Pricing
For the past few years, Worn Again products have been available at a number of retailers, including Terra Plana, John Lewis and various independent shops around the world – in Japan, Scandinavia, the US and Europe.
We have sold our products using a conventional wholesale model where the retailer buys stock from us at a price that includes cost of goods and a margin for Worn Again. The retailer then adds their margin of between 2-2.6 times the price they buy it from us for before selling on to customers.
The difficulty with trying to make upcycled products for the same price as cheap goods from China, is that there are additional steps during the process and manufacturing which adds to the cost of the product.
For instance, the prepping of materials required before manufacturing, is labour intensive (see us deconstructing the materials) and, quite frankly, fiddly. Combine this with the higher labour costs we encounter by manufacturing in the UK and the conventional retail pricing model becomes unfeasible. Prices would be disproportionately high, and ultimately, much more than folks are willing to pay.
In the short term, we decided to make our current products available almost exclusively online. This way we can ensure affordable prices while not compromising on style or standards. For instance, a bag that we are now able to price online at £69 would otherwise have cost £92 based on the conventional retail model.
While we regret not having a presence in some of our long time retailers, we’re pleased to be able to reduce our prices. Our products will be harder to come by but softer on your wallet.
In the long term, however, we are working with partners including TRAID, Goodone, Junky Styling, London Community Recycling Network and others, to create a London based innovation upcycling factory. Part of its purpose is to enable us to develop new technology to standardise the process of upcycling and ultimately bring costs down and volumes up, making UK (re)manufacturing – at scale – the the sensible option. We are also working with partners, From Somewhere, on a scaled up upcycling factory which is recognised on Defra’s Sustainable Clothing Action Plan