Dear Friend,
Hope you're enjoying this beautiful, warm Fall weather. As some of you know, last week I organized another successful fashion tech event. First of all, I wanted to thank all of you who have attended! It is an incredible feeling to meet my readers in person. You inspire me so much! Feel free to reply to this email if you have any feedback or suggestions for the next event.
The event last week featured the co-founder and CEO of Bespokify, a start up that is set to make on-demand custom apparel scalable. Using technology tools, a rich database of patterns and a network of manufacturers in Southeast Asia, his company helps startup and established apparel companies bring their product to market quickly with minimal investment, perfect-fit every time, and without the risk of unsold inventory. Marc's goal is to move the industry towards a future where everything is made-on-demand to the unique style and fit of customers, at as short delivery windows as in-stock products are currently being shipped. This very much resonates with my vision of the future of our industry, thus after Marc's on point presentation, we had an insightful conversation about the current state of the industry and its key players within the field of customization or other sustainable business models, we touched upon the potential of Amazon's monopolization and their private label on-demand production plan, we covered some of the existing constraints limiting our vision to be fully implemented in reality. Marc believes that every fashion company needs to completely revamp their business and become technology companies with the focus on fashion, otherwise, they won't be relevant and go out of business in the matter of a few years - due to lack of personalization, re-occurring fit issues, swiftly changing trends and consumer demands, and ever-declining product quality chasing lower price points and higher margins. Startups like Bespokify are empowering fashion companies to shift their outdated business models, meaningfully improve customer satisfaction with the shopping experience and final product, without having to sacrifice profitability and brand integrity.
Sign up here for my November's event with Amanda Curtis, CEO CoFounder of Nineteenth Amendment!
News Digest:
- AI will transform every retailer, says Shop Direct boss - Drapers
- Could Kelp Be the Future of Sustainable Fashion? - Observer
- Direct to consumer brands vs commodities: who will prevail? - Loose Threads
- Google and Levi’s ‘connected’ jacket is now on sale - TechCrunch
- Fashion’s future may rest on an old technology: glue - Fast Company
- Glossy 101: How the wholesale buying process is adapting to a digital world - Glossy
- Personalization vs. Segmentation: The Real Difference and Why it Matters - Sailthru
- Adidas can now make specialized shoes for runners in different cities, thanks to robots - Quarz
- Instagram Opens Its Shoppable Posts Feature to Retailers on Bigcommerce's Platform - TechCrunch
- The Amazing Ways Burberry Is Using Artificial Intelligence and Big Data to Drive Success - Forbes
Events
Tuesday, October 10th
6:30pm Women In Tech Week
Join us to hear the stories of New York's female founders. Each founder will share her story about how she built her company from the ground up. Learn about the opportunities and challenges faced by women founders in the first 365 days of their businesses, and hear advice on how to propel your own career in technology forward. Price: Free Location: CommonBond, 524 Broadway, 6th Fl
Wednesday, October 11th
11:00 - 1:00pm Creating Brand Community
Scout Lab workshops are designed to teach participants how to understand their consumers better and engage them in an authentic way in order to drive business goals forward. The goal of this workshop is to show participants how to identify their business’s key consumer personas, structure community archetypes and enable community members to come together around a vision. Price: Free Location: Galvanize NYC, 315 Hudson St, 2nd
7:00pm Public Speaking - Tackle Those Fears & Talk Like TED
Speaker Coach & TEDx Organizer, Kelsey Crouch, teaches how to navigate your nerves & make a lasting impact. Price: $35 Location: Blender Workspace, 135 Madison Ave, 8th Fl
Thursday, October 12th
9:30am Summit x SheWorx Roundtable
Learn how to leverage your strengths to scale your startup from Meghan Asha, Founder & CEO, FounderMade & Fund Investment Advisor, Connectivity Capital Partners Price: $35 Location: NeueHouse, 110 E 25th St
6:30pm The Sustainable Fashion Entrepreneur
With Amanda Parkes (Chief Innovation Office, Fashion Tech Lab), Tabea Hughes (Managing Partner, FutureMadeGroup), Lona Alia (Founder/CEO, StyleLend), Mia Merrill (Head of People & Culture, Nomad Financial). Price: $10 Location: 119 W 24th St, 2nd Fl
6:30pm The Edge Of Innovation: The Next Golden Years Of Video
Join us for an intimate fireside chat, exploring how corporate advertising in user-generated content ecosystem has fundamentally changed culture and traditional fields like politics, journalism, and music— and what to expect to see over the next five years. We will reevaluate the role of advertising, and unpack what opportunities exist for content creators and people to monetize beyond ads with peer-to-peer payments. Price: Free Location: GA NYC (Manhattan), HQ 902 Broadway, 4th Floor
Wednesday, October 18th
6:30pm Internet of Fashion Hands on Designing Fashion Tech
At the internet of Fashion meet up you will learn how to design fashion tech, AR/VR, business strategies, and gaming. The May meeting focus will be designing innovative wearable with 3D print technology. Designers that have already successfully introduced their wearable s in the consumer market will share the process of creating fashion that integrate 3D technologies. Price: Free Location: TBD
Thursday, October 19th
6:30 - 8:30pm How to Build and Protect Your Wealth
You’ve worked really hard to get to where you are today. Maybe you’re starting a family, accumulating some money, are working on building up a nest egg. Regardless of where you are financially, this workshop will help you figure out how to start thinking about your income as a tool to build wealth and help you create a family legacy that lasts beyond your lifetime. Price: Free Location: General Assembly, 902 Broadway, 4th Floor
7:00pm NY Tech Meetup & Afterparty
Demos & pitches by 6 awesome startups. Price: $10 Location: Tishman Auditorium, 63 5th Ave
Monday, October 23rd - Thursday, October 26th - LONDON!!
11:00am - 9:00pm #FASHHACK WEEK - Fashion Tech Bootcamp
The FashHack Week is a 1-week programme of day workshops and evening events, taking place from 23. October to 26.October. It is aimed at fashion & retail tech startup founders to accelerate their companies. In just one week you will learn from the leading fashion tech mentors, founders and investors. With the best tools and approaches at your disposal, you’ll take giant leaps toward growing your fashion tech business. - Receive mentorship and collaborate with participating fashion tech companies, investors, and the fashion tech experts. - Take part in workshops and panel discussions on issues relevant to fashion technology companies, such as growth, marketing and scalability, technology and user experience, branding, and broader industry trends. Price: £47.48 – £155.85 (Get a discount using my unique code NYStartups) Location: Old Street, LONDON, UK
Monday, October 23rd
6:30pm The Shared Future of Fashion And Aerospace
The panel, following the presentation, will demonstrate these overlaps through a deep dive into the interdisciplinary interactions behind their work, discussing technology in textiles and manufacturing, and the process of creating and problem solving with new tools and knowledge now accessible. Price: $10 Location: Galvanize 315 Hudson Street
Tuesday, October 24th
Wednesday, October 25th
6:00pm Women Funding Women
Springboard Enterprises and Dell are committed to accelerating the increasingly powerful role that women play in driving global economic growth. Our 2017-2018 international event series—Women Funding Women—leverages the expertise of investors, innovators, and influencers. The series will focus on connecting women entrepreneurs with capital and involving more women in funding women-led companies. Price: Free Location: The Williamsburg Hotel, 96 Wythe Ave, Brooklyn
Thursday, October 26th
6:00pm Pitch To Investors - RetailTech & FashionTech
WAMVentures Forum kicks off the fall season with Retail Tech & Fashion Tech investors & experts! Meet Sapha Shah, Founder of Retail X Series & Principal of Red Giraffe Advisors; Aubrie Pagano, Co-Founder & CEO of Bow & Drape & Investment Partner with XFactor Ventures; & Irene Ryabaya, Co-Founder of Monarq. Price: $25 Location: ThoughtWorks, 99 Madison Ave, 15th Friday
Friday, October 27th
6:00pm Future Textile Library: Panel Discussion
Wearable Media cordially invites you to our exhibition, Future Textile Library. Come join us in re-imagining our relationship to fashion, textile design, and computational technology as an interactive media. Along with the exhibition, we developed a series of workshops to help the audience to get hands-on experience of creating future textiles. Price: Free Location: The Gottesman Libraries 525 West 120th Street 2nd Floor
Friday, October 27th - Sunday, October 29th
6:30pm Hack Trash NYC
Team up with designers, lawyers, policy & waste experts, technologists & entrepreneurs to develop innovative solutions to reduce waste through reuse. Price: $10-$25 Location: Galvanize NYC, 315 Hudson
Tuesday, November 14th
6:30pm The Future of Stockless Retail w/Nineteenth Amendment
Amanda Curtis, CEO CoFounder of Nineteenth Amendment will speak about her industry-shifting marketplace + production platform to pre-sell + on-demand fashion manufacturing. Price: $10-$20 Location: TBD
Cool Finds:
- This new MoMA Exhibition highlights bio fabrications and new technologies as the future of fashion
- AirMeasure - The ultimate augmented reality measuring toolkit
- Feet-Shaped No Show Socks Designed for Human Feet. Made just for you. - Thursday Finest
- Faubourg - an aesthetically-driven sustainable fashion destination for the modern, creative woman.
Stay Inspired,
Nataliya