Rebag expanded into apparel and footwear Wednesday, adding a host of new labels to its catalogue, including sneaker brands like Nike and Yeezy.
Founded in 2014 as a destination for buying and selling luxury handbags, the resale platform added its first new categories—accessories, watches and jewelry—in October 2020. Two years later, Rebag is widening its assortment once more with items from its existing labels such as Chanel, Gucci, Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Fendi, as well as “a host of new luxury designers.”
The new additions include upscale and luxury labels including Balmain, Common Projects, Maison Margiela, Manolo Blahnik, Rick Owens and Vetements, as well as footwear brands at the top of the sneaker resale market, from Nike and Yeezy to Jordan and Adidas. Rebag’s footwear selection features sandals, sneakers, heels, boots and loafers. Its apparel category includes outerwear, jackets, vests, sweaters and sweatshirts.
Like its existing verticals, clients can sell shoes and select apparel within Rebag’s accepted designers list online or in-person at a physical Rebag location.
Though customers have “continually” asked about new categories since its 2014 launch, founder and CEO Charles Gorra said shoes have been one of the top requests. “We take great care in sourcing all of our luxury products, and we have been working to acquire a robust assortment of shoes and select apparel from our current list of accepted designers, plus new brands in each category, which we are excited to be able to share with clients now,” Gorra added.
Although the luxury brands Rebag has long offered via its handbag and accessory categories make up “the majority” of the platform’s new footwear selection, Gorra said the company hopes sneakers will play “a prolific role” considering “the convergence of luxury and streetwear.”
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“There are a lot of rare, unique, and exciting shoes that are limited-edition collaborations from Adidas and Yeezy, as well as Nike and Air Jordan, that can be equally as powerful of an investment as a handbag—if you’re able to get your hands on them,” Gorra told Sourcing Journal. “As a resale platform, we would love to be able to offer these coveted items to our community of collectors and fashion enthusiasts.”
For now, Gorra said Rebag will offer a “curated selection” of collaboration and original models from these sneaker brands. That’s not to say this won’t change, however. “There are so many new sneaker releases in a given year that we hope to expand and revise that list regularly,” Gorra said.
“The role of sneaker culture and streetwear in Rebag’s future plans will always be growing as long as streetwear and luxury continue to merge,” he added.
“Even without our new Shoe and Apparel categories, certain handbags were already heavily associated with streetwear trends—from Telfar’s Shopping Tote and Louis Vuitton’s Soft Trunk to Balenciaga’s Le Cagole. We’re excited that these new categories open up new accessibility to streetwear, which we only had a glimpse of with handbags.”
Rebag also described the expansion as an opportunity to collect further insights on the luxury resale industry, while at the same time growing its technological capabilities as it “advances its product knowledge.” The resale platform uses its proprietary Clair technology to determine the resale value of designer items. One aspect of this technology suite, Clair Codes, allows customers to identify any item by brand and model, “enabling you to track its value over time,” Gorra said. He compared the feature to a car’s VIN or using the Kelley Blue Book.
“The more items transacted, including those in our two new categories, the more insights we gain,” he said.