Raleigh upcycling company created by NCSU student sees uptick in business during COVID-19 pandemic

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- Raleigh based Reborn Clothing has only been around since 2017. It was an idea for then NCSU sophomore, Emily Neville.

"I was actually a political science major with a French minor, but don't quiz me on that," said Neville, Reborn Clothing's CEO and Founder.

"I just fell in love with textiles and I was upcycling things growing up as a kid and fell back into it and wanted to do it on a massive scale," she added.

Since that idea, Neville has grown her company into a brand with several employees upcycling items for individual customers and corporate partnerships.

"We started with consumer upcycling basically anyone as an individual can send in clothing from the back of their closet, whether it's college t-shirts or your grandfather's favorite flannel, or kind of whatever you want to do," Neville said.

"And in a two-week window of time, we make it into a product and ship it back to them. We work with over 70 universities. We also work with textile brands like Delta Airlines, Red Bull, it really runs the full gamut," she added.

Amid the pandemic, with so many events canceled, Neville says corporations have been calling to have Reborn Clothing upcycle their surplus.

"Diehard is one of our house accounts," Neville explained. "And, from an event that was canceled earlier this year because of COVID-19, they had an excess amount of 7,000 t-shirts so they sent those t-shirts to us to upcycle, and we upcycled them into masks that were used for their specific University accounts that they are tapped into."

"We continue to grow organically really quickly, even during this, you know, obviously unprecedented year, to be able to really solve this problem in a way that no one else is doing."