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Denim brands of all sizes face challenges when introducing new materials and scaling sustainability initiatives. While small and midsize brands often struggle with high minimum order quantities (MOQs), designers and sourcing managers at larger companies must navigate complex decision-making processes involving multiple stakeholders.
World Collective, a global B2B platform that connects brands with global certified textile suppliers, traceability tools and sustainable sourcing solutions, aims to help companies overcome these common challenges through its demand aggregation platform.
The crowdsourcing infrastructure allows brands to order a portion of a larger MOQ, which ultimately gets filled by others. Sometimes it's filled quickly; other times it can take a long time, but in general, it's an effective way to encourage brands to try a fabric or technology they normally wouldn't be able to make.
For small and midsize brands, it provides access to materials and concepts that would otherwise be cost-prohibitive or require taking on excess inventory. For large brands, it creates an opportunity to test new fabrics without first securing executive buy-in for significant commitments.
"What we're trying to do is to minimize that overwhelming feeling of trying something new," said Jeanine Ballone, World Collective founder and CEO.
In May, Denim Deal, the global initiative designed to scale the use of post-consumer recycled (PCR) cotton in denim, announced a partnership with World Collective to expand the visibility, accessibility and global reach of suppliers and materials that meet Denim Deal's circularity standards.
The partners hosted a webinar last week to further discuss their synergies and shared goals to scale sustainable innovation.
From Denim Deal's perspective, the partnership helps break down simple but persistent barriers for its members. Supplier members gain greater exposure, stronger opportunities to be discovered by international buyers, and a clearer channel through which their work can be seen in the context of a global circular denim movement. For brands, they gain expanded access to a growing network of curated materials and suppliers, making it easier for companies of different sizes to source circular denim.
"We love our collaboration because, very simply put, [World Collective] makes access really simple," said Laura Vicaria, Denim Deal's program director.
While mills are working hard to create durable, high-quality fabrics that contain post-consumer cotton, she said sometimes the challenge is making brands knowledgeable on where and how they can source the fabrics.
Ballone also emphasized how having access to smaller MOQs allows brands the time test out a product, understand their margin and the other technical aspects that may come into play when innovating-critical components for any innovation to have long-term impact.
Up next, Vicaria said Denim Deal will begin to upload the fabric collections they've developed over the years to World Collective's platform. The collections reinforce the group's "plug and play" approach to circular design.
"We're just trying to simplify the decision making so that brands just can come in and do their magic," she said.
