ThredUp and Rebag partner up for new Clean Out program

As much as sustainability is great for the planet and everything, don't you sometimes wish you could get credit for your efforts to go green?

Well, online resale platform ThredUp’s new partnership with Rebag, the luxury handbag reseller, will ensure customers literally get credit in exchange for selling their used products online.

Part of Rebag’s Clean Out project (handled by ThredUp’s Resale-as-a-Service program), the initiative will allow users to sell their items on ThredUp and then earn credit to shop on Rebag. The offer can be accessed through both ThredUp and Rebag’s websites. A win-win!

“It goes to the idea that if you want to solve the fashion sustainability issue at some point, no one company or no one offering solves 100 percent of the problem for customers in the market,” Rebag CEO Charles Gorra told WWD. “So we are very cognizant that we have developed something unique that solves that very high-end selling and buying environment, but we also know that many customers have other needs—in particular when it comes to apparel, which is a very large part of this market that we are barely in, and when it comes to non-luxury brands.”

One more time: This, however, isn’t ThredUp’s first rodeo in terms of collaborations with other retailers. In October 2021, the company joined forces with Adidas to launch a program that followed a somewhat similar strategy.

As part of the Choose to Give Back program, customers could send used clothing and accessories to ThredUp, “and receive points and Adidas vouchers in return,” Retail Brew previously reported.

“This supports a circular model for fashion by extending the life cycle of clothing,“ Pooja Sethi, SVP and general manager of resale-as-a-service at ThredUp, told us at the time. “The more retailers and brands participate in the resale ecosystem, the greater the impact will be.”

That same year, the resale platform partnered with Crocs, and customers could similarly send their pre-owned items to ThredUp for a shopping credit from Crocs.

“Even five years ago, even three years ago...the conversation has changed,” Sethi previously told us. “The conversation has changed from: ‘Why should I get into resale?’ to ‘How can I get into resale?’”