Hugo Boss to launch resale platform in Q3, France is first market

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Apr 21, 2022

Hugo Boss is taking a big step with the announcement of Pre-Loved. The German upscale fashion giant said customers will be able “to buy pre-owned items as they would new” from its brands, with the launch of a premium resale platform happening in Q3.

Pre-Loved will offer a curated assortment of pieces that have been traded in by existing customers and comes as part of its CLAIM 5 sustainability strategy.

The initial focus will be on clothing, with accessories being added later. And the first market to get the concept will be France ahead of the platform being expanded to Germany, the UK, and the US in 2025.

Hugo Boss is working with Faume, “a premium provider offering a convenient and seamless online trade-in experience”, on the project with the Pre-Loved button sitting within the main Hugoboss.com store.

The process to resell clothing will be a simple online one with customers able to “return used items to Hugo Boss in exchange for credit that can be spent online, on new or pre-owned items, or in-store,” it said.

Items will be “fully quality checked” and will then become part of a curated secondhand assortment for sale on Pre-Loved.

The development comes as resale grows globally and as consumers dive in for a mixture of reasons from the rejection of fast fashion to the desire to access quality pieces at bargain prices and for sustainability reasons. It currently represents a market estimated to be worth between $30 billion and $40 billion.

Hugo Boss also said that in another step to further extend the lifecycle of its products, it will launch a care and repair service in selected German stores later this year, with more key markets to follow. This will cover the repair of suits, jeans, shoes, jersey products, and leather goods.

COO Heiko Schäfer said: “The high quality of our products allows them to have several lives, and our entry into the growing resale market is a natural step for us as a company. [This] will support our move towards a circular business model, while our repair service will allow customers to wear their favourite pieces for even longer and reduce consumption of scarce resources.”