These UD students launched a startup to give new life to that old pair of ripped up jeans

Who doesn’t love a great pair of jeans? University of Delaware students Morgan Young and Greg Harder are doing their part to help consumers hold on to their favorite pair a bit longer.
The duo are cofounders of AndAgain, a company that specializes in upcycled denim. The pair aims to give new life to vintage and secondhand jeans.
Young, a junior majoring in apparel design, said the idea for the company came about after she spoke with several members of the fashion industry and kept hearing the same concerns.
“One constant thing everyone looks for in denim is sustainability,” she explained. “I started thinking this is something I could do. But it wasn’t until I interned with [clothing designer] Rebecca Taylor and got such great feedback from people I considered to be potential customers, that I decided to do it.”
When it was time to decide on a name, they chose AndAgain because it represented what the company is about: prolonging the life of a pair of jeans. AndAgain was also appealing because it has the ability to be about more than just denim.
“[AndAgain] is not specific to denim,” Young said. “So if we want to branch out and include other products in the future, we can do that.”
Young said AndAgain is part of the designer denim market. The average price point for a pair of jeans is $135.
While she would compare AndAgain to the luxury denim brand RE/DONE, because both focus on sustainability, she notes that one major difference (other than price point) is that AndAgain does not alter the fit of the jeans.
“We try not to mess with the fit, instead we advance the design,” she said.
There are two ways customers can get jeans from AndAgain. They can choose one of the pre-designed styles offered on the site. After which, Young and Harder will source the perfect pair needed to create the look, paying close attention to size, wash and fit. Or customers can personalize their pair. With this option, clients tell Young and Harder what they are looking for, and they work hand in hand to design the jeans.
The most popular style, Progression, which features side cut outs and lighter-wash panels, looks perfect for spring.
While most customers leave it to the AndAgain team to find the denim, some do send in their own jeans to be worked on. These customers receive 50 percent off.
“Sometimes people contact us and tell us they have a pair of jeans that ripped, but they don’t want to throw them away,” Young said. “They send them to us, and we create a new pair  for them.”
Although Harder, a double major in finance and marketing, does not have much fashion experience, Young said he is quite helpful with the design process.
“Everything we do is collaborative,” she said. ” There are no strict roles. He is learning a lot about fashion, and I am learning a lot about business.”
Young and Harder are in the midst of making the AndAgain site more interactive and fun for users.
“We are working with a web designer on a feature similar to NikeiD, so customers can go on the site and personalize their jeans,” Young said. “We want to help the customer have a bit more fun.”
Young said one of the most inspiring moments she had so far was being featured in Boulevard Magazine, a publication in British Columbia.
“We were contacted by a celebrity stylist from Canada, about one month after our official launch. We worked with her to personalize a pair of jeans and she put us in the magazine,” Young said. “It was cool that she believed in us enough to put us in this magazine she’s a contributor for. It was then that we thought, ‘We might be on to something.'”
As of now, Young and Harder work out of their apartments or the design studio at the university. They are looking for a permanent workspace and hope to expand their team this summer.
“I don’t see us stopping anytime soon,” Young said.