Racked covers shopping from every angle and in various forms, from service stories to reported features to essays to longform. We publish pieces about how and why we buy things, but also use shopping as a frame to tell all sorts of smart and diverse stories, both big and small. At Racked, shopping pertains to clothes, accessories, and beauty, not home or wellness.

At the moment, we’re particularly interested in: the intersection of politics and fashion and beauty; how technology is impacting shopping; and diversity (or the lack thereof) of all kinds across the retail, fashion, and beauty landscape.

We regularly accept freelance pitches from writers of all experience levels and backgrounds and are always on the lookout for new contributors. Our pay is competitive and our editing is hands-on. See below for our pitch requirements.

Personal Essays

We’re seeking thoughtful new voices and perspectives in the essays we publish, which can be about anything to do with shopping, clothes, beauty, and style. These are primarily evergreen, although we'll consider the occasional timely piece if it's the right fit. We're fans of letting things be the length they want to be, but generally speaking, these essays should be on the shorter side (closer to 1,000 words than, say, 2,500). And feel free to pitch wacky formats — if you think something works better as a list, or a dialogue, or an acrostic poem, let's chat!

Examples of strong personal essays that we’ve run include this piece on buying clothes when you’re agender, this one on how brands should represent their clothing online, and this one on what to wear when you have no place to go.

Before pitching an essay, a few good questions to ask yourself are: Is my perspective unique? Will my story resonate with someone else? Do I have something to add to the conversation?

To submit: Send your essay pitches to [email protected].

Features (non-longform)

Original reporting is a cornerstone of Racked, and feature stories in the 1,200-2,000 word range make up the bulk of our reported coverage.

We care about big mall brands and weird, out-there stories, not the insider-y fashion thing that other sites are going to breathlessly write about. We run reported pieces on business and trends, as well as cultural analysis, histories, unexpected one-offs, stories about subcultures, and experiential reporting.

Travel is rarely involved in the reporting of these pieces. The lead time for assigning can range from a week for a timely story to a month for a more involved one.

To submit: Send your non-longform feature pitches to [email protected].

Longform features

Racked publishes deeply reported longform features that are narrative or investigative, and sometimes both. Many are about the business and/or culture of shopping; others use shopping as a way into other subjects.

We’ve sent reporters to Donald Trump’s factories in China and to secret black market stores in Cuba. We’ve had others hang out with mysterious lifestyle gurus in Denmark and experience the Olympics of hairdressing in South Korea. We’ve also published pieces about Civil War reenactors, toddler style bloggers, and inmates at the country’s largest maximum security prison.

Our longform features are at least 3,000 words in length and generally average between 4,500 and 6,000 words. Travel may be involved in the reporting, and most stories are assigned at least two months before publish date.

To submit: Send your longform pitches to [email protected].

Shopping service

Racked runs lots of service content, some of it explicit (shopping guides!) and some of it rooted in focused discovery. These are the various story types for which we accept pitches:

Guides

We’re looking for writers with expertise covering particular industries — like denim, fitness, or bridal — to handle large-scale guides like The Best Places to Shop for Activewear, or Where to Buy a Wedding Dress. We also run smaller, more specific guides, like 9 Brands That Make Swimsuits for Big Boobs or The Best Places to Find Work-Appropriate A-Line Dresses.

Our guides are, above all else, authoritative. They are also entirely shoppable, in that every brand or retailer listed has e-commerce available for the vast majority of our readers (i.e. those in the United States). Our guides not only provide information on where to shop, but also give tips on what you should know when shopping a particular category.

Product recommendations

We don’t assign traditional market roundups to freelancers, especially if it’s something along the lines of “the best fall boots.” We do, however, accept pitches for stories that recommend a single, awesome product.

Are you obsessed with a specific pair of jeans, or a miracle beauty product, or some strange slippers? Tell us about a thing you love that you think we — and the entire world — should know about. These stories are best when they’re personal and obsessive; they typically run 500 to 700 words in length.

Brand spotlights

We’re interested in short profiles of truly unique brands or companies that are filling a hole in the market or adding to the conversation. This means pieces about the Build-a-Bear of handbags, the beauty subscription box for women of color, and the shopping tool that actually helps you budget. We are not interested in collection reviews, one-off product launches, or run-of-the-mill collaborations.

These stories average 800 words and involve an interview with a founder or designer.

Local shopping

Though Racked no longer has city-specific sites that cover the ins and outs of local retail, we remain committed to surfacing the best shopping destinations across the country. We want contributors outside of New York to write about what makes the shopping scene in their city great, whether it be through an ode to one particular store, a comprehensive city guide, or category-specific shopping guide.

We always prefer to have the reporting done by someone who lives in or very frequently visits a particular area. No vacation pitches, please!

To submit: Send your shopping service pitches to [email protected].