Remake, the nonprofit that won $22B for garment workers, closed when its funding ran out

On February 19, 2026, Remake — the San Francisco nonprofit that built the #PayUp campaign — announced it would close at the end of the month. 'After a decade of impactful work, the Remake board has decided it is time to close our doors at the end of this month. This is not an ending we are mourning. It is a milestone we are honouring,' founder Ayesha Barenblat wrote. The organisation said it had failed to secure the funding needed to sustain operations.

Remake was founded in 2015 by Barenblat, formerly of the ILO's Better Work programme, and grew into a movement of 3,000 ambassadors across 80 countries. Its defining moment came during Covid, when brands cancelled garment orders overnight: the #PayUp campaign mobilized over 300,000 people, and brands paid out more than $22 billion in cancelled orders. It also ran the annual Fashion Accountability Reports, the #NoNewClothes challenge and the 'Made in…' film series.

The board said it had explored restructuring, merger opportunities with aligned organisations, pivoting the model and new funding streams before choosing closure. CMO Katrina Caspelich blamed a sharp funding decline and organised pushback: 'The pushback we are seeing is not organic. It is coordinated and well-resourced. Industry lobbying groups have spent years framing accountability as anti-business.' She added that advocacy groups have been dependent on 'philanthropic cycles that shift with political winds.'

Remake's Instagram account and its free educational resources — the garment worker story archive and advocacy toolkits — remain online, and a selection of its resources will live on through long-time partner Custom Collaborative in New York. Partners including the Garment Worker Center, Labor Education Foundation and AWAJ Foundation continue their work. The closure ended one of the most visible consumer-facing accountability engines in fashion, at a moment when the movement it built was still growing.