About Upsized CIC
A circular wardrobe for growing families across the UK – and a new way to turn outgrown clothes into community good
Upsized CIC is a community children’s clothing exchange and circular fashion platform for families across the UK. We help households save money, cut textile waste, and unlock funding for projects that support children, families, and communities – all by giving outgrown clothes a meaningful second life.
Who we are
Upsized is a Community Interest Company (CIC) built to make family life a little easier – especially when children are growing quickly and budgets are under pressure. We exist to create a more affordable, sustainable way for families across the UK to pass on clothes they no longer need and access the next size up.
What we do
We run a children’s clothing exchange platform designed for families across the UK. Parents and carers pass on children’s clothes they no longer need, receive digital tokens in return, and use those tokens to choose great-quality items in the next size up. Alongside the exchange itself, Upsized is building a wider community model that turns everyday decluttering into practical family support and wider social impact.
Who it’s for
Upsized is for families across the UK with babies, children, or young teens – whether you want to save money, live more sustainably, reduce waste, or simply clear space at home without sending good clothing to landfill.
How Upsized fits together
Upsized is built around a simple loop:
- Families pass on clean, good-condition children’s clothing they no longer need.
- Items are reviewed, quality-checked and organised so the experience feels straightforward, fair, and trustworthy.
- Contributors receive digital tokens that reflect what they’ve added.
- Those tokens can then be used to access the next sizes their children need.
- A small trade fee and optional tier top-ups help cover costs and grow our Community Impact Fund.
If you’d like the step-by-step version, including what we accept and how tokens work, have a look at How Upsized Works.
At a glance
- ✔ A simple children’s clothing exchange for families across the UK
- ✔ Digital tokens as a thank-you for contributing
- ✔ Great-quality children’s clothes kept in use for longer
- ✔ Simple fees that keep things affordable and fair
- ✔ A growing Community Impact Fund for projects that benefit children, families, and communities
Start your clothing exchangeRead how it works in detail
Why Upsized exists: from waste to shared value
Children grow fast. Across the UK, huge amounts of perfectly wearable children’s clothing are discarded or pushed into low-value recycling every year. At the same time, many families are dealing with rising living costs and tighter household budgets.
Upsized connects these two realities. Instead of treating outgrown clothes as waste, we treat them as a shared resource with real value. Each contribution helps:
- Cut carbon and landfill by keeping garments in use for longer.
- Ease pressure on family budgets by replacing repeated retail spending with a simpler exchange model.
- Build a community fund that can support projects and initiatives with real social value.
Our goal is that every bag of clothes passed through Upsized does more than just free up space – it helps another family, reduces waste, and contributes to visible, practical benefits beyond the wardrobe itself.
The bigger picture
The fashion industry is responsible for an estimated 8–10% of global carbon emissions. Children’s clothing is a major part of that challenge: items are often worn for only a short period before being outgrown.
By keeping good-quality garments in circulation for longer, Upsized helps slow the flow of textiles into landfill and shows, in a practical way, what a lower-waste, family-friendly model can look like at national scale.
The Upsized Community Impact Fund
Upsized is not a traditional charity shop. As a CIC, we ring-fence a portion of income from trade fees, top-ups, and £10/month supporter memberships into a dedicated Community Impact Fund.
Over time, supporters and active families will help shape how that fund is used. Projects might include:
- Children’s and family support initiatives in communities across the UK.
- Practical clothing support for families facing hardship.
- Small grants for community groups working with children and young people.
- Sustainability and reuse projects delivered with schools or local organisations.
The exact projects will evolve over time, but one thing is fixed: any surplus created by Upsized is locked into community benefit and cannot be taken as private profit.
Voting on what we fund next
Supporters will be able to vote in regular funding rounds on which projects we prioritise next. The live voting tool is still in development, but a typical round might look like:
- • 42% – Family clothing support programme
- • 28% – Community grants for children’s activities
- • 18% – School sustainability and reuse project
- • 12% – Emergency clothing support fund
Figures above are illustrative only. In future, this panel will show a real-time snapshot from our live impact voting tool.
Explore the impact pageTake part in future votes
Tokens, trade fees and keeping things fair
We use a token system to keep exchanging simple and fair. When you contribute clothing, we issue tokens that roughly match the value and quality of what you’ve added. A £7 trade fee helps unlock the exchange and contributes to the running of the platform and the wider impact model.
Clothing is grouped into tiers (for example: supermarket, high street, sports brand, designer). If you want to move up a tier with a particular item, there’s a small top-up so the system remains balanced for everyone:
- Moving up one tier – £9
- Two tiers – £9 + £14
- Three tiers – £9 + £14 + £19
Most families simply pay the £7 trade fee and exchange within their token tier. The top-ups are there for occasional special pieces, while helping us recognise quality and keep the system fair.
Affordability first
Upsized is designed so that exchanging is always more affordable than repeatedly buying equivalent items new. If cost is ever a barrier, please speak to us in confidence; we want the model to remain genuinely useful to the families who need it most.
How Upsized is run
As a Community Interest Company, Upsized is legally required to operate for community benefit. Any surplus is reinvested into improving the service, strengthening the exchange model, supporting delivery, and funding community projects – not paid out as private profit to shareholders.
We aim to be transparent about how funds are used. Over time, we plan to publish:
- Simple summaries of income and costs.
- Annual snapshots of how the Community Impact Fund has been spent.
- Stories from families and projects that have benefitted.
Our decisions are shaped by real family needs, practical feedback, and the wider goal of building a more affordable and sustainable children’s clothing model across the UK. If you’d like to be involved in shaping the project, we’d love to hear from you.
Support, volunteer or partner with us
- Become a £10/month supporter and help Upsized grow its reach and impact – see our supporter options via Subscribe.
- Volunteer to support future operations, family outreach, or community initiatives linked to the project.
- Partner with us as a school, community group, charity, or values-led business that wants to support children’s clothing reuse and wider social impact.
Reach us via the contact page if you’d like to chat about any of these.
What next?
Whether you’re passing on a single bag of baby clothes or clearing out sizes your children have already flown through, you’re part of something bigger: a practical, more sustainable way for families across the UK to help one another while reducing waste.
- Sort a bag of clean, good-condition children’s clothing.
- Start your exchange and follow the next steps.
- Receive your tokens once your contribution has been reviewed.
- Use those tokens to access the next sizes your family needs.
- If you’re able, consider becoming a £10/month supporter so we can help more families across the UK.
Thank you for being part of Upsized. Together, we can turn outgrown clothes into opportunity, reduce waste, and create meaningful community benefit at a national scale.