working with designers, makers, students and upcyclers who can take an existing garment and turn it into something completely different.

Pieces can be cut, reconstructed, repurposed or worked into a new design, and we’ve worked with everyone from Central Saint Martins students to independent makers who can look at something most people would write off and see the start of something new.

Other textiles can have much more practical second lives, from cleaning cloths to dog bed fillings and other uses where existing material can replace something newly made. Not quite as glamorous, maybe, but a lot better than throwing perfectly useful material away and making something new to do the same job.

Sometimes the next life of a T-shirt is another T-shirt, and sometimes it really, really isn’t. Both are fine, as long as they’re the best decision for the item.

3. Recycling

Then we’ve got the pieces that really have reached the end of the road in their current form.

The fabric might be too damaged, the fibres may be breaking down, or there simply isn’t a realistic way to reuse the garment as it is. These are often the pieces we think are ready for the bin, but they’re not.

Textiles shouldn’t go in your household rubbish or recycling. They can be difficult to break down, and they’re made from materials and resources that still have value.

So instead of thinking, what’s one more thing in the bin, send it to us.

These are the pieces we’ll recycle, making sure as much of the material as possible gets another use instead of being thrown away.

Where the right route exists, textiles can go through fibre-to-fibre recycling, which basically means breaking an old textile back down into usable fibre so it can become part of something new. Depending on what a garment is made from, it may need to be sorted by fibre type first, with things like zips, buttons and trims removed along the way.

Other materials can go through mechanical recycling, where fabrics are shredded and turned into something that can be used again elsewhere.

Recycling isn’t our first choice if something can still be worn, repaired or reused. It’s the final part of a much bigger system designed to get as much life as possible out of the clothes, materials and resources that already exist.

Why does takeback matter?

Because we already have an enormous amount of clothing in circulation.

The challenge isn’t only deciding what we buy next, it’s working out what we do with everything we’ve already made.

Every unworn coat, forgotten pair of jeans and slightly neglected jumper still contains fabric, fibres, energy, labour and resources. If we throw those things away without the right systems in place, we lose whatever value they still have.

Takeback gives us another option.

It lets us rehome something if someone else can still wear it. It means we can repair anything that needs a bit of TLC, reuse whatever still has life left in it but can’t be worn in its current form, and recycle responsibly when its useful life really is over.

We’re not asking everyone to suddenly become perfect sustainable shoppers, we’re just trying to build a system that works around the way people already shop, and the clothes we’ve already bought.

Meet our takeback partners

We work with a mix of household names, independent businesses and brands at different stages of their circularity journey.

Each takeback programme works a little differently. You might be sending back clothes, shoes or accessories, and the reward you get depends on the brand.

Here are all the brands you can currently take back through Reskinned, plus the ones you can shop second-hand too.

Our Takeback and Resale Partners

Anthropologie
Send back your pre-loved Anthropologie pieces and receive up to £30 off your next purchase. You can also shop pre-loved Anthropologie through Reskinned. Anthropologie takeback

Dryrobe
Return your old Dryrobe® Advance and receive up to £35 off your next purchase. You can shop pre-loved Dryrobe through Reskinned. Dryrobe takeback

Dune London
Send us your pre-loved Dune London footwear and get up to £40 to spend on something new. You can also shop pre-loved SKINS through Reskinned and eBay. Dune London takeback

Esska
Trade in your pre-loved Esska shoes and receive a £15 voucher towards your next pair. You can also shop pre-loved Esska footwear through Reskinned. Esska takeback

FatFace
Send back your old FatFace favourites and receive a discount of up to 20% off to use on your next purchase. You can also browse pre-loved FatFace pieces through Reskinned. FatFace takeback

Finisterre
Send back any Finisterre products you’re finished with, whatever condition they’re in, and receive credit of up to £55 towards your next purchase. You can also shop pre-loved Finisterre through Reskinned. Finisterre takeback

Hush
Trade in the Hush pieces you no longer wear and receive up to £25 off your next purchase. You can also shop pre-loved Hush through Reskinned. Hush takeback

Janji
Return your old Janji running gear and receive credit of up to £50 towards something new. You can also shop pre-loved Janji through Reskinned Janji takeback

Kickers
Send back your pre-loved Kickers, whether they’re barely worn or thoroughly loved, and receive online credit of up to £25 towards your next pair. You can also shop pre-loved Kickers through Reskinned. Kickers takeback

Mallet
Trade in your worn Mallet pieces and receive credit of up to £50 to spend on your next purchase. You can also shop pre-loved Mallet through Reskinned. Mallet takeback

Nobody’s Child
Pass on your pre-loved Nobody’s Child pieces and receive up to £30 off your next purchase. You can also shop pre-loved NC through Reskinned and eBay.Nobody’s Child takeback

Oliver Bonas
Trade in your pre-loved Oliver Bonas clothing, footwear, accessories and bags for up to £25 to spend at Oliver Bonas. You can also shop pre-loved pieces through Reskinned. Oliver Bonas takeback

Parlez
Send back your unwanted Parlez clothing, whatever its condition, and receive 15% off your next purchase. You can also shop pre-loved Parlez through Reskinned Parlez takeback

Salt-Water Sandals
Trade in your pre-loved Salt-Water Sandals and receive up to £15 off your next purchase, while helping to keep a famously hard-wearing pair of sandals in circulation for longer. You can also shop pre-loved SWS through Reskinned. Salt-Water Sandals takeback

SKINS Compression
Trade in your old SKINS and receive up to £40 off when you spend £75 or more on your next purchase. You can also shop pre-loved SKINS through Reskinned. SKINS takeback

Sweaty Betty
Send back your pre-loved Sweaty Betty pieces and receive up to £25 off something new. You can also shop pre-loved Sweaty Betty through Reskinned Sweaty Betty takeback

TALA
Through ReTALA, you can send in pre-loved and well-worn TALA pieces and receive a discount of up to £25 towards your next purchase. You can also shop pre-loved TALA through Reskinned TALA takeback

Marks & Spencer
Rehome your pre-loved M&S clothing through Reskinned and receive £5 off your next £35 Fashion, Home & Beauty spend at M&S. You can also shop pre-loved M&S through Reskinned via eBay. M&S takeback

River Island
Send back a minimum of 3 items (any brands) and receive up to £5 off your next E.L.V. Denim purchase. You can also shop pre-loved River Island through Reskinned via eBay. River Island takeback

Our Resale partners

LaundRe
Shop discarded and pre-loved denim that has been cleaned, refinished and given another life at LaundRe’s London wash hub. Shop pre-loved LaundRe

Passenger
Shop pre-loved, as-new and past-season Passenger pieces through Reskinned, keeping outdoor clothing in use and out on more adventures. Shop pre-loved Passenger

Our Takeback partners

Reskinned
That’s us! Our own takeback programme accepts unwanted clothes from any brand and in any condition. Send us your old clothes for free and receive a £10 discount code to spend on Reskinned. Reskinned takeback

Urban Outfitters
Send back your pre-loved Urban Outfitters pieces and receive £10 off your next UO purchase. Urban Outfitters takeback

E.L.V. Denim
Send back your pre-loved denim (any brands) and receive up to £40 off your next E.L.V. Denim purchase. E.L.V. Denim takeback

Ready to clear out your wardrobe?

Yeah, we thought you might be!

If you’re done with your old stuff, don’t let it spend another year taking up space. Send it somewhere with a plan.

Because your old favourite could easily become somebody else’s new one.

Take back your unwanted clothes with Reskinned and give them the best chance at another life.