The RealReal


The RealReal, Inc. is an online and brick-and-mortar marketplace for authenticated luxury consignment. Based on the circular economy, The RealReal sells consigned clothing, fine jewelry, watches, fine art and home decor. It employs an in-house staff of experts including horologists, gemologists, art curators and luxury fashion authenticators who inspect items for authenticity and value.

History

The RealReal was founded in 2011 by Julie Wainwright, an e-commerce entrepreneur. By July 2018, the company had raised $288 million in venture capital funding.
In 2017, The RealReal opened its first permanent retail store in New York City. It also opened pop-ups in San Francisco and Las Vegas. In 2018, it opened its second retail location in Los Angeles. In 2019, The RealReal opened a third retail location, its second in New York, on Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side. In 2020, The RealReal opened its fourth retail location in San Francisco’s Union Square.
In early 2019, the company announced it would be adding a half-million square foot e-commerce space in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, to its existing e-commerce centers in Secaucus, New Jersey, and Brisbane, California.
On May 31, 2019, The RealReal submitted a preliminary filing to the SEC to go public.
On June 28, 2019, The RealReal went public on Nasdaq under the symbol REAL.

Sustainability

In 2017, The RealReal announced a sustainability partnership with luxury fashion brand Stella McCartney. The partnership launched in 2018 and was extended through 2019.
It also established the first Monday in October as National Consignment Day, an annual holiday. The following year, to mark National Consignment day, The RealReal launched a custom sustainability calculator. Developed with environmental consulting firm Shift Advantage, it measures the environmental impact of consignments processed by the company. In 2019, the company marked National Consignment Day by launching a second sustainability partnership with luxury brand Burberry.