Have you ever heard of B.Kinda? Well, you need to get to know it! B.Kinda is a company that is in conjunction with St Luke’s hospice. The brand's warehouse is based in Plymouth and at the forefront of the brand is the three P’s: people, their purses, and the planet. They take the leftover stock from 20 Plymouth based St Luke's charity shops and create mystery boxes which you can buy for £15, including postage. These boxes are shipped nationwide so you don’t need to be down south to get involved. In these boxes you get four garments which are carefully selected based on your age range, size and colour preference. You can ask for specifics such as work wear, athletic wear, or event dresses. The mystery is what are you going to receive in your box. Not only does this element of surprise spark joy for the online shopper but all the proceeds go to charity!
Since the brand began back in June 2022, they have grown at a rapid rate achieving phenomenal sales of 5,515 mystery boxes and as a result have saved 20,000 items from going to landfill. This is continually advancing by the day. The small team, led by brand manager Victoria, work super hard to pick the best items to fit you, whilst hitting the trends of the high street markets. This way you can stay on trend and save the planet at the fraction of the price. The picking and packing teams are largely made up of volunteers who pack your clothes from the carefully forecasted suggestions from Victoria. Each season she sits down and looks at the current trends of the high street for each age category. Her background in fashion design which means she uses her knowledge on fashion ability and utilises the stock they are getting in. This, therefore, allows you as the consumer to get the best out of second-hand clothing.
So what’s the process?
Step one: Each day the company receives a collection of bagged clothing from the 20 stores across Plymouth. In the shops they constantly rotate stock and if it has been sitting there too long, it is packed and sent to B.kinda.
Step two: The sorter spends the time going through the clothing and looks to see if it needs repairing or if the fibres need treating. For example, for jumpers they have a de-bobbling machine that they can use to make a jumper look brand new.
(Shockingly most of the clothing that comes in is still brand new with tags on, largely from brands such as Pretty Little Thing, Missguided, Primark, etc)
Step three: If any pieces need treatment they are put on a separate rack and sent for repair. Victoria has teamed up with a local sewing club who take the time to carefully repair these items of clothing.
Step four: The clothing is then returned to the warehouse and is put on the correct sized rack. This allows the pickers to go through and select clothing for the orders that come in.
Step five: Your order is then packaged up and sent to you in a lovely cardboard box.
However, as simple as this process sounds it isn't always as straightforward as it seems. Unfortunately, due to increasing demand for the mystery boxes there simply isn’t enough clothing to fit in all the orders. There is a lack of clothing for sizes 16-22. This could be for several reasons; people of those size categories don’t enjoy shopping for clothing, maybe because of societal pressures to be tall and skinny so they prefer to shop from the comfort of their home (this is just an educated guess, not straight facts). This has left B.Kinda with not enough clothes to cater to all their orders. So, next time if you are going to donate clothes, donate them to St Luke’s.
Another one of Victoria’s aims is to reach the lower ages ranges from 16-18. Victoria stated that there is just a lack of interest from this age category. The age categories which they receive the most orders from are 25-34 and 35-44. Therefore, she has been working hard on the brand’s social media to reach out to this lower age bracket. She has been using social media techniques of advertising through influencers, reels, picture content, clickable ads all to help boost the brand. It is something I want to advertise on here as well. This brand is perfect for all ages and sizes. I personally have loved getting involved with B.Kinda and finding out more about what they do.
So, next time you’re stuck on what to wear, head over to B.kinda’s page and buy your own mystery box. Think about the people, your purse and the planet.
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