Sara M. Rakstang, the founder of Repass, is no stranger to solving tough challenges across industries. From oil platforms to high fashion, her career has been defined by one thing: listening before building. Now, with Repass, she’s bringing a flexible transparency platform to the fashion, outdoor, and workwear industries — designed to fit the industry’s reality, not disrupt it with tech jargon.
After launching commercially last year, Repass is now expanding its flexible transparency platform to more brands across fashion, outdoor, and workwear — offering a tool that is simple to use, powerful under the hood, and built for a fast-changing market landscape.
We sat down with Sara to talk about the real needs of brands today — and why tech companies need to stop talking about tech.
You’ve said that tech companies need to stop talking about technology – and start talking about the real needs of the industry. Why do you think the fashion world has stopped listening to tech?
– Industrial decision-makers are busy and solution-oriented. If what you say doesn’t hit a real need immediately, they move on. Tech companies talk too much, and too often, they act like they know better than the industry itself. That’s absurd. In textiles, brands already understand their pain points better than any startup can. What they sometimes lack is a good tool. That’s where we come in — not to lecture, but to listen.
You’ve also said: “Don’t talk about digital product passports.” But isn’t that exactly what you’re building?
– We’ve learned from industry leaders across Europe — from luxury designers like Massimo Rigucci to circular sports initiatives like We Play Green. While luxury houses value emotional customer experiences, Nordic brands like Swix and BRAV are focused on regulatory compliance, resale, and operational improvements. Across the board, brands love what a digital pass can deliver — they just don’t want the tech jargon.
Your new platform centers on “flexible transparency.” What does that mean in practice?
– Compliance is the baseline, but flexibility is the future. Most solutions today assume every supplier has perfect IT systems. In reality, data is scattered across Excel files, emails, and old systems. Repass connects to whatever exists — without disrupting operations — and creates a dynamic, living view of your supply chain. No huge IT project needed. That’s what we mean by flexible transparency: meeting reality where it is, and still delivering future-proof results.
How do you introduce Repass to a brand that doesn’t care about NFCs, QR codes, or tech acronyms?
– We talk about green value generation, practical, scalable business growth tied to circular services. Imagine using resale, warranty, repair, and customer engagement not as side projects, but as integrated revenue streams connected to your CRM and PLM systems. It’s not about tech. It’s about making sustainability profitable, scalable, and directly tied to your brand’s performance.
You told a great story about a luxury designer who was completely uninterested – until you reframed the pitch around what he cared about. What did that moment teach you?
– The designer didn’t care about digital passes, he cared about his customers thanking him for beautiful, comfortable shoes. Once we showed how digital storytelling could connect him directly to his customers’ love and loyalty, everything changed. The lesson? Don’t sell the technology. Solve the real emotional and business needs.
You work with everything from Nordic workwear brands to Italian luxury houses. What have you learned from operating in such different fashion cultures?
– In Scandinavia, brands are focused on upcoming EU regulations. In Italy, luxury brands are more worried about existing export challenges to China and the US. But everywhere, the message is clear: Brands don’t want another ERP or IT platform. They want flexible tools that turn compliance into real business value, faster product cycles, stronger customer relationships, and better control of supply chains.
You’ve said the tool should have a name from the brand’s side, not the tech provider’s. Can you give an example of what that looks like?
– Luxury brands like Massimo Rigucci’s clients asked us to remove the term “digital passport” from the tool entirely. One client even branded it as a “carbon offset pass,” tied to their sustainability initiatives. The point is: it’s not about our name for the tool — it’s about how the brand embeds it into their identity and customer journey.
Why are you launching Repass now – and why are you starting with workwear and outdoor brands?
– Workwear and outdoor brands already deal with complex value chains and strict material regulations. They’re pragmatic, operationally strong, and facing real deadlines with upcoming legislation. If we can help them create value from compliance — faster, cheaper, and smarter — we’ll prove the model for the rest of the industry.
You’ve worked on oil platforms and across multiple industries. How has that shaped the way you approach leadership and listening in the fashion world?
– Working on oil platforms taught me one thing: no solution is real unless it works in the field. Sitting behind a desk and guessing doesn’t help anyone. You need to listen, adapt, and build tools with the industry – not for it. That principle has guided my entire career, and it’s at the heart of how we built Repass.
If you could say one thing to every Nordic fashion brand right now – what would it be?
– Stop thinking of transparency as a burden. Start seeing it as a business advantage — a tool for better strategic planning, operational execution for export, next-generation customer experience, loyalty, and storytelling within retail and circularity. In a nutshell: growth. Done right, transparency isn’t compliance. It’s competitive edge.
Repass is partnering with Scandinavian MIND on the upcoming Transformation Talks in Borås. Sign up using the link below.
