Best Startup
Shopperbird upcycles waste fabric, secondhand and deadstock into new unique clothes. We have already tackled 10,000 tonnes of waste .
Tell us about yourself?
I have a background in Marketing, worked in digital agencies with international clients like UNESCO, UN, UNHCR, NATO. I have quit my hospitality job as marketing manager at the age of 23 and started Shopperbird.
I could not ignore the manipulation from the fast fashion industry and how marketing was playing a big role in it. My mission is to globally market a sustainable fashion app I shared value with and recycle as much as I can.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
Take a chance and make your idea possible, and if it fails go on with the next one. Persistence is key.
What problem does your business solve?
We use waste in the fashion industry to make unique clothes
What is the inspiration behind your business?
Designers are not recognised by big brands and 90% work freelance so we have create a unique app that allows the to upcycle clothes on-demand for individuals
What is your magic sauce?
The creativity of the community of fashion designer we gathered in this year of business. They truly know how to reuse and find purpose and beauty in waste.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
We are currently 143,000 sustainable shoppers and 641 designers from 50+ countries.
Our final goal is to bring the app to poor countries, the source of our daily clothes and give them a choice to work on their own safely, earning a fair pay.
I believe this can indirectly fight the exploitation from fashion brands.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
Selecting fashion designers is time consuming. We interview every single designer than we give them a test garment and we evaluate their work individually based on the design agreed upon.
Our acceptance rate fluctuates between 1%-3% and our community standards are pretty high. We focus on quality not quantity.
How do people get involved/buy into your vision?
We target aware and sustainable shoppers or “vegan” shoppers who struggle to get sustainable clothes due to lack of transparency from fashion brands.
We get mainly shoppers looking for indie and small designer clothes. Our competitive advantage is that we are transparent and make super unique stuff ono-of-a-kind.
