‘Scarcity, exclusivity and storytelling’: Re/Done's Sean Barron on what millennial shoppers want

Re/Done co-founder Sean Barron never set out to launch a sustainable denim brand.

“We thought it was a project,” versus a company, he said on the latest episode of the Glossy Podcast. His business partner, Jamie Mazur, “had this idea of taking Levi's apart and making jeans that fit girls,” Barron said. “It took nine months for us to make that work. Then we built a website.”

On the brand’s launch date in 2014, after Bella Hadid hyped the brand in an Instagram post, the first pairs of Re/Done denim sold out in 12 minutes at midnight and attracted a 1,200-person waitlist. “Vogue and every kind of media covered it,” said Barron. “It was like, ‘Oh, maybe we have something here.’”

Now, Re/Done is the biggest purchaser of vintage Levi's worldwide. To date, it’s upcycled 120,000 pairs of Levi's.

The company’s ongoing partnership with Levi’s is key to its success among millennial shoppers, said Barron.

“What resonates and [works] to build a community in the millennial space are [styles] with scarcity, exclusivity and storytelling. And those three [characteristics] actually live inside of one pair of Levi's,” said Barrron. “If you have a vintage pair, they're very exclusive. They're one of one. And they're scarce because there's not an infinite amount. And each jean really tells a story. Maybe a trucker bought it and then he gave it to his girlfriend, and she gave it to Goodwill. There are all these storytelling moments that, even if you don't know them, you know they exist.”

Barron also discussed Re/Done's growing direct-to-consumer business, its "big" physical retail plans and its three-part collaboration strategy.