Vinted, Europe’s leading second-hand fashion marketplace, is moving into offline media with RE/style, a new six-part TV competition series that positions second-hand fashion as aspirational, creative, and mainstream. More than just your average reality TV show, the Vinted-funded series fuses ecommerce and entertainment – and is designed to deepen engagement with the brand and increase its audience and reach – as well as selling products directly to viewers.
Airing on Prime Video in October, hosted by Emma Willis and judged by fashion experts Melissa Holdbrook-Akposoe and Zadrian Smith, RE/style features eight emerging designers from across Europe competing to create high-fashion looks using only second-hand items. Each episode challenges them to craft capsule collections in just six hours, drawing on themes of nostalgia, adventure, and reinvention.
The finale will see two finalists unveil bespoke collections, with the winning designer’s collection showcased at London Fashion Week and sold exclusively on Vinted, with all profits donated to Oxfam. Viewers can shop the very items used in the show via Oxfam’s dedicated Vinted page from 13 October – blending entertainment with ecommerce and social impact.
This isn’t Vinted’s first foray into offline media; there have been two seasons of its branded entertainment series Second-Hand Showdown, presented by Vicky Pattison. Season One garnered over 6 million views across Channel 4’s YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and VoD platform.
Building on offline success
Sam Grindey, client director at Mindshare, the WPP media agency behind the campaign, explained how the company plans to build on this success: “We’ve worked on multiple campaigns that prove offline media can turbo-charge an online business. Second-Hand Showdown proves the power of branded entertainment to drive emotional connection with measurable results. RE/style takes that learning to an exciting, premium competition format; putting second-hand fashion centre stage and making it aspirational, not just affordable.”
Grindey adds that RE/style is the cornerstone of Vinted’s media strategy: “It’s the hook that drives engagement, entertainment and relevance. Around it, we layer a multi-touchpoint plan – partnerships, influencer activations, paid social, broadcast – all measured with the market-leading rigour Vinted applies to its advertising. But the ambition goes beyond media metrics. This campaign is designed to shift perceptions of second-hand fashion, inspire circular behaviours and show that pre-loved can be as aspirational as new. Chasing impressions and mere reach isn’t enough for future-facing brands; this is about creating content people genuinely want to watch and using it to spark real change in how they shop.”
This multichannel approach mirrors successful strategies from other digital-first brands. Beauty disruptor Glossier, for example, has used pop-up shops in London and New York to create immersive brand experiences. These physical spaces allow fans to try products, meet the team, and share their experiences on social media – driving both offline engagement and online sales.
Similarly, Nike has long blended offline events with digital platforms. From running clubs to product launches, Nike’s experiential activations are tied to its app ecosystem, encouraging users to register, track progress, and share content. This seamless integration of physical and digital touchpoints builds loyalty and drives ecommerce.
Jessie de la Merced, VP corporate affairs at Vinted, points out that Vinted’s goal is to shift perception around preloved fashion, making an ethical as well as a business case for it. “Second-hand isn’t a trend – it’s the future,” she says. “This campaign is not only a key part of our UK marketing approach but also a blueprint we’re rolling out across France, Spain and Italy, showing that this vision resonates internationally. Through long-form content like RE/style, our goal is to help make second-hand the first choice – shifting perceptions at scale and showing that pre-loved can be aspirational, creative and mainstream.”
Super-fast growth
By merging offline storytelling with online commerce, Vinted is looking to deepen engagement with its key customer base of eco-savvy, budget-conscious yet fashion-forward consumers. A fast-growing European online retail powerhouse, the Lithuanian-headquartered company now operates in 23 countries, with 105 million registered users and a profit before tax of £80.3 million in 2024 – nearly triple its profit from the year before, according to reporting in Business Matters. And, while traditional fashion retail is struggling, the second-hand market is booming – the UK market is projected to double from £10 billion in 2020 to £20 billion by 2025, according to analysis by consumer intelligence company NIQ.
With 80% of UK purchases on Vinted costing less than £20, according to research by ConsumerEdge, it’s already seen as a sustainable alternative to fast fashion – and the Re/Style series will help strengthen its position as a serious “brand” for fashion-conscious buyers, particularly among its key user base of millennials.
Vinted’s blend of entertainment, ecommerce, and ethical values is already redefining how second-hand clothing is perceived and consumed. RE/style elevates preloved fashion to high fashion, while driving engagement across both digital and physical platforms. As second-hand continues to outpace traditional retail, Vinted’s bold media strategy sets a new benchmark – one that competitors will need to match if they want to stay relevant in a market increasingly driven by sustainability, affordability, and style.
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