Costuá, the startup of used clothing for which Komax, Grupo Prisma,

Santiago Valdés (30) and Joaquín Zavala (31) are known from school, and one day seven years ago talking about life, of the things they sold online and that in the closet of their parents' houses there abounded a lot of clothes withuncertain destination, they decided to undertake.

First they left with children's products such as cars or car chairs that had been used only once or only for a couple of months, as well as technological items and sports implements.The business goal was for them to take care of the entire process, from withdrawing the product, classifying and selling it.

There was a pivot in the operation, both partners count from their office/winery in Quilicura, and they realized that the costumes, the female in particular, had more effect on social networks.And sites to sell it were, from social networks to multiproduct marketplace.But they decided to do something more professional, with a lot of technology and that was scalable.And so Vistuá was born.

"The deepest problem was that there was eager to vacate and give things better, but our idea was to make it easy and comfortable for the one who sells and for the one who buys," says Zavala.

“The concept of used clothes has migrated a lot.Today what we know as sustainable fashion has made everything evolve.It does not have to be old clothes, with the smell of naphthalin and in poor condition.This clothes are practically new, because that is another of the problems of the human being, which we buy much more clothes we wear, ”Valdés complements.

In addition, they have put technology to be able to do it on scale and review the hundreds of products that receive every day.They created algorithms to trace and look for it when they sell it online quickly and efficiently.In addition, they developed artificial intelligence to put a price on the garments, crossing many variables, including an automation of the photographs.

Sell, donate, reuse

In the seven years that have been in this business, they have received more than 600 thousand garments, they currently have more than 55 thousand published even brands that are not marketed in Chile, which cost between 30% and 50% less than the same new garment.

The process is done by everything: they go to the client's house to look for clothes, in the winery the 50 people who work there for the algorithms make the selection and fixation of the price.If the clothes pass certain filters, it is published on the website;And if it is not in perfect condition they can return the product or the original client can decide to donate it to a foundation, a process that also makes costume.

If the product follows the path of the sale, they also take care of the direct delivery and return a part of the value to the original client, which never moved from their home and managed to sell its garment.

The rotation is 50% in 30 days.That is, 100 garments that arrive on day 1, at the end of the month, half already sold. But there was also an unwanted factor, which has helped the entrepreneurship of Santiago and Joaquín.The textile industry is responsible for 8% of the emission of greenhouses and, after oil, is the most polluting business in the world.

As people are increasingly aware of the damage generated by Fast Fashion, ideas such as costume make sense, the partners say.They, in fact, make their own calculations of help to the environment they have generated: they have avoided that more than 700 million liters of water are contaminated;More than 8 thousand tons of CO2 that the planet has been saved and 180 tons of textile waste when choosing a product used instead of a new one.In addition, they have delivered almost 300 thousand garments in donations to foundations.

ÓRAL, Mexico

All these data convinced for example Komax, the Chilean firm that markets brands such as GAP, Banana Republic, The North Face or Kipling, to seal an alliance that began in early September, and where all Komax customers will have the option ofSell your garments with costume directly.

“Four or five years ago, in a seminar they asked me what we do about sustainability, and I replied that we sell good clothes, which lasts fed up time.But I realized that this was not enough, and that is why we decided to support ventures such as Vista ”, tells DF Mas Santiago Figueroa, general manager of Komax.

Alliances like that, Valdés and Zavala tell, they will come more and very soon."Komax's is one of the multiple we are working, especially with large retailers with regional presence," they say.

Pero este negocio es global. En países como Estados Unidos, empresas como Thread UP, que se dedica al negocio de ropa de segunda mano, han tenido un éxito tal que logró abrirse en el Nasdaq. Y en Europa, H&M lanzó Sellpy, con el mismo objetivo. Pero en Latinoamérica, no hay un player relevante. Y Vestuá dijo ¿y por qué no?Hace dos meses abrieron una oficina en México, y ya tienen un equipo que pronto lanzará oficialmente el mercado.

“We are looking to become the leaders of the second -hand fashion market in Latin America.Mexico is a much broader market and demand the same service that here, which is to be able to sell and buy sustainable fashion, ”says Zavala.

To achieve this, these days they closed a capital round for US $ 1.5 million, in which the former general manager of Falabella, Pablo Turner, participated;Alan Farcas, former director of Endeavor Chile;Alejandro Pérez, Endevidor Endeavor de Eshopex and Farmex;as well as a new Venture Capital Fund linked to Jorge Encina, former CEO of Grupo Alto, Pablo Ruiz, CEO of Quest Capital, Jorge Lima and Felipe Schwartzmann, next to the family office of the Claro family, Grupo Prisma.

“We see that there is an opportunity in all countries.We are thinking of Colombia and Brazil, because it is evident that the problem of buying more clothes we need and that it is not so easy to get rid of it, we have it throughout the world, ”says Santiago Valdés.