With tariffs expected to make the prices of some new clothing and handbags skyrocket, many consumers may be opting to shop secondhand instead. That could help one new resale shopping tool take off.
Phia is an online shopping tool co-founded by Phoebe Gates, the youngest daughter of Bill Gates, and Sophia Kianni, who roomed with Gates while they both attended Stanford. The tool, called Phia, which went live last Thursday, is basically “what Google Flights and Kayak and Booking.com do”—but for fashion, Kianni said. And yes, the name is a portmanteau of “Phoebe” and “Sophia.”
What exactly does Phia do? It’s an app and browser extension that promises to help users shopping for clothes online locate similar options, both new and secondhand, that are often less expensive. To make money, the company partners with retailers to offer up inventory, and then may earn a commission when users buy through Phia, a common model in the affiliate marketing world. Retail partners so far include Reformation, Abercrombie, and Prada.
We spoke to Kianni and Gates about Phia’s mission, how it’ll show up in the market, and how entrepreneurship itself factors into Phia’s branding and marketing.
The future is female
Kianni said the tool, which has attracted investors like Spanx founder Sara Blakely, Kris Jenner, and Joanne Bradford, the former president of the browser extension tool Honey, is designed to upend more traditional fashion marketing models by offering shoppers alternative options.
“So much of fashion is very ads-based and social media influencer–heavy right now, in terms of how these companies are promoting,” Kianni told Marketing Brew. “We really view this as a really disruptive opportunity to [work] the way that travel makes all their commissions and money off of affiliates by just recommending the best option to people.”
The triumphs and struggles of women founders are central to Phia’s narrative, and ahead of Phia’s debut, the brand tapped Kim Kardashian, who’s built an empire with her Skims brand, to film a teaser for the company. The teaser, which dropped in early April on Instagram, shows Kardashian cautioning Gates and Kianni over FaceTime to keep details of Phia under wraps. “You can’t just give them everything right now,” she tells the founders.
Social won’t just be used to keep up with the Kardashians, and Gates and Kianni are exploring using paid and organic ads, including joint posts with retail partners, to promote Phia, Kianni said.
Gates and Kianni are also promoting Phia on their podcast, The Burnouts with Phoebe and Sophia, which they debuted in March as part of entrepreneur Alex Cooper’s Unwell Network. The podcast touches on the ups and downs the duo are facing as they build Phia, and it also features other women entrepreneurs who come onto the podcast to offer advice. An episode, released on the same day that Phia rolled out, focuses on breaking down the tool and how it works. Phia’s investors are also showing up on the pod, including Jenner, who made an appearance earlier this month to talk about her learnings as an entrepreneur, and Blakeley, who is slated to appear in an upcoming episode.
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The idea behind the podcast is to showcase Gates and Kianni’s experiences early on, not after they’ve made it, Gates told Marketing Brew.
“We found that every time we’d go watch a founder podcast, there were so few that had female founders on it,” Gates said. “When there was someone who was a founder, it was always a victory lap. They had sold the company; they had IPO’d. We really wanted something where it was like, ‘Hey, where are the people who are in our stage?’”
A slice of the pie
The resale market is booming. The US secondhand apparel market grew 14% in 2024, according to a report from resale platform ThredUp. There are also companies that are aiming to do what Phia does. Beni, another woman-founded browser extension that rolled out in 2021, similarly allows consumers shopping for clothing online to see potentially less-expensive secondhand options.
Phia also joins a booming affiliate marketing space, which is not without its challenges. Earlier this year, the browser extensions Honey and Capital One Shopping were the subject of creator lawsuits and investigations alleging improper collection of affiliate revenue.
Still, some marketers and creators have leaned into other affiliate influencer marketing platforms like ShopMy and LTK as a performance channel, noting that affiliate metrics can provide tangible sales data informing brand deal negotiation.
Kianni said it was only a matter of time before the affiliate model came to the secondhand fashion space.
“The beauty of the affiliate model and the aggregation model is it forces better, more transparent pricing competition in a way that I really think that the flight and hotel industry has been on the forefront of,” she said. “It’s time to do that for fashion.”