Primark trials new pre-loved clothing swap shop concept

Primark is trialling a new pop-up swap shop initiative to enable customers to exchange pre-loved and vintage clothing.

Established to celebrate London Fashion Week, the pop-ups will run for a limited time in Primark stores in London, Manchester and Birmingham.

Created in partnership with circular clothing company Verte, they will allow swappers to bring up to five items of adult clothing, bags, hats or scarves from any brand to be assessed and swapped for digital tokens on the Verte app.

The tokens can then be used to purchase a pre-loved item of clothing from Verte’s collection. There will also be special gold tokens awarded for luxury clothing items presented in almost-new condition which can then be traded exclusively for other gold items.

The first swap shop event will run from 13 to 15 September at Primark’s store in Westfield Stratford, London, as a part of London Fashion Week’s City-Wide Celebration.  This will be followed by an event in Primark’s Manchester Market Street store from 16 to 17  September and Birmingham High Street store from 16 to 17 October.

Any un-swapped clothes will be kept for the next swap shop event, donated to local charities, or placed in Primark’s textile donation boxes in stores across the UK.

Lynne Walker, director of Primark Cares, said: “Welcoming Verte into our stores will help us to better engage with a community of like-minded fashion lovers who really care about where their clothes will go to next.

“We hope our pop-ups will encourage more people to participate in the growing circular fashion economy and with an opportunity to do so in their local Primark store.

“We’ve all got clothes in our wardrobe we keep meaning to wear but never get around to, so we’re excited to see Verte give new life to the clothing swapped by our customers and colleagues.”

Primark has been selling pre-loved fashion to customers  via in-store concessions since 2022. The offering is now available in ten stores.