Worn by Us was born from an unexpected place. When founder Nicola Gleave was diagnosed with breast cancer, she made a decision that would shape everything that followed. The diagnosis was out of her control – but how she responded to it wasn't. With a strong background in economic regeneration and a network built over nearly 30 years, she channelled that energy into something new.
The idea was simple: ask celebrities to donate clothing, sell it and use the proceeds to raise money and awareness for breast cancer charities. Nicola didn't know any celebrities – and it took her well out of her comfort zone. But the cause was bigger than the discomfort – and the response surprised her.
Celebrities donated. Then friends and acquaintances started coming forward too – people with beautiful, barely-worn items sitting in wardrobes, too good for the charity shop but never quite making it onto eBay. Worn by Us gave those clothes, and their owners, a better option.
From passion project to purpose-led business
For several years, Nicola ran Worn by Us without really treating it as a business. She collected clothes, sold them, gave the money to charity and talked about what she was doing. But she always knew there was potential to scale – and that scaling meant volume, sustainability and a commercial model that could support the social mission long-term.
That led her to start conversations with retailers about unsold stock. Most of it, she discovered, ended up with textile recycling companies buying job lots at rock-bottom prices and shipping palettes overseas – often because brands were anxious about their reputation and didn't want discounted stock on the high street. Nicola began building relationships with retailers willing to try a different approach, donating or commercially partnering to get stock into real customers’ hands, honestly and fairly.
Then COVID hit, conversations stalled and the pause gave Nicola time to sharpen the model. What emerged was clearer and more scalable than before.
Now, Worn by Us offers a simple service, nationwide. If you have quality items that are gathering dust, you can get in touch, describe what you've got and Worn by Us sends a bag with a prepaid label. Send it back and they handle everything else – checking, photographing, listing, and selling across eBay, Vinted, their own website and their new physical store in Birkenhead.
That store has become the beating heart of the business. What started as a pop-up planned for just six to eight weeks has grown into a permanent fixture in the Pyramids Shopping Centre – a real catalyst for local trade and a genuine community space. A client in London might send in a beautiful coat; someone in Birkenhead buys it at a price they can afford –quality, branded clothing circulating in the local economy, putting money back into the community. The shop has also become, almost by accident, an informal hub – somewhere customers come to chat, where community consultation happens naturally over the rails.
Triple impact
Worn by Us measures its impact across three connected areas: environmental, by keeping clothes in use longer and out of landfill; social, making quality and affordable fashion accessible in communities that are too often overlooked; and charitable, raising funds for causes including the Pink Ribbon Foundation. These three strands reinforce each other – and they’re all rooted in the same belief that fashion can, and should, do better.
Kindred's investment came at exactly the right moment, allowing Worn by Us to fit out the Birkenhead shop and turn a temporary pop-up into a real, welcoming retail and community space. Fittings, equipment and some wonderfully on-brand donations – including mannequins from River Island – came together to create something the local community could genuinely use. Funding also went towards social media and marketing support, helping more people discover the service, which brought a wave of collaborations with other local businesses, too.
Before Kindred, Nicola had spent nearly two years pursuing private investment, receiving consistently encouraging – and consistently frustrating – feedback: come back when you’re further along. Kindred felt entirely different.
Nicola pitched twice for her Kindred investment. The first time, she arrived with a pitch honed for private investors and quickly learned it needed to speak a different language. With support from the Kindred team, she refined her approach and came back stronger.
What struck her most wasn't just the practical guidance – it was the culture. “It was totally different to anything I'd experienced before, but in the most positive way. The help and support was there from the outset. It’s not a failure – it's a process,” she says. “There was a whole community of people rooting for you. You can talk openly about what worked, what didn’t, what went wrong.”
Kindred didn’t just invest money – it provided confidence, connection and a community that understood the journey.