We’re proud to share that Utilitarian’s European launch has been featured by Invest in Holland, the official platform of the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency (NFIA). Their story highlights our journey from Australia to Europe and the importance of ecosystems in accelerating circular retail innovation.
Circularity Needs Ecosystems
Circular retail doesn’t succeed in isolation. It thrives when government, innovators, and retailers work together to design systems that make the right thing the easy thing. Our landing in Rotterdam was supported by NFIA, Invest in Holland, Rotterdam Partners, and InnovationQuarter. Their introductions and guidance turned a soft landing into real commercial traction in just a few months.
Partnerships Making Circular Retail Real
Local partners are the backbone of our first steps in Europe:
FastFeetGrinded – operating the world’s only dedicated shoe recycling machine, they set a global benchmark for circular innovation.
Runnersworld – the Dutch running specialist that has collected more than 100,000 pairs of worn-out shoes since 2016. Their new Eindhoven concept store, built with 22,000 recycled pairs, shows how retail design, recycling, and customer engagement can come together.
Together, we’ve introduced Europe’s first digital return registration for shoes. Every item returned is now visible, traceable, and linked to customer engagement — turning anonymous bins into customer connection, compliance-ready data, and measurable ROI.
Why Rotterdam, Why Now
Rotterdam offers a unique mix of innovation, pragmatism, and global retail presence. With policy alignment on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), and the upcoming Digital Product Passport (DPP), the Netherlands is the ideal hub to scale practical circular solutions.
Looking Ahead
Launching in Rotterdam is more than opening a new office. It’s a statement about how circularity should scale: through ecosystems, partnerships, and shared infrastructure. From our base in the Netherlands, we are onboarding partners across Europe with a goal of scaling to 100+ store locations in the next year.
By 2027, our aim is to help retailers enable millions of traceable returns, reward customers for sustainable behaviour, and make compliance effortless through data-driven systems.
Tim Lee founded Utilitarian to solve a challenge he saw again and again — brands and retailers wanting to meet their sustainability goals, but missing the connection with the customers who could help them get there. Starting in Australia and now based in the Netherlands, Tim has spent years learning how to make the “right thing” the easy thing, building systems that turn product returns into loyalty, measurable impact, and real data. He’s passionate about working with the system, not against it, and believes the circular economy only works when everyone — customers, brands, and the planet — wins.
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