Rains's Affiliate Program: How the Danish Rainwear Brand Pays Creators for Sales

Who is Rains?

Rains is a Danish outerwear brand, founded on 13 April 2012 in Aarhus by Daniel Brix Hesselager, Philip Lotko and Steffen W. Frandsen. Brix Hesselager and Lotko met at the TEKO design school and shared an ambition to make functional, minimalist rainwear rooted in Danish design tradition — the brand is named after Denmark's notoriously rainy weather (the country averages around 170 days of rain a year). The operating company, RAINS ApS (Danish company registration number, CVR, 34476187), is registered at Ib Spang Olsens Gade 12, 8200 Aarhus N, and per Danish company registries is owned by Lotko Holding ApS and KD DK Holding ApS, with around 146 employees. Rains today operates stores across four continents (including Shanghai, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Glasgow, Brussels, New York, London and Berlin) and has its headquarters in Aarhus, designed by architecture firm Sleth over five years. Per a figure cited by the international trade publication Business of Fashion, Rains exceeded €80 million in turnover in 2021 with 50% annual growth — a 2021 figure, not a current one, and reported here as secondary-sourced, not confirmed directly on Rains's own financial statements. Co-founder Daniel Brix Hesselager is the company's current CEO.

The confirmed affiliate landscape: nine network listings, only two still open

A third-party affiliate-program directory, affi.io — the same evidentiary tier already used to confirm network status for Matas, Pandora, ECCO and Georg Jensen on the Academy — shows Rains listed with nine separate networks across markets. Only two are marked active right now:

This research couldn't confirm the commission and cookie window directly on Adtraction's own site — Adtraction's merchant directory requires a login, the same limitation already documented for Partner-ads in earlier articles in this series — so the 15% rate and the 45 days stand as affi.io's confirmed, but third-party-sourced, figures, not as primary-confirmed. The same caveat applies to the CJ Affiliate listing, where neither the rate nor the cookie window is disclosed at all.

A genuine correction: the Awin rate still circulating is closed

An ordinary search for "Rains affiliate program" turns up secondary affiliate roundups (including FlexOffers' own landing page for the US Rains program) describing an Awin-run program with 10% commission and a 30-day cookie window. That figure isn't invented — it historically existed — but affi.io's direct lookup shows that specific Awin listing is now marked closed for both the UK and US markets. The actually open, active rate is a different one: 15% via Adtraction, specifically for the Danish market, with a longer cookie window than the closed Awin rate ever had. A creator building content around the older 10%/30-day figure without checking status would both undersell the rate and point to a program that no longer exists.

Denmark: one of the few genuinely open programs in this series

It's worth putting this in perspective: across the Academy's own series of named, Danish-relevant affiliate programs, most either have no confirmed Danish program at all (Pandora, JYSK) or had one that has since closed or been paused (ECCO, Georg Jensen). Rains belongs to a small group where a Danish-specific program is actually confirmed active right now — the same pattern as LEGO's confirmed DK program via FlexOffers. That doesn't change the fact that this confirmation comes from a third-party directory rather than directly from Adtraction's own page — but it's still a markedly stronger status than most comparable, named Danish brands in this series.

No separate ambassador program found

Unlike Bang & Olufsen's B&O Collective, this research found no named, curated Rains ambassador arrangement for content creators — neither on the brand's own website nor in search results about creator collaborations. That's an honest negative finding, not a guarantee no such arrangement exists; a direct approach to Rains's marketing team is the only route this research could point to for a curated collaboration.

Decision framework

IF your audience is Danish → the Adtraction 15% program is the strongest confirmed offer in this overview, but confirm the current rate yourself directly at sign-up, since the figure here is only third-party-confirmed.

IF you already have access to CJ Affiliate → it's the only other active listing, but with no disclosed rate or cookie window you can't evaluate it until you've applied yourself.

IF you've seen an older source mention 10% via Awin → update the expectation. That listing is closed, and the actually active rate is both higher (15% vs. 10%) and has a longer cookie window (45 days vs. 30).

IF you're looking for a curated ambassador collaboration rather than a self-serve affiliate sign-up → no named arrangement was found; a direct approach is the only route.

Worked example (hypothetical)

The figures below are hypothetical and illustrate only the difference between the closed Awin rate and the confirmed Adtraction rate — they are not a Make Influence customer case.

Assume a Danish creator's followers spend DKK 2,000 at Rains through an affiliate link within the cookie window. At the closed Awin rate of 10%, the commission would have been DKK 2,000 × 0.10 = DKK 200. At the actually active Adtraction rate of 15%, the commission is instead DKK 2,000 × 0.15 = DKK 300 — DKK 100 more per transaction, or 50% higher, purely because the rate is updated to the actually active listing. The longer cookie window (45 days vs. Awin's former 30) also means a purchase made up to two weeks later than before would still be credited.

Common mistakes

• Using the older 10% Awin rate without checking whether the listing is still active. It's closed; the actually active Danish rate is 15% via Adtraction.
• Assuming the CJ Affiliate listing can be used as an immediate source for rate or cookie window. Neither is disclosed in this research.
• Confusing a missing, named ambassador program with Rains not working with creators at all. It only means no self-serve or named arrangement was found beyond the ordinary affiliate program.
• Assuming all nine network listings are still relevant. Only two of nine are marked open; the rest are history.

Make Influence's operational perspective

Make Influence doesn't have a documented customer case with Rains. Our experience with this type of Danish-founded, internationally distributed lifestyle brand is that a confirmed, active Danish affiliate program like this one is relatively rare in this series of named brands — and therefore worth prioritizing as a concrete, testable collaboration, rather than spending time negotiating a curated deal when no ambassador arrangement is already documented to exist.

FAQ

Is Rains's Danish affiliate program open or application-only?

By all appearances, open — affi.io lists the Adtraction listing's status as "Open" without mentioning an approval process, unlike, for example, Bang & Olufsen's curated ambassador track. See open vs application-only affiliate programs for the general trade-off.

Why do some sources still mention a 10% rate via Awin?

Because that listing historically existed and still appears in secondary roundups and on FlexOffers' own US landing page. affi.io's direct lookup shows the Awin listing is now closed for both the UK and US, though — the actually active rate is 15% via Adtraction, specifically for Denmark.

Does Rains have a separate ambassador program like Bang & Olufsen?

Not found in this research. There's no named, curated Rains ambassador arrangement equivalent to B&O Collective — only the ordinary affiliate program.

How does Rains score on the checklist for whether a retailer's program is worth a creator's time?

Better than most comparable cases on one specific point: Danish coverage is actually confirmed active, which neither Pandora nor JYSK can show. Weaker on source type: the rate is third-party-confirmed (affi.io), not confirmed directly on Adtraction's own page, which couldn't be accessed in this research. See the checklist for whether a retailer's affiliate program is worth a creator's time for the five points applied to several other named programs.

How does Rains's Danish coverage compare to LEGO's?

A similar pattern: both have a confirmed, active Danish-specific program right now, but LEGO's Danish FlexOffers rate (2.4%) is confirmed directly on the network's own page, while Rains's 15% rate here is only third-party-confirmed.

Is Rains's 15% rate high compared to other named Danish programs?

Yes, among the highest confirmed rates in this series — higher than, for example, LEGO's 2.4% or Matas's Adtraction rate, but lower than Daisycon's historical, now-closed 20% rate for Rains itself.