Every third complaint, repaired
Pitaya
Pitaya is a Danish fashion brand founded on 11 June 2019 by the siblings Mads Thomsen and Ida Marie Thomsen, aimed primarily at women aged 16 to 30. Where most of the industry exchanges or discards a faulty garment because that is cheapest in the short term, Pitaya repairs it. In Q2 2026, 33% of all complaints were handled through repair rather than exchange — and the item was saved from being thrown away.
A young Danish brand, growing fast
Pitaya was founded in 2019 by siblings Mads Thomsen and Ida Marie Thomsen and has grown quickly ever since. A few years ago the brand handled 45,000 online orders a year; in 2025 it was 94,000. Over the same period Pitaya went from one physical store to five, and today around 52 people work in the company. Alongside the Danish home market, Pitaya is expanding into Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden.
Repair instead of exchange
In the fashion industry, a defective or returned item is usually exchanged or discarded, simply because that is the cheapest option in the short term. Together with Create2STAY, Pitaya has turned that logic around: in Q2 2026, 33% of all complaints were resolved with a repair rather than an exchange, and every one of those items stayed in use instead of being thrown away.
We're not sustainable, and the worst thing I could imagine being accused of is that this is an attempt at greenwashing. But somebody has to go first and try to create change. We want to be the brand that's known for having done it.
Head of Marketing, Pitaya / Nordic Fashion Stores ApS
How it works, on two levels
First, defective and returned items are repaired and put back on sale at around 50% of the original price, so a garment that would otherwise have been written off earns money instead. Second, customers who make a complaint about a faulty item get it repaired by a local tailor rather than simply being handed a replacement or a refund. The piece they already chose comes back to them, whole.
Sensible business, not a green campaign
A repair costs Pitaya an average of DKK 62.50. That is what makes the initiative profitable rather than a sustainability nice-to-have: repairing is cheaper than writing the item off, and the repaired piece can be sold again. Pitaya is explicit that this is not a sustainability claim — it is good, sensible business, and a revival of an older repair culture.
Most of the time, a repair is just a button that's fallen off or a seam that's come undone. In the old days it would simply have gone to a tailor and been fixed in no time. That's the culture we want to support and bring back to life.
Head of Marketing, Pitaya / Nordic Fashion Stores ApS
The goal: half of all complaints repaired
Pitaya has publicly committed to raising the share of complaints resolved by repair from 33% to 50% by the end of 2027. Someone has to go first — and Pitaya wants to be the brand that did.