Fabricaid

FabricAID is a Lebanese social enterprise working to build a socially and environmentally conscious value chain for the apparel industry. It collects pre-owned clothing through donation bins and home pick-up services, sorts, washes and mends the items, and resells them at micro-prices ranging from about $0.30 to $2 per item to disadvantaged communities, initially via pop-up markets and later through permanent stores. The company also purchases clothing collected by NGOs, providing them a source of income and relieving them of storage and redistribution burdens.

Operations are organized into several brands and projects: Souk El Khlanj stores (in Akkar, Tripoli, Bourj Hammoud and Wadi el Zayni) serving underprivileged communities; Second Base (Monot and Gemmayze, plus an e-commerce site) for more unique, higher-priced fashion items; Souk Okaz, a peer-to-peer marketplace where people buy and sell second-hand clothes directly; RemAID, an upcycling line produced with local designers, disadvantaged tailors and international brands; and FabricBASE, which converts non-resellable textiles into fabric-based internal walls through mechanical or chemical recycling. Retail sales are described as funding operations and staff salaries.

By the time of a January 2022 report, FabricAID was described as the largest second-hand clothing collector in the MENA region, having served 70,000 beneficiary consumers and employing nearly 100 full-time staff.

Founding story

Founder Omar Itani observed that clothes his family donated to their building's concierge did not fit the recipients' needs, and found that Lebanon lacked a proper collection and distribution model for used clothing. In December 2016 he asked friends and family on social media to donate old clothes, then sorted and distributed them to families by size and need; the response filled his home with donations. After research, volunteering in a second-hand shop and conversations with disadvantaged communities, he applied to the UNICEF Impact Accelerator in summer 2017 with the idea, recruited Hussam Hannouni (technology) and Lynn Abi Aad (design) as co-founders, and was accepted. FabricAID was registered as a company on 12 October 2017.

Business model

Social enterprise applying commercial retail strategies to a social and environmental mission: revenue from reselling donated and NGO-sourced second-hand clothing funds operations, salaries and expansion, with profits reinvested in the model.

Sales of sorted second-hand clothing, shoes and accessories at micro-prices (about $0.30-$2 per item) through pop-up markets and permanent stores; higher-priced curated items sold through the Second Base stores and e-commerce site; a peer-to-peer resale marketplace (Souk Okaz); and upcycled garments under the RemAID brand.

Traction

Reported figures include 525,000 items collected, 150 bins installed, 170,000 clothing items sold in retail, 31,717 direct beneficiaries, four Souk El Khlanj branches and 50 full-time employees over its first five years, plus claimed environmental effects such as 540,000 kilos of carbon emissions reduced and 720 million liters of water saved. Earlier, by December 2019, it reported 91 pop-up markets, two permanent shops, 75,000 items sold and 13,000 beneficiaries. A January 2022 report cited 70,000 beneficiary consumers and nearly 100 full-time employees.

Latest developments

In January 2022, FabricAID announced completion of a $1.6 million seed round from Wamda and AL Fanar, earmarked for strengthening its Lebanese operations, expanding in Jordan and launching in Egypt. Its stated longer-term aim is to participate across the fashion value chain, including agriculture, logistics, manufacturing, recycling, upcycling and reuse.