My clothes wouldn't fit in my new flat - so I invented Vinted

“Oh my god, I have so much stuff...”

Ever looked around your room and felt like this? Stuff piling up on every surface, spilling out of wardrobes and drawers?

For Milda Mitkutė her mountain of clothing became a real problem, as it does for many of us, when she had to move flat.

“I counted about 300 items in total, I mean shoes, dresses, skirts, trousers, jeans and everything. I realised I can take only 100 because my new closet in my new apartment is like three times smaller!”

What happened next led to the creation of a billion dollar business and Lithuania’s first ever - known in the UK as Vinted.

The app now has over 16 million users in the UK alone and the chances are if you buy or sell clothes online you will have come across it.

How do you go from too many clothes to a billion dollar business?

Well, instead of doing what many of us do and simply trying to cram in one more jumper, 21-year-old Milda saw the potential for clearing out and cashing in.

In 2008, around the same time as the flat move, Milda was at a party and got chatting to an old friend, Justas Janauskas. She told him about her problem and a potential solution - to sell her unwanted clothes and shoes online.

Milda explained to BBC World Service show Witness History that when she first told Justas about her idea he was unsure people would have enough stuff to sell.

“I was actually super convinced that every girl has the same issue as I do, Justas was totally the opposite.”

To settle it the pair did some quick-fire market research - they asked the other guests at the party.

In a matter of minutes Justas was convinced that Milda’s plan to create an online space for buying and selling old clothes could actually be a winner.

“It was like boom... we even forgot to develop the button for ‘I want to buy this item’”

When the duo next met, they gave their project the name ‘manodrabužiai’ with 'mano' meaning ‘mine’ in Lithuanian, and ‘drabužiai’ meaning ‘clothing’.

Things moved quickly, and within a fortnight they had created a website. That initial site was far from perfect, with hindsight Milda said she would have done things differently:

“If I would do it now I would expect to be more professional. Like maybe we should invest into design, we should think about what members want, what kind of features it should have. At that time, you know, the key thing was we just want to launch it, and for it to be live. That’s it.”

Milda said they were in such a hurry to get the site up they actually forgot to include a key part of any online marketplace - a button for “buy”.

Thankfully some eagle-eyed friends did notice the obvious flaw and with Justas’s coding skills, it wasn’t long before the “buy” button was added and people could begin purchasing some of Milda’s unwanted clothing. She sold 40 of her own items in the first week!

“You don’t realise what you have created”

Word of mouth helped the site gain in popularity and by 2009 Milda found herself being interviewed by local radio stations and news outlets.

What happened next involved a chance encounter with some German couch surfers who persuaded Milda and Justas to launch their site in Germany.

The German name was ‘kleiderkreisel.dt’. ‘Kleider’ means ‘clothes’ in German and ‘kreisel’ literally means ‘spinning top’ or ‘roundabout’. Milda explained that together the phrase means clothes circle.

The German launch was a success and from there what we now know as Vinted really began to take shape.

Vinted is one of a number of platforms that have caught on with shoppers in recent years, including DePop based in the UK and ThredUp in the US. These sites are eating into eBay's original dominance of the second-hand clothing market, appealing particularly to younger shoppers.

Four facts about the app that tries to cut down on fast-fashion.

What is Vinted? - It’s an online marketplace app that lets customers buy and sell unwanted clothes and other items.

Who can sell items on Vinted? - Anyone. It is intended for people aged over 18, but parents/guardians can set up accounts for younger sellers.

What can you sell on Vinted? - Vinted have strict rules on what you can and cannot sell, but on a recent look we’ve seen everything from trainers to tiaras, comics, coins and even some confetti from a Billie Eilish concert.

Does it cost money to sell on Vinted? - Nope, there are no fees for sellers, unless you’re looking to use the app’s paid for promotions. All the usual things like postage and service fees are covered by the buyer!

“It was a disaster... we have seven or eight months to survive”

Milda’s ambition to tackle the world of fast fashion and it’s environmental impacts wasn’t all plain sailing.

A few years after their initial launch, the company added a commission fee to all sales on the site, Milda said it was “one of the biggest mistakes we did in Vinted’s history”.

The attempt to collect a share of any sale did not go down well.

“It was a disaster… our word of mouth, our organic growth it was instantly almost zero. We had that time in 2016 where we said we have seven or eight months to survive,” Milda explained.

Milda and the team rode out the storm, lead by the now Vinted CEO, Thomas Plantenga. He scrapped the commission fee and convinced the team to try advertising on TV. Buyers and sellers clearly approved with more and more people using the app once again.

In 2019, Vinted became Lithuania’s first unicorn. In 2023, it made it's first profit. Not bad for a company that started as a result of just one person having too many clothes.

“I am proud of... what we did”

Milda no longer works for the company, but it’s something she and her young family turn to often.

“We have some rules in our home - if the kids want some plastic things it should come from Vinted,” she explained.

For Milda it’s all about the hope that her children and the rest of society “can live in a green world”.

But how much are apps and websites like Vinted helping cut down the environmental impact of fast fashion? There is a lot to read on that topic, but as Milda said:

“People that I talk to, they say ‘I got used to selling everything, that I can’t even think about throwing them out.’ This is shift we made… I’m proud of this shift that we are creating and what we did.”

Tips for selling online

If Milda’s story has inspired you to try and sell some of your own stuff online, we’ve scoured the web for some handy top tips, including this article featuring tips from a pro online seller:

• Use social media: Sharing pictures of what you want to sell on apps such as Instagram means extra views and hopefully buyers.

• Compare: If you can't decide how much to sell a piece of clothing for, check out what other people are charging for similar items.

• Good lighting: Make sure you show the clothing you want to sell in clear lighting. Don't be afraid to point out flaws in the garment - people want to know what they're buying.

• Bundle cheaper items: People like to buy in bulk so think about popping similar items into bundles.

• Show the original price. Think about detailing how much you bought the item, it might let people know they are getting a bargain.

• Display the items being worn on someone. Some people do this wearing the clothes themselves, but one seller recently hit the headlines by using a giant toy bear. This can help people see how an item fits.

Milda Mitkutė was speaking to Rachel Naylor as part of the BBC World Service’s ‘Witness History’ series, you can listen to the interview, and others in full here.

This article was published in September 2025.