Houdini Sportswear, the Swedish circular sportswear company, will open its first retail store on September 28 in Stockholm to expand its circularity platform. Through support from The Boston Consulting Group, customers can “rent apparel, subscribe to garments, and purchase new, second hand or exclusive remade pieces and trade in garments for other Houdini pieces, with a pricing structure reflecting these in-store options.”
“If we truly want to change our industry, we have to provide alternatives to the current state and make sure these alternatives are accessible to everyone. We have provided rental and repair services and second-hand sales for more than a decade. With Houdini Circle, we bring this concept to consumers at one venue, giving them autonomy on how they want to access, shape and curate their wardrobes. This is a critical and reimagined business model that we hope to expand globally,” said Houdini CEO Eva Karlsson.
Houdini Circle is also working to debut an outdoor apparel subscription service in the U.S. by 2024, where customers can sign up for seasonal groupings and swap items in-store. The starter subscription would include a base package of a jacket, a mid-layer and bottoms. Subscribers could add more pieces to increase their subscription.
“The point of Houdini Circle isn’t to make maximum profits, but to create value for all of our stakeholders,” continued Karlsson. “That is what our business is about. Sustainability and good business go hand-in-hand. This initiative is no exception. We hope to expand this concept to other global markets after an additional testing period.”
