IN THE PRESS
Excess Inventory Doesn’t Have to Be Waste
California Apparel News asked fashion-sustainability leaders what gives them hope for a cleaner industry. Max Retail Co-Founder & CEO Melodie van der Baan shared where she sees the real opportunity, and a customer backed it up from their own experience.
California Apparel News · July 17, 2026
OUR POINT OF VIEW
“Overproduction is fashion’s quietest sustainability crisis.”
— Melodie van der Baan, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Max Retail
Every season, independent retailers and brands end up over-indexed on merchandise that just sits, in stockrooms, in liquidation channels, or, too often, landfills. That’s the exact problem Max Retail was built to solve: connecting brick-and-mortar retailers and brands to a global e-commerce network so excess inventory finds a home with shoppers who actually want it, and sellers earn real payouts instead of writing the goods off. Looking ahead, Melodie sees the bigger opportunity even further upstream, catching overstock while it’s still in-season, before it ages out, and giving retailers SKU-level data to make smarter markdowns, demand forecasting and buying decisions from the start. It’s the direction she’s committed to taking Max Retail next.
PROOF IN PRACTICE
Brands are already seeing it work
California Apparel News asked fashion-sustainability leaders what’s giving them hope right now, one response named Max Retail directly.
“They’re making that process both accessible and effective.”
— Yoonho Cha, Marketing Director, Like Dreams, on working with Max Retail
