From now on, Ace & Tate will offer recycled glasses on second-hand platform Depop. It is the first optics chain to start working with the app, giving old frames a second life.
Where young people shop
Ace & Tate launches a second hand eyewear programme called Reframe: customers can exchange their old frames for a gift voucher. Unsold stocks or discontinued designs will also be part of the project. The spectacles are reworked so that they look as good as new and then put back on sale. According to the Dutch optics chain, Reframe is the first circular initiative for eyewear.
The second-hand programme also includes a new sales channel: in addition to the Ace & Tate website, the recycled spectacle frames are offered for sale on Depop – an online platform for second-hand clothing that is particularly popular among young people. Ace & Tate claims to be the first eyewear company to sell its frames in the app.
“Ace & Tate’s target group is Gen-Z and millennials and we want to meet consumers where they shop,” says the chain. “With 24 million users, 90% of whom are under the age of 26, Depop offers the perfect platform for reselling recycled eyewear. A majority of younger generations – 59% of Gen Z and 57% of millennials – buy upcycled products”.
Eyewear industry is not sustainable
The optics retailer aims to make buying spectacles “fun and simple”, moving away from “the outdated processes of the past”. This includes sustainability, as the company itself points out that the eyewear industry is a 120 billion dollar market in which plastic is the most important raw material and “sustainability is almost non-existent”. In June, the challenger launched another round of financing.
More and more brands are embracing the growing second-hand market themselves and are offering second-hand items directly to specialist market places. For example, Gucci recently joined forces with second-hand platform The RealReal.
