Our Story
Founders
The Rewear Company was founded by two creative entrepreneurs, Kristiina Koort and Ines Karu-Salo, who joined forces in 2020 to build the Europe's 1st fully circular and managed rental marketplace. Both, moms of 2, discovered they share a concern for the enormous environmental damage overconsumption is causing & after having kids felt the urgency to address the issue to make a real difference.
How it all begun
Soon after having the first kid, they both started to really see how massively underutilised kids clothes are. Kristiina felt that a piles of quality clothes that were outgrown by her daughter were far from their useful end. Ines, as a sustainable lifestyle advocate, wished to be able to rent all babywear instead of buying new items for a short period of time. They borrowed some of their preloved babywear to friends & relatives, also donated & stored away some with a plan to sell one day. Unfortunately reselling never happened because sorting, photographing, listing, packing, posting etc just seemed too much hassle for a busy mom.
Enemy in the closet
We couldn't find any effective & responsible service for getting rid of clothes, lending out clothes or renting kidswear instead of buying new. The rental marketplace had to be created from scratch. After doing our consumer research, there were no doubts left - an enormous environmental impact of the textile industry was very terrifying & motivated the founders to implement the idea even more.
Sharing a vision
Kristiina contacted Ines who she knew had exited a parenting goods retail business & was working towards a sustainable fashion industry. She shared her idea that Ines complemented with own thoughts/experience & they agreed to pursue it together. Ines & Kristiina got to knew each other few years before but were now united by a vision to change parents' consumption habits & the fashion industry for better.
The will to make a difference
One meeting at Faehlmanni Cafe in snowy Tallinn marked the start of their journey of building The Rewear Company together. Little did they know that they were both expecting their second daughters at the time but that didn’t stop them. The excitement often kept them awake and working at nights when the rest of the family was asleep. They knew they were onto something & ever since they've been building the business with such passion & dedication - but most importantly, with the will to make a real difference.
Out team
Our team has grown since the launch of our pilot marketplace.
Kristel Vesi is our Operations Manager with 18 years of experience in retail management and Monika Põldma is our Product Manager with a strong background in leading software development projects.