We piloted a test of our RUBY Matchmaker service from June 2020 - August 2022 which was extremely successful. Matchmaker is an online portal for our customers to tell us what previous season pieces they are looking for or looking to sell. This allowed us on the backend to match up the seller and buyer to exchange the item, encouraging our customers to re-sell their pre-loved garments, to keep them out of landfill.

Recognising nothing is ever perfect in this world, RUBY Upside Down celebrates the pieces that we’ve put a lot of love & care into, but somewhere in our production process a flaw or fault has occurred. We know these pieces are perfectly imperfect & can find a home with one of our Rubettes at a reduced price, with its quirk listed online. Prior to Upside Down’s launch in 2021, we would have often donated these pieces or kept them stored for a final season sale, so we love that Upside Down extends the value of these perfectly imperfect treasures.

In 2023 we were posed with the annual question of “What is RUBY doing for Black Friday?” For us as a business, it has never felt right for us to engage with it.

“We know that Black Friday does not come from Aotearoa AND it drives the type of consumption that is seriously harmful to our planet and people. But at the same time, we know that Black Friday can be a good opportunity for Rubettes on a tighter budget, or those who just love a sweet deal, to buy pieces that they may not have otherwise been able to.”

AND SO, came TAKE B_ACK FRIDAY with RUBY Says Recycle, a pilot scheme where Rubettes could bring back RUBY and Liam clothing they no longer wore into any RUBY store. RUBY Newmarket was cleared out of stock and replaced with all pre-loved RUBY + Liam pieces contributed by our Rubette community. The pilot was seriously successful. 2640 pieces were dropped off by 704 customers. The biggest voucher issued to one customer was $2391 and $70,434 worth of vouchers were issued.

Although we believe our RUBY + Liam pieces are made to be worn and kept forever, we recognise that like everything in this world, you can change, evolve and move on. We know that our Rubettes see the importance in circularity and extending the life of their clothing, alongside being excited at the possibility of shopping for a piece they thought they missed out on, at an even sweeter price.

So, in March 2024, we introduced SELL with RUBY Says Recycle, now an always-on scheme where Rubettes can bring back RUBY + Liam clothing they no longer wear into any RUBY store or to Slick Willy’s.

BUY with RUBY Says Recycle is the other side of our circular strategy ~ making it easy for you to shop RUBY Says Recycle, wherever you are. As an always-on part of our approach, these pieces are available to purchase from dedicated racks in select RUBY stores.

Following the success of our first pop up for Black Friday back in 2023, we wanted to give it another go, this time in it's own space and an iconic one in fact ~ the former Smith & Caughey’s site in Newmarket, and launched an online edit. We were open from November 2024 – February 2025.