CCB Magazine

They are this year's Ecodesign award winners in the Service category: reverse.supply has declared war on the overproduction of fashion consumer goods. Their goal is to reduce greenhouse gases in the fashion industry with their recommerce platform. We talked to one of the founders about how they're doing it. 
 

INTERVIEW  Boris Messing

CCB Magazine:Your company reverse.supply is a solution approach to counter the overproduction of consumer goods in the fashion sector. How does your approach work in practice?

Janis Künkler:With our recommerce platform, we give fashion companies the opportunity to buy back used goods from their customers and thus give them a second life cycle. In addition, fashion retailers can use the platform to return B ware to the cycle in a sustainable and ecologically sound manner. We take care of all the internal operational and technical processes involved in reselling the merchandise: buying, selling and processing the merchandise is all handled by us. Our goal is that for consumers the purchase of a second-hand product is in no way inferior to the purchase of new goods! 

CCB Magazine: Who are your dealers?

Janis Künkler:We currently have seven strategic partnerships, mainly with monobrands from the fair fashion sector, such as Armedangels, as well as large sports and outdoor marketplaces such as Bergzeit and Globetrotter.

CCB Magazine:But the problem is the fast-fashion sector around fashion chains like H&M, Zara, etc. Do you reach them? Do you even want to reach them?

Janis Künkler:We are currently unable to return every item to the cycle. Fast fashion in particular presents a major challenge in recommerce. Of course, we can currently offer a sensible alternative through a wide range of second-hand products, but a truly sustainable return is not possible.

Top: Looks like new. Bottom: Employees prepare clothes. Photos: reverse.supply

CCB Magazine:Since the beginning of the year, there has been a new supply chain law that forces companies with more than 3,000 employees to be more transparent. What does this mean for your work? Are you and your retailers affected by it? 

Janis Künkler:We attach great importance to the selection of our partners and have high sustainability standards ourselves. It's not possible to say in general terms to what extent our retailers are affected by this, but we see that transparency in production and the entire supply chain is becoming increasingly important.

CCB Magazine:The dealers' second-hand goods are reconditioned by you and are then available for sale again. How does this process work in practice? How much technical effort is involved? Who controls the processes?

Janis Künkler:The peculiarity of working with secondhand clothing is that each piece of clothing that arrives is unique and must be treated as such. In addition to special technology, this requires a lot of manual work. In our own warehouse in Berlin, professional product evaluators inspect the returned garments on the basis of various characteristics. Our product assessors are trained to inspect the clothing within a very short time and to classify it according to various characteristics. In total, each garment that is resold is inspected for up to 30 items - including odors or possible damage, such as holes or a missing button, and more. We also steam clean all garments before they are photographed for our customers' online store.

Through our software, both a purchase portal can be integrated into the websites of our fashion customers as well as a completely branded online store for secondhand goods

CCB Magazine:You have also developed software that determines the quality of your goods. What is it exactly?

Janis Künkler:Through our specially developed software, both a purchase portal can be integrated into the website as well as a completely branded online store for second-hand goods. In the software, every feature is entered into a grading system by our product evaluators. This way, all data about the garment is captured. In addition, we use machine learning throughout the pricing and prioritization process. After the garments have been graded and photographed, they are posted back to our fashion customers' online stores for resale via our software.

CCB Magazine:What does that mean, you use machine learning in price determination? Does the AI compare prices on the market with similar quality?

Janis Künkler:We actually check the prices based on different criteria. Depending on the pricing are the age of the products, demand ("vintage factor") but also market prices in the online area.

CCB Magazine:Are you also legally liable for defects in the goods or is the dealer responsible? Does that matter at all?

Janis Künkler:No, we are not liable for the defects. Unfortunately, we cannot currently resell broken goods, as they are immediately returned by customers. However, as a retailer, we naturally give a one-year warranty and a minimum 14-day exchange right.

CCB Magazine:How much does your service cost the dealers?

Janis Künkler:The costs cannot be summarized in one lump sum for one partner. Depending on the desired offer and effort, they can differ significantly.

CCB Magazine:The three of you founded reverse.supply. How did it come about? Was there a triggering moment for it?

Janis Künkler:The founding team consists of myself, Max Grosse Lutermann and CTO Konrad Hosemann. The three of us have each had different experiences in the fashion market, which led us to develop a sustainable solution for reselling clothing for fashion companies. Max Grosse Lutermann in particular spent several years working in Asia, trying to establish sustainable structures in local textile factories. After this experience, he wanted to develop something that would create sustainable change in the fashion industry.

Men in black: The founders from left to right, Max Grosse Lutermann, Konrad Hosemann and Janis Künkler. Photo: reverse.supply

CCB Magazine:Recommerce, or buying second-hand goods, is on trend. The number of brands with their own resale stores has increased by a full 275 percent from 2020 to 2021. Four out of ten Germans are also willing to shop more sustainably in the new year, according to a study. How many items of clothing have you already put back on the market?

Janis Künkler:In the past six months, we have resold almost 150,000 parts and, of course, collected even more items from customers. But more important to us is the impact of our program: Through our resale, we have been able to save over 235t CO2eq.

We have resold almost 150,000 peaces in the past six months. This enabled us to save 235t CO2eq

CCB Magazine:What results in the figure of 235t CO2eq?

Janis Künkler:We have calculated how offering a secondhand program can impact the carbon footprint and avoid new emissions by repeatedly putting them on the market. The total of all secondhand items sold in 2022 that were purchased as an alternative to new goods add up to this equivalent.

CCB Magazine:How has your company developed so far and where do you still want to go?

Janis Künkler:In the past two years, since our founding, we have already achieved quite a bit and are proud that our idea works. In the next few months, we will focus a lot on the further development of our product and expand the offer with our existing customers.