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Industry Talk

Rethinking the business of fashion

Starting this week, twelve start-ups will join the Accelerator Programme that aims to help innovative technologies to reshape the fashion industry.

13th September 2018

Innovation in Textiles
 |  Amsterdam

Clothing/​Footwear, Sustainable

From bio-based dyes and fibres made from banana to software developed specifically for closet management – these are a few examples of the next generation innovators that will be supported by the Fashion for Good-Plug and Play Accelerator.

Starting this week, twelve selected start-ups will join the Accelerator Programme that aims to help innovative technologies and business models with the greatest potential to reshape the fashion industry for good. This involves a twelve-week curriculum, including mentorship from corporate partners adidas, C&A, Galeries Lafayette, Kering, PVH Corp., Target and Zalando.

Twelve selected start-ups will join the Accelerator Programme. © Fashion for Good

The twelve start-ups partaking in Batch 4 have been carefully selected out of hundreds of applicants and come from all over the world covering three continents and eight nationalities. They represent varied supply chain areas with in this batch a specific focus on new business models.

Driving market validation

During the next twelve weeks, the Accelerator’s partners and mentors will drive market validation of the innovators’ technologies, to prime them for implementation at scale. The selected start-ups for the fourth edition of the Fashion for Good-Plug and Play Accelerator Programme are: &Wider, Algalife, The Excess Materials Exchange (EME), GIBBON, Green Whisper, NOWNER, Reflaunt, reGAIN app, Save Your Wardrobe, Stuffstr, TrusTrace and The Vienna Textile Lab.

Fashion for Good was launched in 2017 and is supported by C&A Foundation as a founding partner. The Accelerator Programme is part of Fashion for Good’s Innovation Platform, which also includes a Scaling Programme and the Good Fashion Fund. The Fashion for Good-Plug and Play Accelerator is run in collaboration with Plug and Play – the most active early-stage investor globally – and corporate partners adidas, C&A, Galeries Lafayette, Kering, PVH Corp., Target and Zalando. Together they are championing the replicable and scalable innovations that will accelerate the transition to a circular fashion industry.

The graduation of the start-ups will take place on 29 November at the Fashion for Good hub in Amsterdam, where they will showcase their innovations to an audience of industry leaders and investors.

Selected start-ups

&Wider has created a cloud platform, which enables buyers and employers to hear about workers’ everyday lives and working conditions directly from the workers themselves.

Algalife creates dyes and fibres from algae microorganisms. Its textiles release anti-oxidants, vitamins and minerals that can nourish and protect our body and skin.

The Excess Materials Exchange (EME) is a digital marketplace where companies can exchange excess materials and products. EME matches materials with their highest value reuse option, enabling companies to turn their waste into wealth.

GIBBON is an on-the-go rental marketplace, which matches excess inventory from brands and retailers to travellers enabling luggage-less travel.

Green Whisper creates sustainable products for daily use out of agriculture residue. It specialises in banana fibre products: banana paper and banana fibre textile.

NOWNER has developed an online platform for brands, which enables them to run their own renting platforms for customers, in order to create a circular system for the garment industry.

Reflaunt is a circular designed technology, which bridges first-hand and second-hand markets, enabling high-end brands to give customers the option to re-sell, donate or recycle their wardrobes.

reGAIN app has created the first digital, multi-brand takeback program, which rewards recycling. Consumers can box up their unwanted clothing and ship them directly to regain and earn discount coupons to use online or in store.

Save your wardrobe is an app where its users can build a digital wardrobe by instantly uploading their online purchases or existing items through computer vision. The app includes outfit recommendations, dry cleaning, alteration, selling and donating pointers.

Stuffstr lets users capture the value of used stuff, regardless of its condition. They partner with fashion retailers to buy back unwanted products, and update consumers on the current resale value of their items.

TrusTrace helps brands define a clear plan for establishing product-level traceability. It provides a scalable digital platform for measuring, monitoring and communicating various activities in the supply chain.

The Vienna Textile Lab turns bacteria into colour. It fabricates organic dyes from naturally occurring bacteria in order to provide a sustainable alternative to conventional synthetic colours.

www.fashionforgood.com

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