After first setting up shop in Pesthidegkút, an outer district of Buda, Swappis relocated to Raoul Wallenberg street this autumn. Tünde Fritzson-Bajdor, the owner and creator of Swappis moved to Sweden in 2005, completed a master programme in sustainable development at Uppsala University spending six months as an intern at the Sustainable Fashion Academy in Stockholm. She invented the business model based on clothing swap when still in Sweden, opening her first Swappis in the city centre of Uppsala. After moving back to Hungary with her family, she started her business in Hungary as well, in May 2018.

The model ‘Select/Hand in/Collect tokens/Shop again’ reaches out to people who are not very much interested in green ideas.

Everybody is welcome to look around and shop in the shop but club members can buy clothes at half price. Membership is open to people who register and hand in clothes. Swappis only accepts clothes and accessories still in wearable condition and gives tokens in return which can be used to get a 50% discount from the products in the shop.

They only accept clothes that are seasonal, e.g. winter or summer clothes, are clean, undamaged and trendy but are not worn by their original owners any more.

Unsold clothes are donated and delivered to the appropriate establishments.

The shop staff are happy to talk about their activities emphasizing sustainability.

Their Facebook page often includes comments like the ones below:

‘Have you ever thought about how many different things are needed for your newest piece of clothing to be produced? And that’s not all as the manufacturing process includes the release of lots of harmful substances into rivers and the air. And what is more, unused clothes end up in dumpsters most of the time...

Choose used instead of new and you can help protect environment!’