There has to be something in the air: Just when I thought that I had enough distraction in my life, one more sweet clothing swap site launches, allowing me to focus on my hobby (fashion, and specifically upcycled fashion) while I’m supposed to be focusing on my work.
In the same space as Poshmark, 99Dresses and Copius, Threadflip allows you to upload and sell items of clothing as well as buy others’ beloved, but for whatever reason unwanted, items of clothing. Unlike 99Dresses (which I am addicted to) Threadflip focuses on higher end clothing and expands beyond dresses to shoes, bags, accessories and jewelry.
Like Copius, the selection varies but when it’s good it’s really good; Thus far I’ve seen a pretty promising $200 Prada bag, mint-condition $49 Gucci sandals in my size, and the hottest pair of vintage leather shorts ever. Squeal! I think I might just buy all of these for less than I spent on shoes last week — personal style is my kryptonite.
A meticulous approach to user-friendly design and community enhancing elements like personalized profiles and recommendation make Threadflip a more inviting place for budding fashionista to shop, making eBay — where you can buy both Louboutins and a toaster, seem cold and impersonal.
“It’s been exciting to see a growing zeitgeist around online resale offerings,” says Threadflip co-founder Manik Singh, “Some of the key aspects of Threadflip that we’re really excited about are our seamless end-to-end shipping solution (which means you can ship from the comfort of your home), the White-Glove Service (minimal effort/maximal value) and deep integration with FB, which brings a level of ease, transparency and authenticity to the entire buying and selling experience.
Threadflip offers shoppers a convenient multitude of ways to search and shop. You can sort each category like Jewelery by recency, popularity, recommended, and size.
“P2P Marketplaces are hard to build because you have to create a good balance between buyers and sellers,” Manik explains, telling me that Threadflip hopes to ameliorate some of the pain points of online shopping, by “building an early community of passionate users, setting the bar high around both content quality and ease of use, as well as building features to streamline the process for both sides (buyers/sellers).”
You can also follow individual user activity a la Twitter and Threadflip has set up a series of Tastemaker Spotlights, highlighting the Picks and Closets of Vogue’s Preetma Singh, Late Afternoon blogger Liz Cherkasova, On the Racks’ Laura Ellner and The Like’s Tennessee Thomas.
(Coincidentally enough I went to college with Tennessee and she is indeed very cute and stylish, fact. Hi Tennessee.)
In return for perks like expert curation, end to end shipping and “White Glove Service” (just send them a box of clothing and they’ll do the rest!) Threadflip charges sellers a 15% fee, which is comparable to that charged by competitors but less than that usually charged by eBay to list items.
Floating the company while it makes adjustments like launching an iPhone app (ETA two to three weeks) and launching internationally is a newly raised $1.6M seed round led by First Round Capital and Baseline Ventures with Dave Morin, Forerunner Ventures, Greylock Discovery and Andreessen Horowitz Seed Fund on board.
With the new funding, Kent Goldman from First Round Capital will be joining the company’s board.
Update: After this post was written/went up, Threadflip ended up featuring me in its Tastemaker Spotlight, and we worked together on building a profile model where I could auction off my closet for Charity:Water. So disclosure, I liked Threadflip so much, I wanted to be even more involved with it.
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