A London start-up that collects clothes by bike and has local tailors repair and alter them, to keep garments in use for longer.
Sojo makes clothes repair as easy as ordering a meal. Customers use an app to choose the repair or alteration they need, such as shortening trousers, replacing a zip or taking in a dress, and a courier collects the clothes at a time that suits them. A seamster or tailor does the work and the garments are brought back. Press coverage calls it "the Deliveroo of clothing repairs". At launch, customers paid a £3.99 delivery fee and riders were paid £9 an hour. Sojo has since moved towards working with fashion brands, as well as individual customers.
Sojo was founded by Josephine Philips, who started after finding it hard to get her second-hand and vintage clothes altered. She had a pile of garments she never got round to taking to a seamstress. She launched it in London in January 2021 after graduating from the King's 20 accelerator programme, and she began her career as an intern at Depop. Its mission, in its own words, is "to help in making the fashion industry circular". It also wants to collect information about where garments fail so brands can build in more durability, and to promote female-led and Black-owned businesses.
Sojo is based in Dalston, London, which a job site gives as its headquarters. At launch it served only London Zones 1 and 2, with plans for the rest of London and then other UK cities. It has partnered with Beyond Retro, whose London stores offered Sojo as an in-store option from October 2021, and had a residency at Selfridges in May 2022. Later reports name the brand Ganni and a partnership with the rental platform HURR, and the company says it works with Oxwash, the laundry service. A Sifted article described a move towards a business-to-business service for brands.
For culture, a job-site profile gives a team of between one and twenty people, which makes it a very small company, so every person has a wide role. It describes a values-led workplace, hybrid working with three days in the London office, a monthly four-day working week, 30 days of holiday, a self-development allowance and share options. These are the company's own claims on a job site, and may have changed. Ms Philips has said she wants the network of seamsters to be mostly women and to bring structure to skills often done informally at home.
A small repair business needs tailors and garment technicians, operations and logistics staff who plan the courier routes, software and product people for the app, partnership managers who work with brands, and marketing and community staff. It is a good example of how a graduate with an idea can build a circular business. Check the company's website for current roles, as the team is small and may change.
Website: www.sojo.uk
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