Inside Retail.  “The Lululemon example shows how a nonprofit and a business can collaborate to develop a more circular business model together,” Christina Dean, founder of Redress, said Around the world, resale, rental, repair and remaking have grown into a US$73 billion segment, with projections suggesting they could account for nearly a quarter of the global fashion market by 2030, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Brands are under pressure not only to reduce waste, but to rewire the way products circulate after the first sale. Hong Kong, a city with limited landfill space, strong retail appetites and a complicated relationship with “pre-worn” goods, offers a useful barometer of what such a shift might look like in practice. “From our perspective, the partnership between Redress and Lululemon is important because, first, it provides a collaborative platform to pilot, implement, and demonstrate the success of resale,” Dean added.  “Secondly, at Redress, we truly believe resale is one of the most obvious ways to extend a product’s lifecycle and usage phase. And third, the market for resale is projected to grow significantly, so there’s both environmental and business value in pursuing it.” Testing circularity through operations, not marketing  The Like New pilot unfolds in two phases. The first introduced a product take-back activation across four Lululemon stores in Hong Kong, inviting customers to drop off gently used items in exchange for a voucher. “Our goal was to carry out very stringent sorting, identifying which items could be resold, which needed repair, and which should be donated to other organisations if they weren’t in good enough condition,” Dean said.  Items with minor defects were sent to local repair vendors. Products that were still functional but not resalable were donated to the Crossroads Foundation. Everything else was professionally cleaned and prepared for the September Like New resale pop-up. The second phase included the pop-up event, which transformed this backend work into a community-driven retail experience. Customers browsed curated racks of throwback designs and current favourites, attended upcycling workshops, and participated in design-led activities, such as keychain or scrunchie making. All net proceeds from the pop-up were donated to Redress; unsold items were passed to Crossroads, ensuring a complete end-of-use cycle. “In the second phase, we were deeply involved in organising the pop-up. It was not only a resale event but also a fundraiser for Redress, which we’re very grateful for,” Dean said.  “This is a relatively new concept for many people. While the resale market is already growing through platforms like Vestiaire, Vinted, or Depop, what we’re seeing as particularly impactful is brands running their own resale programs, not just peer-to-peer.” A cultural experiment as much as a business one At the pop-up, longtime Lululemon customers purchased secondhand for the first time. Others interacted with the brand not through product, but through workshops and community activities.  “During the pop-up, to further engage the community, Lululemon hosted interactive upcycling workshops, featuring activities like keychain crafting and scrunchie-making to encourage creative reuse and hands-on participation,” Chan said.  Brand-run resale is becoming more common in Western markets, but in Asia, where a luxury-driven consumer culture often associates prestige with newness, it remains relatively uncharted territory. Japan’s resale culture is long-established. Mainland China’s re-commerce sector is growing rapidly, but it is skewed toward luxury. Southeast Asia varies dramatically by country. Hong Kong, with its high consumption and high waste levels, sits somewhere in the middle. While perceptions of secondhand goods have historically been mixed, Redress argues that attitudes are changing faster than many assume. “One common thread across the Asia Pacific region is that our guests are mindful consumers who value quality and want to make their purchases last. But we also recognise that each market has its own unique expectations and behaviours,” Gareth Pope, general manager EMEA at Lululemon, told Inside Retail.  “The Like New pilot in Hong Kong is an important step in our test-and-learn journey as we explore how resale can become a meaningful part of our long-term strategy in the Asia Pacific region.” From one-off to structural change? The biggest question surrounding Like New is whether it will evolve beyond a single pilot into something more permanent, in Hong Kong or elsewhere. Scaling circularity requires infrastructure: repair partners, cleaning facilities, sorting protocols, and logistics optimisation. It demands a consistent supply of high-quality garments returned by customers. And it requires a shift in retail planning, as brands learn to manage both “first-life” and “second-life” inventory. Partnerships with nonprofits, Pope argues, are essential for navigating this early phase. Redress brings years of expertise in textile waste management and a deep understanding of Hong Kong’s consumer landscape, helping the pilot run with realistic expectations rather than idealistic assumptions. According to Redress, the value lies not in the resale event itself but in the knowledge it produces. “A pilot is only useful if it can be shared and replicated,” Dean says. “That’s where the impact really lies.” The Like New initiative does not claim to resolve the complexities of circular fashion in Asia. But it provides a controlled environment to test what works, what fails, and what needs to be rebuilt entirely.