Our story / about us

Pleasant, we are Amy and Fred, the proud owners of Ecogents. The store for second-hand brand and vintage clothing for men.

How it started: the beginning of ecogents

After we started living together in 2018 and there was too little cupboard space (or Fred had too much clothing), Amy came up with the idea of ​​selling that extra clothing at Marktplaats. Soon something was regularly sold and so we slowly came up with the idea of ​​selling designer clothing and vintage clothing for men alone.

In the beginning only online via Marktplaats, but soon more demand came and wanted people to come and fit the clothing calmly. In this way we decided to look for a nice space that could be used as a storage as well as as a small showroom and fitting room.

2018: Showroom in Moergestel

After some searching, we came across a nice upper space in Moergestel on the Industrieweg in the former gallery 'De Floor' 'in August 2018. After a lot of renovation and especially a lot of lugging, we proudly opened ecogents in December 2018. 

There we started to sell more and more online and more and more people came by to fit and view the clothing. After a great year in Moergestel, there was more often and more often the suggestion to give it a try in a store. This since the building in Moergestel is located on an industrial estate and people could only visit by appointment.

2019: The store on the Westermarkt in Tilburg

In 2019 we decided to take the leap and focus entirely on ecogents by both working full -time for our sustainable men's fashion store. Because we live in Tilburg and also wanted to open our physical store here, we started looking for a suitable location. After much research and conversations with various real estate agents, we finally found a beautiful building in the covered shopping center Westermarkt in Tilburg.

The building was previously used by the men's clothing store Adam Brandstore and turned out to be perfect for our own store. The location was ideal because of the good accessibility and the fact that it is in a busy shopping center. Moreover, the building was already largely furnished as a clothing store, so that we could quickly transform the space into our own 'real' store.

We were very enthusiastic to share our passion for sustainable men's fashion with our customers. It was a big step to work both full -time for ecogents and to open a physical store, but we believed in our vision and were determined to offer our customers high -quality second -hand and vintage men's clothing, which is not only sustainable but also affordable.

In November 2019 we had our opening weekend there and, despite all the Corona setbacks, the store has turned out to be a great success so far. From all over the Netherlands and Belgium we now get many enthusiastic men (and women) in our cozy store.

2020: The construction of your own webshop: www.ecogents.com

Since the opening of our store on the Westermarkt, we have had to deal with the consequences of the Coronapandemie, including lockdowns and measures that negatively influenced our sales. To be less dependent on external platforms such as Marktplaats and Vinted, we decided in November 2020 to set up our own webshop. This not only gave us more control over our sales process, but also enabled us to generate income during the temporary closure of our physical store.

We are pleased to say that the launch of our webshop has been a great success. Every day we ship packages throughout the Netherlands, Belgium and the rest of Europe. We are very grateful for the support of our customers, both in the physical store and online.

 

Present and future of ecogents

And despite all the Corona setbacks and the fact that we had to build up brand awareness in this difficult period for everyone, we are still there! And with confidence in the future of our unique shop.

In today's society, there are more and more people who find sustainability and environmental consciousness important and actively strive for this. Ecogents takes a unique position in this area as a store that focuses on sustainable and ethically responsible men's fashion. This can certainly contribute to future growth and the success Ecogents.

We also have this trust mainly thanks to you: our fantastic, fun, cozy, funny, sweet, loyal and growing clientele.

For the time being we are certainly not finished with our story and hope to see you all often on the Westermarkt or online in the webshop!

Greetings,

Fred & Amy