Open Closet for retail partners

Work with us to help us make fashion a little more circular!

 

As you may know, Open Closet is our circular sales and take-back program. We extend the life of previously used tonlé garments by mending and sometimes reimagining gently worn items into fresh styles. We are changing the way that we run this program, and as a valued retail partner, we want to invite you to be a part of it. 

Starting October 31st, we will be offering our customers a curated rental box, available in monthly subscription or one-time purchase. Your order of a curated rental garment box of 25 items will extend the same rental opportunity to your customers.   

Through a partnership with us on renting, selling, and re-circulating pre-loved items, you will contribute to giving our garments, and the planet, a second chance.

Already convinced? Get started here.

Why Open Closet

We know that stock rooms fill up with perfectly good products that might have limited sizing left or are no longer seasonally appropriate and become difficult to sell. In an increasingly challenging market, both customers and retailers may be hesitant to pay the rising, yet fair, costs of ethical fashion. With that in mind, our goals with this program are threefold: 

• To allow you to offload any of our items that are not working for you and ease the burden of overstock. This allows you to constantly refresh styles with less waste and upfront investment. Return any tonlé items within 1 year of rental garment box order. 
• To provide more affordable ethically made items that have been curated to your store’s tastes in a time when customers may be price sensitive.
• To continue to support our team in Cambodia with fair wages and benefits, while working together with you to co-create a more circular fashion system. 

How renting from tonlé works

• Fill out the form on the product page to help us understand your store’s style preferences, customers, and needs. We will curate your box for you accordingly.
• For an initial investment of $500, your rental kit includes 25 hand-picked tonlé garments, display & educational materials, and reusable hang tags. All items are priced at $20 for simplicity and ease of ordering for both you and us. 
• Add other products from tonlé that you have already purchased from us to your rental area if you like!
• Rent, sell, and take back products in a circular model co-created and facilitated with us. 
• Return any unwanted tonlé items within 1 year for $10 per piece in credit; returns may include other items that are purchased wholesale at the same rebate rate of $10 per item.
• Purchase a refill box of 10-30 items at any time. We will continue to offer limited edition wholesale items that you can sell at normal pricing or add to your rental rack. 

 

Logistics

We recommend that you market these items as rentals or sales of pre-loved products.

Suggested pricing:

• Rent: customer pays $45 at checkout and is refunded (or given store credit) $25 upon item return; the net cost to the customer is $20 per rented garment.
• Purchase: If the customer wants to purchase a previously rented item, they simply do not return it; the net cost to the customer is $45 per purchased garment.

 

Note: Your store is responsible for cleaning and processing the garments upon return if you wish to re-rent them. Hang tags are made from fabric so they can be reused each time a garment is returned and washed. However, when garments are returned to tonlé, they do not need to be laundered.

 

Projections

• each garment is rented once and returned = full return on your $500 investment = net profit $0 + $250 tonlé credit
• each garment is rented three times and returned = $1500 = net profit $1000 + $250 tonlé credit
• each garment is rented once and kept = $1125 = net profit $625

 We anticipate that a combination of both renting and buying of the garments will take place. In this theory, the estimated profit is $812 + $125 in tonlé credit per garment kit, assuming half the garments are being rented 3 times and returned and half the garments are being purchased. If garments are kept in rental circulation longer, the retailer could profit more from the initial investment.

How to return items to tonlé

Drop all items you wish to return within a year of your initial purchase into the reusable shipping package and use the prepaid shipping label included with your rental box. tonlé will wash and repair any garments that need mending. You will receive a 50% rebate of your returns, equaling $10 per item (up to $250 total rebate) in tonle credit.

 

We look forward to collaborating with your business and community in our endeavor to promote longer garment life and minimize our harm to the planet. 

FAQ’s for retailers

Can I trade in other tonlé products that I previously purchased? Yes, we would be glad to help you offload items you no longer want to keep in the store; we will put them back in circulation! You can return any tonlé item within a year of its purchase, whether wholesale or through the Open Closet program. Each returned garment will earn you $10 in tonlé credit. 

Can I send products from other brands to you? For the time being, we will only be recirculating tonlé clothing. If this goes well, we may consider inviting other ethical brands into the mix. If there are other brands you know and love that you think would be a good fit for this program, let us know. 

How can I be sure that you’ll be able to fit my store’s curatorial style? We’ve been working on curated sample boxes for our customers for years and it’s been a big hit! But we know this is a larger initial investment, so for your first box we are prepared to offer a full refund within 15 days minus the cost of shipping if we don’t get it right. Additionally, if we don’t think we can meet your specific needs based on your preference form, we will reach out to discuss options, including the potential for a refund. We believe that we can provide a great mix of items that will be curated to your store’s tastes and customer base.

What types of products will be in the box? You can expect a mix of classic styles, pre-loved products, new & never seen items, one-of-a-kind samples, and reimagined items in every box. This way, your customers will see a variety of styles from tonlé. This also allows us at tonlé to make a few items out of the remaining fabric that we have without worrying about our own inventory and reduce our own waste as well. We hope this will lead to an improved experience for all our customers while keeping both pre- and post-consumer waste out of landfills and oceans! 

How does the sizing work? Our curatorial preference form provides several size breakdowns from which you can choose appropriate sizes for your customer demographic. We currently carry size XS-3X and hope to expand this in the future. 

What does “reimagined” mean?  Reimagined garments have been upcycled or mended in some way. We work with a network of artists in the US who are paid upfront to reimagine products. This includes dying, printing, embroidering, and visibly mending tears. We believe that this allows garments that just need a little extra something to be kept in circulation while creating one-of-a-kind pieces and supporting local artists.