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Pitch

Sourceseed is a curated alternative material option platform that allows designers to co-buy fabrics with eachother at an affordable price.


Description

Summary


Our team took a 360 degree view of this challenge and found that the designer are where we would have the most influence in the process of creating better more sustainable use of material.

This led us to craft the purpose statement "How might we help designers make better choices on the materials they use?" 

We created a proposal with our research and the development of our idea that can be viewed at the following link.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzauIy5mABghRjRMbEJaNkMwbjQ/view?usp=sharing

And also this video of the breakdown of the idea:

https://vimeo.com/165408608

Thank you to Nike and MIT for creating this contest and allowing our group to enter. Good luck to all contestants and all the wonderful ideas of how to make our planet a better place!


What actions do you propose?

ACCESSIBILITY: Most designers or design students have limited access to sustainable and innovative materials. SourceSeed is the one and only platform that gives designers access to better choices. We empower designers to create a better future.

TIME EFFICIENT: SourceSeed platform researches the latest sustainable materials and informs available options to member designers. This saves designer’s time and hassles of researching and contacting suppliers.

COST-EFFECTIVE: SourceSeed will negotiate the best deal with manufacturers on behalf of designers to guarantee the best price when they co-purchase the innovative materials that are often costly. Designers can freely order their desired quantity without worrying about meeting minimum orders.


Who will take these actions?

SourceSeed gives you access to an online platform that partners with global textile manufacturers and suppliers to provide you with curated sustainable and innovative materials, SourceSeed also provides offline consultations and email updates on new materials.

Through our platform you have access to collective buying power to meet the minimum orders as well as affordable sustainable materials for designers.


Where will these actions be taken?

We’d like to start in a small scale, by reaching out to small and medium companies located in countries where sustainability is being integrated into the lifestyle, this is where the industry would be easier to disrupt. In order to test our product, SourceSeed would like to focus on small and medium companies located in the USA and Europe with local or near by suppliers. After measuring the success rate of SourceSeed and knowing what the market demands the most, we’d like to create international collaborations. By disrupting the market and having access to suppliers in developing countries we believe we can influence their ways of production to a more sustainable one. 


What are other key benefits?

TOP-DOWN, BOTTOM-UP SOLUTION APPROACH

Through SourceSeed SMALL & MEDIUM BUSINESSES can co-buy material to reach minimum orders, allowing more designers access to materials that were previously inaccessible due to minimum orders.

At the same time, we are enabling LARGE CORPORATIONS to influence sustainable materials criteria by providing them access to fabric futures where they purchase a minimum order of material with a 50% minimum turnaround.


What are the proposal’s costs?


Time line


Related proposals


References

Based on the World Economic and Social Survey 2013 Sustainable Development Challenges  sustainable development pathways share common features. First, the sooner the implementation of policies starts, the greater the technological flexibility and the less costly the actions required.

Materials Conexion ThinkLAB has strive at identifying solutions that can be successfully transferred from one application to another. While considering every aspects of the product development process – design, material and manufacturing, business - to make sure they bring forward solutions that truly matter to the consumer and the brand.