Founded in the early 90s, Bank & Vogue is one of The Salvation Army Thrift Store’s longstanding and reliable partners who helps us extend the lifecycle of textiles that are not sold in our stores.
“We are proud to be celebrating 25 years of partnership with Bank & Vogue,” says Ted Troughton, Managing Director of The Salvation Army Thrift Store. “It’s through amazing partners like Bank & Vogue that we contribute to the circular economy and thrift our way to a sustainable future for all.”
We had the pleasure to interview Steven Bethell, Founder and President of Bank & Vogue, to celebrate this important milestone and learn more about how our partnership has contributed to the circular economy.
To demonstrate the importance of our partnership, Steven shared an interesting analogy of a beaver that builds a dam on a river. “In building that dam, the beaver creates an ecosystem for other species to live and grow,” says Steven. “Looking at our partnership with The Salvation Army Thrift Store, and that early work that was done 25 years ago, we created a dam. Throughout the years, this dam has created an ecosystem where amazing innovations have been developed to the secondhand sector.”
Some of these innovations for Bank & Vogue include sourcing materials for creating new products like the Converse Renew Shoe (pictured). “We sourced striped shirts, that were graded and cut for the collection to create a sneaker, with breathable, lightweight upper”, says Steven. “The products we collect through our partners like The Salvation Army Thrift Store help us create more solutions for a circular economy, and develop groundbreaking sustainable collections.”
According to Steven, none of these would have happened without the amazing work that The Salvation Army does, and the beginning of that relationship 25 years ago: “This ecosystem that The Salvation Army Thrift Store started with us has really created a beacon of hope of what circularity could look like in a bigger economy.”
Thank you, Steven and Bank & Vogue, for these 25 years of partnership to help us care for our communities and the planet we share!