On today's episode I talked with Sam Cerwin, co-founder of BeReworn, about the importance of community and sustainability.
We discuss the ways her platform connects people to swap clothing and other goods, how that fosters a more eco-conscious lifestyle, and provides a more affordable way to access clothing.
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Transcript
This is a lightly edited automated transcript. Please refer to the original audio when quoting for most accuracy.
Jer Staes: Joining me here at the studio at TechTown is Sam Cerwin. She is the co-founder of BeReworn, a business and startup right here from Detroit. Welcome to Daily Detroit. I really appreciate you.
Sam Cerwin: Thank you so much for having me! I'm super excited.
Jer Staes: I'm excited too, because I love there's so many things that, you know, I get pitches about some technology website or something, but I like that this has a very practical purpose around clothing and swapping and being useful for people. So let's talk about what is BeReworn?
Sam Cerwin: Yes, so we connect communities to sustainability. I think it's easier like for people to think of us for like Eventbrite for sustainability. You can either come in and host events, like create them, or you can come and find them. Um, this helps you to find like either to meet people who is passionate about the same things as you are or to find more like accessible options to clothing, just to find something to do on the weekends. It's really very community-based, and we're just try to support sustainability and keep access to people to affordable things.
Jer Staes: So, when you talk about sustainability, what kind of events are those? Go ... kind of ... go under that bucket.
Sam Cerwin: Yeah, so right now there's four categories on the side. They are clothing swaps, community meetups those are my favorite closet sales, and upcycling workshops. And actually, now that I'm talking through this, we just added one that is for any other type of swaps, because people is swapping more than clothes now.
Jer Staes: What drew you to swaps in general? Because I know a lot of people that are really into it. It feels like there's an emotional connection to them.
Sam Cerwin: Yeah, you know, the thing is like you can, first of all, like you can bring 10 items and like choose another 10 items to bring home for like for one single price. You don't have to pay per item. And then just I think the community thing where after COVID, people became really shy, and some of them had like a lot of social anxiety and it's hard to make friends. So when you go to these events and you know people are passionate about the same things, it's more it feels more natural like to start a conversation or to say hi to someone. So I think that's what people loves.
Jer Staes: I think that's an important point, and I hadn't thought about it, but I think you're right, because my experience it with events I've been going to events for 20 years, before COVID and after, and there is a marked difference. I'm one of those maybe annoying people. I'll be like, hey, I'm Jer. How are you, you know, kind of wear colorful shirts, always be a. But I've realized after COVID, people are not as much into that anymore, and it's definitely been a shift for me.
Sam Cerwin: Yeah, I know, absolutely. I mean, I always feel like I'm not an extrovert, but I'm not an introvert, like just something in the middle, and there's a lot of people that are just like that. Like either they need the first approach, or they want to make the first approach. But definitely like it's been proved that when people has something in common, it's just easier to break the ice.
Jer Staes: So, why put together a tech platform for this this part of the sustainable world?
Sam Cerwin: Yeah, you know, there's like all these events previously when I was going to them or trying to find them, either you have to get an ad for it or see a poster or a flyer, like someone has to tells you about them. And I was like this cannot be it because it's cool when you're already part of the community and you know the people who's hosting these type of things. But as a first like as an outsider who was trying to embrace a more sustainable journey and you want to start in your closet, how do you find about these events? So that's what I thought. Like there has to be a main hub, a main platform for community to like come together.
Jer Staes: So you're based in Detroit, but you have hubs around the country and not just in the United States?
Sam Cerwin: Yeah, I so when we launched, users started to like find out about it in multiple cities. They started to create events. And I mean, yeah, it's been crazy. We're super grateful for that. Um, and it's just so like amazing how to see like now people like gets together to swap books or furniture or cook wear, like things like that. It's yeah, it's great.
Jer Staes: What are some of the things that you have learned starting this in Detroit of all places?
Sam Cerwin: You know what, I first of all, when I move here, I didn't know there was like such a strong feeling for community, and that is something that I love about Detroit. Like people is super supportive, and they will like jump on board and like will help you or like they will tell you who to talk to. So, I mean, right now there's so many like talent as designers and we try to support them too, like with these upcycling workshops where like small designers can teach other people how to fix their clothes or how to make them look prettier so they can keep wearing them for longer. So definitely, the design aspect of the city is just great.
Jer Staes: Yeah, you've spent some time in some other cities. So that community aspect is is greater here, you're saying?
Sam Cerwin: Yeah, I think it's like Detroit has a very strong feeling for community, absolutely.
Jer Staes: And what brought you to Detroit?
Sam Cerwin: I got married.
Jer Staes: Oh, congratulations.
Sam Cerwin: Yeah, my husband is from here.
Jer Staes: Oh, very cool. So well, that's well, welcome, for sure, for sure. One of the things off air we were mentioning was you do some work in the femology space. How important has that been? And and tell people a little bit about it.
Sam Cerwin: Yeah, I think being part of Newlab, it's like great just you know how like you feel supported when people is doing the same things as you do even if you don't talk to them. Like I think that's been great and just like all the resources, sometimes they have panels, they have the like educational like type of things. And it's just great to see other like founders doing their own thing and build connections.
Jer Staes: Yeah, yeah. So let's talk about the BeReworn platform a little bit though. How does it work for those who have never been there before? I encourage people to go. It's simply bereworn.com. But you land there. What do you want people to do?
Sam Cerwin: So there's a section where you can go either to find or create events. So it's very simple. We let you know what type of events people are hosting, date, place. You can select what brands and sizes you're bringing and the amount of items you're going to swap. And this is like this is super important because sometimes if you go to a swap and this for like all sizes welcome, there's no guarantee that you will find something, right? And it's very disappointing for the user if they bring like 20 pieces and then they don't find anything for them and someone already took your pieces. So in this way, we can let you choose your event based on what sizes people are bringing. So we can like give you a guarantee that you're most likely going to find something.
Jer Staes: Now, if you're hosting an event, then how does it work?
Sam Cerwin: I will say like on the side, you only need to put the place, the hour. Event creation right now is free. You can like let people know if you have any preferences on the items that they're going to bring or if there's any like special requirements. But I will say I would like to think that it's very simple. If you are charging for your tickets, we use stripe so you can get all the money like right to your account.
Jer Staes: So you can handle some of the ticketing the ticketing side of things as well.
Sam Cerwin: Yes. Mhm. And then as a host, you also get an access to manage your data. Like you can see some of the demographics or the people who are bringing to your event in case you have marketing like strategies or something you want to test later.
Jer Staes: Where have you found that people have been discovering your your platform the most?
Sam Cerwin: Instagram, absolutely. Gen Z and Millennials are like our more like they are our target market right now. Gen Z are just like very passionate about sustainability and they're trying to find more and more resources to do it like yes, grow their community.
Jer Staes: Now, you're a bit of a, I don't want to say, I hate to use these words, but like a younger founder yourself, right? You're We were talking off air, you're in your 20s. What are some of the things that you have learned in this journey?
Sam Cerwin: You know what? I have this thing where I like when I turn 28, I'm going to do these things. And like I try to plan ahead and being a founder just I understand that it's good to have milestones, but I also have to leave in the present. Patience and just dedication are some of the things that I learned a lot over the past year and that sleep is important.
Jer Staes: Yes, it is. As also somebody who runs something that that is so important. If you if you are running from an empty cup, you don't have the ability to pour it out to anybody else.
Sam Cerwin: Yes. I like last year I got like so tired. I was going to bed at 3:00 a.m. I was like because if I work more, I'm going to get more done, but that's a complete lie.
Jer Staes: Well, at some point it just starts to fade off. Exactly. Maybe that's something I've learned as I've gotten older is that things start to fade off at a certain point where you're just not as effective anymore and you just need to hit the reset button and say, another thing I think I've learned is about prioritization because if everything's an emergency, nothing's an emergency.
Sam Cerwin: No, absolutely. I feel like either like when you're well rested, you're just ready to go and your brain it's like picking up things faster and you're actually getting things done.
Jer Staes: So what are some of your thoughts for growing the platform? I mean, you know, it's really cool that this thing is up. It's cool that you can go to it. What's your vision? I know it's a big question, but what would in a perfect world for Sam, what does this look like?
Sam Cerwin: You know, I want to be the platform that people thinks of when either they're trying to start or continue or just like push their sustainable journey. You know, like it doesn't matter what stage your sustainability journey you are like you can come to our platform. I think either if it's to meet new people, like you can you want to get access to clothing. Like I think something very important people sometimes don't realize is clothing is not something superficial, like I see people wearing clothing every day. You know, it's a need. And sometimes the economy aspect of like the fashion industry, it's something really important to keep in mind, not everyone can afford clothing. You know, and like the fashion industry just as we know, like the fast fashion especially, like it's a huge like it's the second biggest polar in the world. The human rights are just, you know, like I I don't think they even exist on the on the conditions conditions they work on. So these type of events allow young professionals, students, people to get access to the clothing they like for a cheaper price.
Jer Staes: I was recently at an event with Creative Mornings where the design director of Carhartt was there. And one of the things about Carhartt is that it lasts a long time. And I think about that with fashion and all the things that I buy, it saddens me to buy something that just wears out after a few wearings or just starts to get dingy. And I think the idea of the swap is really appealing because you do want to shift things up. You do you do want to change things up. I understand the appeal of fast fashion to be very honest with you. I I do because you have that ability to be like, oh, I'm just going to spend a little bit of money and I'm going to have a new look. But if you're doing a swap or if you're being more sustainable or if you're whether it it swaps or I even think about reusing containers for for soap and for other things, ways that we can have a lower impact, but still have the joy. I don't think that the only way to joy is through capitalism.
Sam Cerwin: Exactly. Yeah, absolutely. And I feel also like clothing swaps especially with technology involved is saving you time because sometimes going to a thrift store, it's too intimidating because people feels like they have to spend a long time trying to find one thing. So through technology, through what we're doing, you can see that it's going to be your size. You can see some of the styles because we're about to add like a preview closet, so users can see what items people are bringing.
Jer Staes: Oh, talk about that a little bit. So why why do you want to do that? That's interesting.
Sam Cerwin: So right now, like I we identify that there are people who are very passionate and like they bring the best out of their closet and there are people who will bring their old old shorts or like gym stuff that like they don't even wear anymore. So when you get to the event, that's not that is just not fair, right? Because sometimes people who wears the less appealing clothing, they are the ones to choose the best. So with this preview closet, users are going to be like able to see, okay, so if everyone is bringing these type of things, I really want to post the things I'm bringing and then the host of the event has more control too because they can approve or not approve your items. It's like it has a lot of flexibility and I think it just makes the things faster and more transparent to everyone.
Jer Staes: I want to I'll be vulnerable here for a moment that I'm a big man. And uh I don't it is hard for me sometimes to use swaps or go thrifting. Like I just don't fit in a lot of stuff. So it would actually be useful to be like, oh, that is actually like a 2XB or a three like whatever it is to know what those things are because often times any time I've gone to something like that, my biggest thing is I've only been able to find some sort of accessory because I'm just I'm tall, I'm you know what I mean? Like it's just one of those things. I'm not an off rack guy.
Sam Cerwin: Yeah, no, and I feel like I mean completely agree like there are people now they're doing swaps for specific sizes too. So this like helps people like also to save time because you know, it's like I said, it's discouraging when you go and spend all the time and you bring out the best and then you leave empty-handed.
Jer Staes: Somebody should do a big man swap.
Sam Cerwin: Yeah, I've been wanting to, you know, like sometimes my husband will find like some things once in there, but like I think men are more shy about coming like to this like type of events. Actually, like the 90% of our users are women.
Jer Staes: Of course. I know that I am in the small minority of people willing to do that, but I've also I'm the kind of person that I'll try anything once. I'll go anywhere. I think that's part of the the joy of living in the world is having a bit of an adventurous spirit. even if something isn't necessary for you, that's okay. It's to have experienced it, right? The joy is in the experiencing.
Sam Cerwin: Absolutely, no, and I've been wanting to like do it like a men swap and maybe like to do a record swap on the side so it like feels more appealing to them like there's not just clothes. So definitely like I'll be interested on hearing your insights on that. I want to bring it to life.
Jer Staes: You know, I want to hear from listeners about this. dailydetroit@gmail.com or leave me a voicemail. 313-789-3211. I think there's a lot of ways to look at it and I always glad to highlight local people doing cool stuff and really having a what really looks like a bigger vision for not just being like being based in Detroit, but something that could be bigger that I think the whole country could use.
Sam Cerwin: Absolutely. And just coming back like to the community aspect of it, right now we're getting ready for Fashion Revolution Week, which is to bring awareness of the fashion like industry, how your clothes are being made. And we are bringing a lot of designers involved and we're trying to create a series of event for Earth Day Week. So if everyone is interested on coming like lead an event or volunteering or something like that, we're more than welcome to have them.
Jer Staes: Sam Cerwin, co-founder of BeReworn, thank you so much for stopping by the studio. It was so great to meet you.
Sam Cerwin: Thank you so much for having me. It means a lot.
Jer Staes: Thanks for listening. Thanks to our members. You know, we don't get paid by our guests to highlight interesting local things happening in our community. So we need your support. Get swag, get access to our member Discord and more, patreon.com/dailydetroit. That's patreon.com/dailydetroit. I'm Jer Staes. Until tomorrow, remember that you are somebody and I'll see you around Detroit.
Show Summary:
Jer speaks with Sam Cerwin, co-founder of BeReworn, about the importance of community and sustainability. They discuss the ways her platform connects people to swap clothing and other goods, and how that fosters a more eco-conscious lifestyle. Sam also highlights the importance of providing a more affordable way to access clothing.
