Thread Together and RAMP partner to help clothe people in need

Thread Together is an Australian charity helping to distribute clothing and other items to individuals, families and communities in need. It collaborates with some of Australia’s largest clothing suppliers extending the life-cycle of clothing by keeping it in circulation. The company collects end-of-line brand new stock from fashion retailers around the country with a team of volunteers.
Thread Together partners with over 1,000 fashion brands including Calvin Klein, RM Williams, UNIQLO, Under Armour and Lululemon among others. The company is recognised by the Fashion Industry as an ethical solution to fashion excess.

The clothes received by the charity all need to be sorted into product categories and sizes. The supply-led nature of the operation combined with a seasonal dissonance has led to Thread Together in excess of stock that isn’t relevant for demand. The result of this is items being put in storage and not being found. The company found itself needing assistance in managing inventory and distribution.

RAMP, an Australian tech company for RFID solutions (product tracking) has donated thousands of dollars worth of technology and ongoing support to Thread Together to help them receive, sort, manage and track stock nationwide across its depots, distribution hubs, partners and stores.

“RAMP’s RFID technology enables us to tag items immediately after they have been sorted into categories and sizes,” said Anthony Chesler, CEO of Thread Together. “By being able to do this, with ease, we are now able to rapidly determine the amount of inventory on hand and of equal importance to us, understand where the items are located.”

The new partnership is the first of its kind in the country. The partnership showcases the wide application of retail tech across all sectors of the industry and how it can be used for good. Since 2012, Thread Together has helped redistribute more than 5.5 million items to those in need and importantly saved these items from ending up in landfill. This partnership will allow further reach, more efficiently. “Every week we help more than 2,500 people who are in need of essential clothing and the implementation of RAMP’s RFID solution will enable us to scale up to support many more people in need,” Chesler added.

RAMP was founded in 2006 as a purpose-built, cloud-based RFID solution for online, warehouse and instore retailers. The company offers a solution to the user error and mundane tasking of manual stocktake.  “Under our partnership, Thread Together will be able to use RFID tags, RFID readers and Loca.fi retail software to scan, count and track stock on in their warehouse and fulfilment centres with a wave of the hand,” said RAMP CEO Peter Reinke.

“When using our RFID retail solution, they will be able to locate where items are at any given time, increasing efficiency and overcoming inventory management problems. Australian retailers have been using Loca.Fi Retail since 2018. The implementation process is quick and easy to roll out within weeks and provides a low-impact change to management. Our solution works straight out of the box so Thread Together can start right away.

“With inventory easily managed, Thread Together can focus on providing new clothes to individuals, families and communities doing it tough.”

On the partnership, Reinke said, “we are extremely humbled and inspired by our new partnership with Thread Together and look forward to helping the charity get clothing out to those in need in a more timely manner and avoid stock outages by sorting them to proactively manage inventory.”

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