Venturing into Fashion Tech

From Wall Street to Fashion Tech:
What happens when a Wall Street finance pro decides to revolutionise the fashion industry? Join us as we chat with Brian Yurachek, the CEO of New York Culture Club, who ditched the stock exchange for the fashion industry. His journey is not just a career pivot, but a demonstration of how most entrepreneurs find their internal power of creativity and courage to step outside their comfort zone and build something they're passionate about. In this case for Brian fashion IoT. We talk practical strategies for navigating startup challenges, emphasising the importance of prioritising tasks and focusing on build activities that drive growth.

Culture is Code:
Brian's mantra: culture is code. New York Culture Club is pushing the boundaries of digital rights management by embedding microchips in fashion items to offer unprecedented transparency and storytelling. This episode explores the idea of turning consumers into "prosumers" who co-create with brands, adding layers of value and authenticity to their purchases. Brian shares his insights on how culture is becoming a new currency for self-expression, challenging the status quo and inviting us all to contribute to this cultural renaissance. In essence he believes by building fashion IoT solutions it'll shake up fashion's traditional landscape.

Find out more about NYCC: nycultureclub.com/
Connect with Brian: linkedin.com/in/brianyurachek

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

Producing Knitwear in Karachi:
Today's episode takes us to knitwear manufacturing straight from Karachi with Ahmed Altaf, CEO of AM Group, who shares his invaluable journey from academics to leading a family-run knitwear facility. Gain insights into what life is like in Pakistan's largest city and learn why Pakistan is a critical player in the global apparel market. Ahmed debunks common myths about working with knitwear manufacturers and highlights the benefits of a vertically integrated factory setup.

Transforming Outdated Processes:
The adoption of the WiMetrix system, sparked by the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, has revolutionised transparency and efficiency in AM's operations. For Ahmed, driving the shift towards a data-driven approach, redefining quality control, and setting new standards in the industry is what will keep his factory and his industry alive. Counting behemoths like Walmart as their clients, and receiving the Responsible Sourcing Certificate from the retailer, sheds light on the expectations and demands that brands are making on Pakistani fashion manufacturers. But is it working? Find out in this episode.

Find out more about AM Group: am-group.com.pk
Connected with Ahmed on LinkedIn.

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

We're back with a brand new series 'Build It', digging deep into how fashion tech startups are building their companies from the ground up.

Join Peter as he sits down with Abdul Moiz Sajjad, CEO of WeMetrix, to explore how data can change the way fashion factories can be infinitely more efficient. Abdul shares invaluable insights into how AI solutions like his are reshaping one of Pakistan's most vital economic sectors, textiles and garments, which contributes a massive 59.5% to the nation's exports.

In this episode, we learn the inefficiencies plaguing the fashion supply chains and how it's impacting wider global issues such as sustainability and ethics.  Abdul emphasises the importance of reimagining processes rather than sticking to incremental changes, and why real-time factory analytics is a must for factories of the future.

Discover WiMetrix's solution at wimetrix.com
Get in contact with Abdul on LinkedIn.

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

Wrap Up with 5 Key Fashion Tech Takeaways
We wrap up our 'Applied' podcast series with a reflective finale. Host Peter Jeun Ho Tsang tell us his top 5 key takeaways from navigating business growth, how to get through challenging times as a fashion tech startup, through to tech and humans coming together. This episode highlights the passionate voices featured throughout the series and how the call for a strategic collaboration between brands, investors, and innovators to not only sustain emerging technologies but to also foster their growth. This episode isn't just a summary; it's a map charting the path forward in the fashion tech realm.

Connect with Peter on LinkedIn.

*EXCLUSIVE OFFER* -20% discount for podcast listeners on the printed or ebook of Fashion Tech Applied. Purchase your copy at Springer here using the discount code*: 08cWPRlx1J7prE

*Offer ends end June 2024

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

Why Agricultural Waste?
Shikha Shah, with her rare blend of scientific expertise and compassionate leadership, tells us her transition from consultancy to building biorefineries to turn plant waste into textiles usable for the fashion and beyond. Coming to the realisation that if there's enough food in the world, then there's also enough waste in the world that can be reusable in some way. For Shikha after several years of research cracked the scientific formula that enables plant matter to be broken down and then transformed into fibre like structures. 

Biorefineries, Material Innovations, and Patience
However, science is not enough and it's about understanding the perseverance, patience, and funding required to navigate the complex fashion supply chain and material innovation landscape.  Deploying biorefineries takes time and a lot of money. The keyword here is patience, and Shikha pulls apart what fashion brands must be doing in order to support material innovators in the longer term.  Beyond commercial issues, Shikha is integrating integrating kindness into the core of business, a principle that she believes is especially transformative for fashion tech entrepreneurship.

Shikha and AltMat are featured in chapter 3 of the book Fashion Tech Applied.  Check it out.

Connect with Shikha on LinkedIn.
Check out AltMat.

*EXCLUSIVE OFFER* -20% discount for podcast listeners on the printed or ebook of Fashion Tech Applied. Purchase your copy at Springer here using the discount code*: 08cWPRlx1J7prE

*Offer ends end June 2024

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

Incubating Inside Microsoft's Garage
When host, Peter Jeun Ho Tsang, first met Dr. Kitty Yeung she was a quantum physicist by day and a fashion technologist by night. Kitty's fashion tech journey was structured via a global Microsoft hackathon where she and a group of intrapreneurial colleagues decided to take on the mammoth task of solving fashion's overproduction problem by developing a software enabling on-demand production with a minimum order quantity of 1 unit. But is that even possible?

From On-Demand Production to 3D Assets
Having moved on from the Microsoft project, Kitty shares her insights from her role as a Senior Director of AI at Browzwear, where she's continuing to tackle the industry's problem through the lens of 3D assets. Kitty is taking it even further with her next startup,  Wear It, combining AI, 3D assets and Gen AI into a digital wardrobe solution ready for social media. Kitty's foray into AI-generated clothing blurs the lines between algorithm and artistry, setting a new standard for global markets from the West to the East.

Kitty is featured in chapter 3 of the book Fashion Tech Applied.  Check it out.

Connect with Kitty on LinkedIn.
Check out Wear It.

*EXCLUSIVE OFFER* -20% discount for podcast listeners on the printed or ebook of Fashion Tech Applied. Purchase your copy at Springer here using the discount code*: 08cWPRlx1J7prE

*Offer ends end June 2024

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

AI & Pattern Cutting
Whilst the art of fashion pattern cutting is still rooted in flat drawings done by hand, artificial intelligence is bringing the practice into contemporary design and produce development processes.  N-Hega is a company that taps into AI to help brands to achieve results such as lay planning optimisation, waste reduction, and bringing the physical into the digital. In this conversation, host Peter Jeun Ho Tsang, speaks to Marketing & Product Development Director of N-hega on why digital pattern cutting is an important part of the fashion supply chain.

Digitising Pattern Cutting
Counting clients like Rag & Bone and H&M, and more left-field like NASA, N-Hega's N-Scan Premium Scanner and N-Shot camera systems are bringing teams into the digital world. With teams that are not necessarily digital, the power of AI is truly demonstrated by making it so easy for non-digital pattern cutters to use. Eli gives us insights as to why she thinks digital pattern cutting is part of the future of fashion design and product development.

Eli and N-Hega are featured in chapter 3 of the book Fashion Tech Applied.  Check it out.

Find out about N-Hega here.
Connect with Eliane on LinkedIn.

*EXCLUSIVE OFFER* -20% discount for podcast listeners on the printed or ebook of Fashion Tech Applied. Purchase your copy at Springer here using the discount code*: 08cWPRlx1J7prE

*Offer ends end June 2024

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

Building Tech Better Retail Experiences
Joining Von N. Ruzive and Peter Jeun Ho Tsang, co-authors of Fashion Tech Applied, are Hillary Littleton, Head of Marketing at FIT:MATCH,  Elina Minina, CBDO at Cappasity, and Charles Wilders, CEO at Showcase X, to discuss how retail experiences are being augmented by technologies.  The panel unpacks how tech like 3D modeling, AI, and augmented reality are reconfiguring the online and offline retail experiences. From creating your digital twin to find that impeccably fitting garment, to the role of AR holograms in building consumer trust, and why it's a combination of tech that will be make better shopping journeys. 

Fashion Stores of the Future
The panel shares invaluable insights from extensive R&D, proving that the success of tech in fashion hinges on solving genuine customer pain points and providing a shopping experience that feels personal and powerful. We confront the real struggles brands face, from budgetary restraints to the steep learning curve in harnessing these technologies.  The episode looks into a future where your shopping journey might be led by your smartphone, and we unravel how generational shifts are leading brands to recalibrate for a tech-savvy audience. What does your fashion store of the future look like?

This episode was originally recorded as a webinar on LinkedIn live.

Find out out about guest speakers in the links below:

• Hillary Littleton from FIT:MATCH
• Elina Minina from Cappasity
• Charles Wilders from Showcase X

*EXCLUSIVE OFFER* -20% discount for podcast listeners on the printed or ebook of Fashion Tech Applied. Purchase your copy at Springer here using the discount code*: 08cWPRlx1J7prE

*Offer ends end June 2024

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

Turning Ideas into Fashion Storytelling Diamonds
Jonathan Chippindale made his luxury marketing name in the world of fine jewellery at De Beers prior to launching his creative tech studio, Holition.  The magnetic pull of Jonathan's "Willy Wonka-esque" genius, has allowed him to tap into the transformative power of digital storytelling in the luxury space. His philosophy of 'human connections first, technology second' champions  Holition's digital campaigns that tug at the heartstrings. In this episode, host Peter Jeun Ho Tsang delves into how Jonathan creates these beautiful fashion campaigns for some of the world's biggest brands.

Using Creative Technologies Effectively
Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Tommy Hilfiger, Dunhill, Burberry, the list goes on. Holition's client list is not only impressive, but are willing to take technological leaps of faith with Jonathan and his team when it comes to crafting their digital marketing campaigns.  In this episode we gain insight as to how he manage to convince the brands to take this leap with him, the mega trends that are shaping the fashion marketing industry, and why Jonathan believes that technology should be an invisible thread in any campaign. With all this in mind, Holition breathes life into fashion narratives, and dreams up projects like the Tommy Hilfiger & Roblox Sep 2022 fashion show; becoming vital reference points in the ever-evolving landscape of fashion tech.

Jonathan and Holition are featured in chapter 4 of the book Fashion Tech Applied.  Check it out.

Find out about Holition here.
Connect with Jonathan in LinkedIn.

*EXCLUSIVE OFFER* -20% discount for podcast listeners on the printed or ebook of Fashion Tech Applied. Purchase your copy at Springer here using the discount code*: 08cWPRlx1J7prE

*Offer ends end June 2024

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io

From Engineering to Fashion
Imagine a world where your clothes are as easy to recycle as paper and plastic. That's the vision Cedric Vanhoeck, founder and CEO of Resortecs, is turning into reality, and in this latest episode, host Peter Jeun Ho Tsang and Cédric discuss how Cedric's original career path of engineering led him to sorting out one of the fashion industry's biggest problems:  products designed and destined for the landfill. 

Dismantling Products Stitch by Stitch
Resortecs' proprietary technologies, Smart Stitch and Smart Disassembly, are the linchpins in making garment recycling a frictionless part of the fashion supply chain with threads that dissolve in machines what can be described as giant ovens. Cédric takes listeners through how the tech works and how brands such as Bershka and Decathlon have launched collections using the Reortecs system. But will this be enough? We dissect the implications of EU regulations and  how many brands will likely find legislative loopholes to avoid going full scale with circular solutions.

Cédric and Resortecs are featured in chapter 3 of the book Fashion Tech Applied.  Check it out.

Find out about Resortecs here.
Connect with Cédric on LinkedIn.

*EXCLUSIVE OFFER* -20% discount for podcast listeners on the printed or ebook of Fashion Tech Applied. Purchase your copy at Springer here using the discount code*: 08cWPRlx1J7prE

*Offer ends end June 2024

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The show is recorded from Beyond Form, a fashion tech innovation platform. We build, invest, and educate fashion tech entrepreneurs and startups. We’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know if you’d like to hear a certain topic. Email us at [email protected]. If you’re an entrepreneur or fashion tech startup looking for studio support, check out our website: beyondform.io