People love to say, “build what people need.” But what if they don’t know what’s possible yet? Henry Ford famously said that if he had asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for a faster horse. Instead, he built a car. Same with Steve Jobs. Nobody asked for an iPhone. They just wanted a better BlackBerry. He didn’t build what people were requesting. He built what they would eventually realize they couldn’t live without. That’s what RETRO//VRS is for us.
A new frame for what resale can be.
I didn’t build RETRO//VRS because authentication was broken. I built it because luxury resale deserved more. More than receipts that fade. On resale platforms, it's all about transactions. You sell it, it's reset to zero, and the history of whatever you owned is gone. Platforms optimize for volume. Sellers exit, buyers move on. Some "fixes" focus on superficial signals, e.g. symbolic add-ons. Sustainability layered on top of incentives that never really change.
I didn’t build it because people ask for royalties, transparency, or proof on the blockchain.
More than badges that don’t mean anything.
More than a single payout and a shrug.
We wanted to change how value actually moves.
Instead of making resale more efficient, we reimagined the value chain itself. Most resale platforms are built around transactions. Every item on RETRO//VRS carries a living record of ownership. Not a static certificate. Not a badge. A record that evolves over time, tracking where the item has been, who has owned it, and how value flows as it moves forward. That distinction matters.
RETRO//VRS is built around ownership continuity.
We didn’t assume we were right. We did the work. User interviews. Surveys. Store visits. DMs. Late-night Zooms. We partnered with NYU, where RETRO//VRS became a full semester case study. The value wasn’t visibility. It was validated insight. The research confirmed something we already felt: people weren’t asking for something new because they didn’t know it was possible. But once they saw it, they wanted it.
But because it felt fair.
We didn’t build a marketplace. A circular resale market, designed as an ecosystem.
We built an ecosystem.
Where every seller is a stakeholder.
Where every bag carries a living record of ownership.
Where value doesn’t end at the point of sale, it compounds over time.
Most platforms are still chasing logistics.
Faster shipping.
Cleaner filters.
Another way to list or pay.
That’s fine. But that’s the faster horse.
What we built is a protocol for provenance. Ownership as a living record. Resale where history earns. A system designed for long-term value, not short-term transactions.
The truth is, no one asked for this. No one said, “I wish I could keep earning from the bag I sold years ago.” What they didn’t have words for was lifetime royalties, value that continues to flow back to previous owners as an item circulates. That’s visionary product. Not solving what exists. So no, we didn’t build a faster horse. We built RETRO//VRS. And once you ride with us, there’s no going back.
No one said, “I want to see the authentication certificate before it’s listed.”
No one said, “I want ownership to behave more like equity.”
Showing people what could.
