Audience:
Open industry. All apparel and footwear industry professionals, regardless of AAFA membership, are encouraged to participate.
Description:
Returns, excess stock, and last season collections are increasingly shaping both profitability and sustainability outcomes. While the volume of unsold goods continues to grow, many brands still default to recycling or disposal - missing opportunities to recover value and extend product lifecycles.
A strategic approach to disposition is now essential. But building one requires more than just access to channels; it demands the right operational model, partner ecosystem, and decision-making framework to balance cost, control, and customer expectations.
In this session, our panel of industry experts will share how leading brands are approaching disposition differently - embedding value recovery into their post-purchase operations through intelligent routing, recommerce, and circularity strategies.
Join us to gain practical insights on how to structure your disposition network, select the right recovery pathways, and turn unsold and returned goods into a source of both commercial and environmental value.
Attendees of this webinar will learn:
- How to design a structured disposition strategy that balances margin recovery, brand protection, and sustainability goals across returns and unsold inventory.
- How to leverage recommerce, repair, and alternative channels to unlock value from returned and excess stock.
- To identify what networks and operational models are required to scale value recovery and turn returns into a measurable commercial and environmental opportunity.
Speakers:
Kaitlyn Paradise
Head of North America Operations
ReBound
Kaitlyn Paradise leads North America operations at ReBound, overseeing reverse logistics solutions for global retail brands. With over a decade of experience across B2B and DTC fulfilment networks, she specializes in optimizing complex supply chains and improving returns performance at scale. She works closely with brands to unlock value from returned and excess inventory while advancing more sustainable, circular approaches to returns and recovery.
Inge Baars
Head of Sustainability
ReBound
Inge Baars is Head of Sustainability at ReBound, where she leads the development and execution of sustainability strategy across global reverse logistics operations. She specializes in building circular supply chain solutions, driving the expansion of ReBound’s circularity network across recommerce, repair, rental, donation, and recycling. Her work focuses on helping brands reduce waste, recover value, and meet evolving regulatory requirements, including Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) initiatives.
Travis Smith
CEO & Co-Founder
Reflex Sales Group, Inc.
Travis Smith is CEO and Co-Founder of Reflex Sales Group, a global provider of excess inventory solutions for leading consumer brands. He specializes in helping brands strategically manage and redistribute surplus and returned inventory, maximizing value recovery while protecting brand equity and channel control. Through Reflex’s global distribution network, Travis works with retailers to move beyond traditional liquidation models, enabling more structured, brand-aligned resale strategies that optimize product lifecycle, improve transparency, and unlock greater value from surplus returns.
AAFA Host:
Conor O’Brien
Sustainability Policy Specialist
AAFA
Conor O'Brien joined AAFA's policy team in 2024 as its Sustainability Policy Coordinator after completing his Masters in Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia University. Prior to joining AAFA, Conor worked for several years with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Boston, where he engaged with RCRA compliance, state coordination, climate adaptation planning, and environmental justice application. Initially trained as a chemist at Princeton University, Conor combines scientific research with policy analysis and application to provide holistic approaches to sustainable resource usage in pursuit of a more circular economy. Conor supports the work of the AAFA Environmental Committee and AAFA Product Safety Council by engaging with public and private stakeholders on issues of sustainability, product safety, and chemical management germane to the apparel and footwear industry.
Unable to join on June 8?
Register for the webinar to receive an email containing the direct links to access the recording and the PDF version of the presentation. The email will be sent 1-3 business days after the webinar.
CONTACT | QUESTIONS
Stephanie Paendong