From First Life to Next Life: What It Takes to Run Renew

Model holding clothes from EILEEN FISHER's take-back program, Renew.

Ever wondered how EILEEN FISHER pieces go from you, to Renew, to someone new? We’re pulling back the curtain on the costs and process behind our take-back program. 


 

Full transparency here: We’ve seen a recurring question about why our Renew Rewards are set at $5 of store credit per EILEEN FISHER piece you bring back to your local store. Whether you’ve been sending us your pre-loved pieces for years or this is your first time hearing about Renew, we thought we’d answer this question and share some additional insight into what it takes to run our take-back program. 


We first launched Renew in 2009, about a decade before shopping secondhand went mainstream. It all started organically with a closet sale of Eileen's personal pieces at our LAB store in New York. Flash forward fifteen years later, our team has resold, donated or remade over 2.3 million garments—a milestone made possible by your support and our team’s dedication to giving pre-loved EILEEN FISHER pieces the best next life possible. 

The Process: A Labor of Love  

 

At facevalue, the idea of a take-back program sounds straightforward. Simply take back the clothes and resell them, right? But our Renew team takes no shortcuts in finding next-life solutions for our clothes, a process that’s both costly and time-consuming. As with any business, making a profit is necessary to keep it running. However, since its inception, we’ve run our take-back program as a passion project, scaling it into a central aspect of the company’s vision for a circular future. The current flat $5 store credit per garment means we can dedicate resources to preparing sellable items for resale—and absorb the costs of donating or finding solutions for damaged clothes.   



“We want to make sure there's a second and third life for all our products. We're proud to offer this program, but we're also happy if customers want to sell, donate or continue to pass down their clothes. Our focus is just making sure where they end up in the world is the right place.”


-CAROL MASSONI, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

Pie chart of the key costs of running Renew.

After you bring back your pieces, we send them to our Renew warehouse in Irvington, New York. Our nineteen-person team collects an average of 250,000-300,000 items annually, which includes garments, shoes, handbags and accessories. An estimated 50% of those items are resalable, 30% are damaged and 20% are donated. Carol Massoni, Chief Operating Officer, notes the unique challenge our Renew team faces as they assess the pre-loved contents within each shipment. “Each day, new packages come in and you are never sure what you are going to get,” she says. “It can be product from any season, any year and any quality.” 

Previously, we worked with a third-party company to sort through each shipment, but as of June 2023, we brought this stage to our Irvington warehouse. “When we have tours or inquiries, people can’t believe how much of the process we do in-house,” says Cortnee Gentile, Senior Manager of Circular Operations. Six sorters (two full-time and four temporary employees) each tackle a bin containing 250 pieces, which takes an average of two hours—and the number of bins depends on how many items we receive that day. First, they separate pieces in great resalable condition from flawed or damaged items. Next, our team conducts a second sort to classify the resalable garments by criteria such as fabric, size and color. 

 

The sorting process is a major undertaking, but doing this stage in-house has increased our efficiency and accuracy. For example, our team can apply internal fabric knowledge to assess whether stains are removable, which helps ensure garments that can be resold are sorted accordingly rather than categorized as damaged. Elizabeth Michaca, who specializes in damaged inventory, has been with the team since 2016, and she’s so familiar with EILEEN FISHER fibers, fabrics and textures that she can identify many of them just by touch. 


After sorting, we bag the pieces that are in resalable condition, then send them to our local partners who professionally clean the garments using an eco-friendly process. Once they’re cleaned and ready to be worn again, our team coordinates shipments with our stores and the Renew website so you can rediscover the pieces—and give them their next life. 

 

The work doesn’t stop there. Our team also diligently works to determine the best next-life solution for the other half of the items collected. We send donations to Soles4Souls, a nonprofit that turns unwanted shoes and clothing into opportunity, directly supporting women and families in need. For damaged pieces, we collaborate with external partners to remake them into new designs or materials. We repair or renew some slightly flawed clothes through special collections like our Mended and hand-dyed Indigo collections. Shoes are sent to ReCircled and recycled into leather, shoe heels and more. Our team also coordinates with fiber-to-fiber recycling partners, who turn damaged materials into recycled yarns that are used to create new garments. If none of these solutions are feasible, we send the item to be downcycled into things like insulation. We’re working to move more materials from this downcycling stream into fiber-to-fiber recycling, so they can reenter the EILEEN FISHER life cycle in the form of new garments. “New technologies on the horizon will help us achieve this,” notes Carmen Gama, Director of Circular Design. 

Infographic on the paths and costs associated with giving EILEEN FISHER pieces a next life.

Collective Effort, Collective Impact 


Our team’s ability to innovate and renew pre-loved EILEEN FISHER garments is thanks to you. Lilah Horwitz, Director of Renew Content and Marketing, reflects on what drives community participation in the program: “Our customers are so invested in the brand that they love the idea of keeping their EILEEN FISHER pieces in the EILEEN FISHER life cycle,” she says. 

 

Just as we started Renew as a passion project to give our clothes multiple lives, that passion is echoed by our customers who send back their clothes. As Lilah explains, “I think that’s what’s made us successful—the fact that our take-back program is an example of our company living by our values and inviting customers to participate in a positive, impactful cycle with a brand. With this program, they get to be a part of our community and the company's circular vision.” Over the years, our Renew team has saved notes, fondly called “love letters” from customers who shared stories behind the pieces they return. Some letters recount the sentimental value of a garment worn for a daughter’s wedding or a first job interview. One customer expressed how excited she was that her mother’s pieces would get to have a new life. 


The support powering our take-back program is a testament to the positive collective impact we can have as a brand working together with our dedicated community. Some of our customers who don't live near a store go so far as to ship their EILEEN FISHER garments directly to our Renew warehouse.  

“We have one woman who ships from Hawaii. She spends more on shipping than she gets on her Renew Rewards gift card every time. Our customers are so important to us for making this program possible. We couldn’t do it without our community bringing their clothes back.” 


-LILAH HORWITZ, DIRECTOR OF RENEW CONTENT AND MARKETING 

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A “love letter” from an EILEEN FISHER customer. 

How to Send Your Clothes Back to Us


You can bring your EILEEN FISHER clothes back to any US EILEEN FISHER or Renew store. Don’t live near a store? Ship your items directly to our Renew warehouse in Irvington: 

 

50 S. Buckhout St.,

Irvington, NY 10533 



Where You Can Spend Your Renew Rewards


You can spend your Renew Rewards card on our EILEEN FISHER website, in any EILEEN FISHER retail location, Renew store or Company Store. We currently cannot accept Renew Rewards or EILEEN FISHER gift cards and e-cards for Renew online purchases.

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