Mining closets for unused items, Japan’s Sustina wants to create sharing economy for fashion

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Led by AirCloset where professional stylists select what to wear for users and the Laxus rental service specifically for luxury handbags, fashion rental service is now a hot market. The newest launch in March for this area is Sustina being offered by Omnis. Sustina’s mobile app is already available for iOS on iTune AppStore and for Android on Google Play.

Reusing clothing in the closet that never get worn again

Where Sustina differentiates itself from other services is that it offers a ‘wear-sharing’ service that handles used clothings and bags coming direct from users, at a monthly price of 5,800 yen (about $49). Just like XZ (pronounced ‘closet’), an online fashion community, it aims to reuse clothes that have been languishing in the back of user closets. It is most similar to being a monthly-subscription version of pre-pivoted Material Wrld, the New York-based luxury fashion trade-in company.

Omnis COO Takashi Saito explained:

I’ve came up with Sustina as a solution to the current state of many clothes, bags and accessories stored well-nigh unused as a consequence of mass-production and mass-consumption started in the late 20th century.

Renting up to five items at once, for “Mix & Match” wearing

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Renting and purchasing can all be done within the app. It allows one to choose up to 5 items to rent, with no shipping fee or dues, and provides an option enabling purchase of the items as well. Further 5 items can only be rented or purchased after one returns or purchases the previous 5.

Also, if one sells unwanted clothing items, one can exchange it into Sustina’s original vouchers. It could be used for purchasing clothes and might possibly be used for monthly rental fees. Exchanging clothes with vouchers will add 10% more monetary value than paying with other monetary instruments.

Currently Sustina offers more than 40 brands of female clothing such as Aquagirl, Snidel, Rose ud, See by Chloe, Stunning Lure, and Estnation.

“Mixed-culture” team takes on challenges

Omnis, the company behind Sustina, was founded by four members with different backgrounds like apparel jobs, IT engineers, video and music directors. This diversified team, each member being strong in different areas, is keen to expand Sustina and its opportunities in store.

The planned app release at the end of March will be preceded by a trial run, exclusive to a small community of test users. Ominis wishes to brush up its services based on the needs of users and utilization methods.

Translated by Sumi Yo via Mother First
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
Proofread by Masaru Ikeda