What if technology could help us not only buy better, but keep products in use for longer?
At CANUSSA LAB, we believe innovation can help rethink the way products are designed, made and used. That is why we work with partners exploring new ways to make circularity more accessible to brands.
We spoke with Vincent Ghilione, founder of Weloop and Wetrack, about his journey into circular fashion, the challenges brands face and how technology can help build a more circular economy.
From technology to circular fashion
Vincent spent years building web and Shopify apps for large companies in Switzerland. His perspective changed after visiting a garment factory in Bangladesh and seeing firsthand the people behind the clothes being produced.
When he returned home, he tried to change the way he consumed fashion. He found that while discovering better brands was becoming easier, finding ways to reuse what already existed was much harder.
Living in Basel, with its strong circularity ecosystem, helped him see that circular fashion goes far beyond secondhand. It can mean repair, rental, resale, trade-in and simply keeping products in use for longer.
That led to Loopli, his first circular fashion project, and eventually to Weloop and Wetrack.
Making circularity easier for brands
Weloop was born from a simple observation: brands were interested in circular services, but did not want another platform to manage.
The solution was to bring those services directly into their existing ecommerce infrastructure.
Weloop is a Shopify app that allows brands to manage circular transactions such as trade-in, resale and other services directly through their own website, while keeping control of their customer relationship, data and revenue.
Wetrack came from a different need: Digital Product Passports and product transparency.
Vincent realised that circularity depends on knowing a product properly. To repair, resell or recycle something, you need to know what it is made from, where it came from and what information supports it.
Wetrack brings this information together, helping brands structure their product data, gather supporting documentation and prepare for the evolving European requirements around Digital Product Passports.
Circularity is more than a technology problem
One of Vincent's biggest learnings has been that circularity is ultimately a systems problem.
Technology can make it easier to request a repair or organise a trade-in, but behind those services there are logistics, repairers, pricing, quality control and partnerships.
For smaller brands in particular, building all of this from scratch can be a major barrier.
That is why Vincent believes circularity should be something brands can adopt gradually: start with one service, learn what works and build from there.
The role of technology in the future
For Vincent, technology has the potential to make circular choices as easy to discover as buying something new.
Imagine searching for a product and seeing not only new options, but also secondhand, rental, exchange or resale alternatives nearby.
The goal is to remove the effort involved in making a more conscious choice.
“The conscious choice should become no harder to make than any other.”
This is also where Weloop and Wetrack increasingly connect.
Wetrack can provide the digital identity of a product, while Weloop can help extend its life through repair, trade-in, rental or resale.
One product, many lives
Vincent's long-term vision is a system where a product's relationship with its owner does not end at the point of sale.
Imagine scanning a product and seeing its composition, origin and certifications. Later, that same digital passport could provide care information, repair options or even resale possibilities.
A well-made product could therefore create value several times throughout its life: when it is sold, repaired, rented, taken back or resold.
For CANUSSA, this vision is particularly relevant. Our collaboration with Wetrack is not only helping us navigate new requirements, but also helping us understand how technology can support more circular product journeys.
The transition will require brands, technology providers, logistics partners and many others to work together.
And ultimately, the goal is simple: creating more value from better products, rather than simply producing more products.
