Most people who are frustrated with an industry complain about it. Klaus Buchroithner did something different.
Growing up in Eferding, a small town in Upper Austria, Klaus took over his parents’ skate shop as a teenager. What he found there changed the direction of his career. Big brands dictated how much he could order, what he had to stock each season, and what he had to send back. Meanwhile the people who actually made the clothes in Asia were paid next to nothing, and customers were paying high prices for low quality. “This must be possible differently,” he thought. And then he went and proved it.
That frustration became Vresh, now one of the more compelling Austrian clothing brands to emerge from the country’s independent fashion scene.
The Name and the Mission
The V in Vresh stands for Value. Not in the discount sense, but in the deeper sense: valuing the people who make the clothes, valuing the materials, valuing the customer’s time and money. That principle runs through everything the brand does.
The tagline is simple: timeless fashion, fair made in Portugal. No seasonal trend-chasing, no outsourced production in low-wage countries, no middlemen inflating prices along the way.
From Skate Brand to Sustainable Label
Vresh launched in 2012 as a streetwear label, still rooted in the skate and music scene Klaus knew from his shop. But the sustainability piece came later. In 2017 Klaus traveled to Portugal on an Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme, spending time inside the factories, understanding production processes, building real relationships with producers. That trip changed the brand permanently.
Today the entire production chain happens within 50 kilometers in northern Portugal: from fabric weaving and dyeing to cutting, sewing, and finishing. No intermediaries. That allows Vresh to pay producers up to 20 percent above average wages while keeping prices accessible for customers.
Michaela Geiseder joined in 2017 to take charge of design, marketing, and product development. She became a co-founder in 2020. Her background was not in fashion but in product design, and that outside perspective shaped how Vresh thinks about its products: as things people actually use every day, not just things that look good on a rack.
The Product: Basics That Last
Vresh makes timeless basics. T-shirts, hoodies, knitwear, trousers. No loud graphics, no trend-driven collections. The focus is on fit, material quality, and durability. Several customers on Trustpilot mention wearing the same Vresh pieces for years without them losing shape or feel. One reviewer described their pieces as new favorite items after just one order. Another had been buying from Vresh for years and called the quality extraordinary even after repeated washing.
With 69 Trustpilot reviews averaging 4 stars and 784 reviews on Reviews.io averaging 4.8 stars, the product clearly earns its reputation. That kind of score across two platforms is hard to fake. This is exactly why quality is one of the most powerful marketing tools available to any clothing brand. When your product delivers, customers come back and tell others.
Das Merch: The B2B Play That Funds the Vision
One of the most interesting strategic decisions Vresh made was launching Das Merch in 2017, a B2B merchandise agency serving companies, universities, and organizations that want sustainable branded clothing. Clients include Wiener Linien, the Vienna public transport system, and the University of Linz.
This is smart business architecture. Das Merch generates stable revenue that gives Vresh the financial runway to keep its consumer brand accessible rather than pushing prices up to survive. It also keeps the production relationships in Portugal busy year-round, which means better terms and deeper trust with producers.
The brand collaboration principle here is worth noting: by building a parallel B2B operation, Vresh created a business model where the two sides reinforce each other rather than compete for resources.
Investment and Valuation
In 2023 Vresh closed a new investment round bringing its valuation toward €3 million. Investors included Ali Mahlodji of futureOne, Albert Schmidbauer of Biogena, and others. This came on top of earlier investment from startup300, Hansi Hansmann, and other Austrian angel investors dating back to 2017.
For a brand based in Linz making sustainable basics, that is a serious vote of confidence. It also signals that the model works beyond lifestyle appeal: investors are backing the fundamentals.
The Physical Presence: Tabakfabrik Linz
Vresh operates a store inside the Tabakfabrik in Linz, a former tobacco factory turned creative hub hosting around 350 companies. Moving there was, by Klaus’s own admission, one of the biggest decisions he ever made. Before that, Vresh was a small shop in Eferding that few people had heard of. The Tabakfabrik gave the brand a home inside a community of creatives and entrepreneurs, exactly the kind of environment that builds community organically.
What You Can Take From This
Vresh is not a viral brand. It does not rely on influencer seeding or paid ads to grow. It grew by building genuine relationships with producers, making a product that lasts, and creating a business model with two complementary revenue streams.
Three things worth taking from this:
Your supply chain is part of your brand story. Vresh’s entire identity is rooted in transparency about how and where things are made. That is not just an ethical choice. It is a brand story that no competitor can easily copy because it requires years of real relationships to build.
A B2B revenue stream can unlock your B2C ambitions. Das Merch is what allows Vresh to keep consumer prices fair. If you are building a brand and struggling with margin pressure, a parallel commercial operation can give you the stability to stay true to your vision on the consumer side.
Basics done right never go out of style. Vresh has been making t-shirts and hoodies since 2012. The product has not fundamentally changed. What has changed is the depth of quality and the strength of the values behind it. That is a brand identity built to last.
