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Competition —— 01/01
Sciur
Sciur is a service that makes ethical sustainable garments accessible for people at an affordable price. We have developed a subscription-basedbusiness model for the service provision.
Year
2022 | Jan-Jun
Project Type
Service Design,
Circularity
My
Contribution
It's a team project and everybody contributed equally in the conception of the service.
I specifically looked at the business viability of the service, laying down the road to circularity (sustainable life cycle) model in place, and writing the copy.
Overview
Sciur puts focus on Milan’s context and all stakeholders’ needs
and habits to have a positive impact on their behaviours.
The Brief
The Student Service Design Challenge is a global design award that celebrates, encourages and inspires the next generation of designers, in which I participated with a group of my friends. The goal was to find a way how to design for more access and less ownership.
In a culture of consumption, social status, values and activities are centred on the consumption of goods and services. But the depth and severity of the COVID pandemic come into focus when we realise humanity is not dealing with just one, but several mega-crises simultaneously. To meet these crises, we need to reimagine and (re)design more sustainable business models.
The Context
We looked into the systems and services and prevalent issues that exist in the city of Milan. As we know, Milan is one of the European capitals of fashion and headliner of worldwide trends. As a consequene, the city has a huge impact on the global fashion industry, and is equally impacted by it. The clothing industry’s system is broken. Majority people can’t access quality sustainable clothing because of expensive pricing.
Moreover, the Covid-19 pandemic has had grave repurcussions on the small neighbourhood shops/boutiques, resulting in small businesses shutting down. It is interesting to note that there are plenty creators/designers working towards no-waste sustainable clothing but they do not have platform to be heard. Starting your own business in Milan is a daunting task.
The Opportunity
We can bring about a systemic change in the way
fashion system works by reforming the consumption behaviour
of people and the concept of ownership of clothes by introducing an innovative service.
The Process
i. Ecosystem Map (Existing)
We started by mapping the entire fashion ecosystem as it runs in the city of Milan. The intent was to understand the relationships or threads between actors that were weak. We identified and selected the consumers (purchasers of clothes) and local boutques and shops as our target groups.
ii. Interviews & Activities
We conducted interviews with local boutique owners and different types of consumers to understand their needs and desires.
We also asked the potential consumers to open up their closets for us and make a video taking us through what they wear (or not), how does their closet look and what's their biggest struggle with their relationship with fashion.
Overall Insights
We identified the three most important insights to formulate our
"HOW MIGHT WE" question.
1
“I want to shop the clothes I like, but
sometimes I buy impulsively and in the end I don’t like the item so much. So I force myself to wear it anyway to avoid wasting it, but I feel stressed and not comfortable with my look.”
Isabella
2
"I like the model of thrifting where I can get clothes that are affordable but it's often very difficult because it's one-fits-all shop model. There's no vibe to the place, no taste. Very rarely do I see curation."
Letizia
3
"I like making my own clothes. I have a sustainable voice but I do not know how to make myself visible. Milan is expensive to have your own shop and there are too many designers out there."
Lorenzo
HMW empower local boutiques to become innovators shifting
the ownership of clothes towards access and shared usage?
The Concept
Sciur is a tech-enabled network of shared clothing racks located in Milanese boutiques. We make quality sustainable clothing accessible for young people using a flexible subscription model to rent clothes — reshaping self-expression through fashion, subsequently uplifting the local industry and reducing waste.
The Technology
We leverage on the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to facilitate communication between garments and people, track the item and give essential information and instructions to people about the manufacturing of the garment, maintenance information and their contribution in moving towards being environmentally, socially and economically conscious consumers.
Each rack has an RFID sensor and every garment has an RFID tag attached to it.
Moreover, we use digital tech- the Scuir app to relay relevant information to all the actors involved; be an active space that gives a platform and voice to conscious producers & consumers of clothes; and facilitate transaction of items and money.
How Sciur Works
The Video
The video takes you through our entire process from start to end; from research to the service. It's a 10mins LONG video that you'll enjoy.
Watch it in free time.
The Team
Marco, Martina, Riccardo, Amarinder, Aurora
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