Bang & Olufsen
Bang & Olufsen Reloved: the classics move into the stores
Bang & Olufsen is taking Reloved, its certified pre-owned programme, into selected stores across Europe, with graded originals and a warranty of up to three years.
Illustration: Bang & Olufsen
Some objects outlast the fashion they were born into, and a good part of the Bang & Olufsen catalogue belongs in that category. Reloved, the Danish brand's certified pre-owned programme, has so far lived online, in monthly drops. Now it is moving into the shops.
In its next chapter, Bang & Olufsen is making selected Reloved products available in select stores across Europe. Each participating store introduces its own selection, and that selection keeps changing. The latest availability can be checked on the Bang & Olufsen website before a visit, so the pieces can be discovered and judged in person rather than on a screen.
What Reloved actually is
Reloved sells authenticated, refurbished Bang & Olufsen products. Every piece passes through inspection, refurbishment and certification by Bang & Olufsen itself before it is offered to a new owner. Each one is graded by condition as Mint, Excellent or Good, which makes the description transparent, and each comes with a warranty of up to three years.
The monthly global drops continue online alongside the stores, each bringing together a changing selection of certified and refurbished originals. Earlier drops have included turntables such as the Beogram 5500 and the Beogram 2000 and portable speakers like the Beoplay P2: a way to bring a piece of the brand's design history back into a living room.
The exchange that feeds the archive
The store programme adds a second movement, which Bang & Olufsen calls its upgrade journey. At participating stores, clients can trade selected eligible Bang & Olufsen products towards the purchase of a new one. The returned piece then enters Reloved, where it is inspected, refurbished and certified before it is made available to its next owner. One client moves forward; another discovers an original from the company's past.
Reloved is about looking forward as much as it is about preserving what we have created.
Dorte Vestergaard, Head of Reloved at Bang & OlufsenVestergaard describes the step into the stores as an important one: it allows more clients to discover these products and to experience the world of Reloved for themselves.
Why collectors should pay attention
For anyone who collects design, the value of a programme like this is provenance. A turntable or a speaker bought through Reloved has been checked by the company that made it, carries a stated condition grade and a warranty, and arrives with a record of what was done to it. That is a different proposition from an anonymous listing with three blurred photographs.
There is also a century of material to draw on. Bang & Olufsen was founded in 1925 in Struer, Denmark, by Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen, and the products that come back through the exchange will keep the selection moving from month to month.
