AirRobe wants everyone to be a part of the circular economy

The circular economy encourages people to recycle their items by either continuing to use them or giving them to someone else, rather than throwing it away.  

Hannon Comazzetto is the founder and CEO of AirRobe, a company that wants to help consumers contribute to the circular economy by either reselling, buying or renting clothes.

Comazzetto said when a customer shops to buy something new with their merchant partners, AirRobe shows them the estimated resale value of an item.

“You can also elect to add the item to your AirRobe circular wardrobe as you're making the purchase, which then adds all the product imagery and product details into your own virtual version of your wardrobe, which then you can access at any time,” she said.

“If at a later date you decide to resell, rent or recycle that item, you can do that with AirRobe just one click and list the item on AirRobe’s marketplace.”

The company has grown rapidly in the last 18 months with a whole suite of merchant partners globally such as Oroton, The Iconic, Rebecca Vallance and P.E. Nation.

Technology has been able to impact fashion and sustainability through the trends in the circular economy, according to Comazzetto.

“From the sense of extending [the life of materials] through consumer to consumer practices like resale and rental. We've seen a lot of solutions out there to help facilitate those peer to peer experiences,” she said.  

“But it also includes moving textiles back further up the supply chain for refurbishment and recycling. In particular we've seen a huge growth in the resale segment, it's expected to double in the next five years.”

Comazzetto explained resale is a way to fight back against the powerhouse of fast fashion.

“[It drives] preferences away from disposable fast fashion towards higher quality, more sustainable clothing in many ways,” she said.

The ability to shop ethically and sustainability normally comes with a larger price tag but the circular economy can make these items cheaper and more attainable for customers.

“The lower price point price points of resell really changed. The re-commerce market is expected to be more than two times bigger than the fast fashion industry by 2030. With two in five consumers saying they're replacing fast fashion purchases with second hand clothing,” she added.