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Ep.7 ⭐️ Fashion District Manufacturing Futures Innovation Challenge 2024
180 Plays8 months ago
Welcome to this special mini episode of the No Ordinary Cloth podcast, where we explore the fascinating world of textiles and fashion and the innovative minds shaping its future. Today, we're spotlighting the Manufacturing Futures 2024 - Innovation Challenge, a pivotal event for UK-based startups and SMEs in the fashion industry.
There is some exciting news to share, do listen in to the end of the episode.
Here's what we cover in this episode:
Details about the Manufacturing Futures Innovation Challenge 2024 competition and what the winner can expect as prize money and support
You will also get some insights from the judges themselves - what is important to them, what they are looking for in the applications, tips. This will give you hopefully help prepare your application.
Jen Keane from Modern Synthesis, winners of a previous Manufacturing Futures competition, will be sharing about her startup that makes biomaterials and about their collaborating with GANNI to develop the Bou bag using nano cellulose materials made by bacteria.
This episode not only highlights the Manufacturing Futures Innovation Challenge but also serves as a reminder of the power of innovation and the importance of community in shaping the future of fashion. Whether you're directly involved in the fashion industry or simply passionate about innovation and sustainability, this challenge represents a fantastic opportunity to contribute to meaningful change.
Manufacturing Futures 2024 - find out all the details about the challenge here
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Twitter/X: @fd_ldn
LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/company/fdldn
Link to survey - would deeply appreciate your feedback, it will only take a couple of minutes
Connect with Mili Tharakan
Instagram: @noordinarycloth
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjtharakan/
Cover art: Photo by Siora, Photography on Unsplash
Music: Inspired Ambient, Orchestraman
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Transcript
Launch of Manufacturing Futures 2024 Innovation Challenge
00:00:09
Speaker
There's no smoke, there's no fancy cars, but we're going to launch the innovation challenge for 2024. What actually is it?
00:00:20
Speaker
That is Helen Lacks, the Director of Fashion District announcing the Manufacturing Futures 2024 Innovation Challenge launch event. I hope you got a sense of the energy in the room, everyone chatting away and networking.
Eligibility and Prize Details for Applicants
00:00:34
Speaker
It was a brilliant evening here in London and I wanted to share more about this challenge on our mini episode today.
00:00:41
Speaker
If you are a UK-based startup or an SME working on solving some of the most complex challenges faced by the fashion industry, this one is for you. You could win £15,000 cash prize and a lot of valuable support that can help you get to the next level of your business.
00:01:00
Speaker
If you're not from the UK, you might still be able to apply for this challenge. So please check out for more details on the competition website. They did have a winner last year from Brazil, so don't count yourself out yet. And do stay to the end of the episode as I have some exciting news that I'm celebrating to share with you as well.
Focus on Technological and Sustainable Solutions
00:01:20
Speaker
Hi, everyone. Welcome to a mini episode of No Ordinary Cloud Podcast. As you know, I usually interview amazing people working with textiles on this pod and I go deep. But on this mini episode, I wanted to share about the details of this innovation challenge and let you know that the doors are open for you to apply now.
00:01:40
Speaker
This is the sixth innovation challenge that the Fashion District is running and the focus this year is on technological innovations and sustainable solutions for fashion manufacturing. It could be innovations in materials or digital innovations, manufacturing processes, waste management, supply chain logistics, transparency and traceability, circular economy and end of use.
00:02:06
Speaker
I mean, these are all areas that offer tremendous scope for innovation and in fact need urgent transformation. So if you are working on solutions for these critical problems in the fashion and textiles industry, please do check out this challenge. This is a fantastic opportunity. This is not just for textile and fashion companies. I believe all kinds of people and brains and expertise are needed to solve the problems we're facing in the fashion industry today.
00:02:34
Speaker
So even if you are a material scientist or a software engineer or biochemist or any other discipline that you might be from, but you have solutions for the fashion industry, this challenge is open to you. This is your chance to get all the expertise and networks you need from the fashion sector. The winner of this challenge, as I mentioned, gets £15,000 in cash prize and
00:03:00
Speaker
two of the runners up will get 5,000 pounds each as well. More than this, you get invaluable input from some of the leaders in the industry and an incredible network to connect with. The winner also gets several consultancy hours with experts from Pangaya. They get workshop space at the Trampary Fish Island Village here in London. Also business development support and industry connections through UKFT membership and a lot, lot, lot more. It doesn't get better than this.
00:03:30
Speaker
All the details of the challenge are on the website www.fashion-district.co.uk I've put that in the show notes below so please check that out and the deadline is 25th of March 2024.
Judging Panel and Evaluation Criteria
00:03:45
Speaker
The judges who will review your applications are a lineup of rock stars themselves. We have Adam Mansell, CEO of UKFT, Chelsea Lipton, Head of Advanced Concept Design at Pangaya, Ella Gold, Head of Sustainability at Selfridges, Gillian Lipton, Sustainability Director at Alexander McQueen, Alex Lacks, the Director of Fashion District, and Matthew Drinkwater, Head of Fashion Innovation Agency. That is quite a lineup and they will closely review your application to pick the winners.
00:04:14
Speaker
Here's a little peek into what the judges are looking for from your application. Hopefully this will help you put something together that is really strong that the judges are going to love. I apologize if it is a little bit difficult to understand what they're saying. I wasn't able to record the audio on site as well as I would have liked to, but hopefully you can catch some of the key points here. And now we're going to meet the judges. Matthew, you're laughing, so you're up first. What are you looking, so I'll simplify it. What are you looking out for?
00:04:43
Speaker
in that it's a major challenge out there that needs cracking. Above all, I want to feel excited from an application I reach, from a founder I sit with. It's that magical moment. You see an incredible shoe and you want to make that into a real thing. Those are things which inspire people. So that's my purpose. Great. Ella, you're next. In terms of retail,
00:05:13
Speaker
Personally, I was really skeptical when someone comes to me with just big tech and they just talk about the technology. And I know it's a huge enabler, but come to me with the problem, tell us the problem that you're solving or why you're doing something better. And that for me is really when I think the juices kind of get flowing and I start to feel really inspired. Chitty. And I want to work with people who want to make a difference. So for me, it is all about finding that solution that
00:05:42
Speaker
is scalable. So Adam anything that you I mean you see things from a different perspective it's kind of like higher level looking down like a like a bird.
00:06:02
Speaker
capture it, recycle it, get it perfected in the UK. I mean, that gets my vote. You get a lifetime membership in the UK. But genuinely, that's where the problem is. And that's where the focus really needs to be. And that's very difficult for a start-up. For me personally, for everything that I see on the screen right now, volume and price. Because let's not
00:06:31
Speaker
Decisions are made not on sustainability. Decisions are made on price. And they will move, manufacture, they will change materials for as little as 10 seconds of carbon. So let's not, you know, try not to be cynical, but let's not lose sight of the reality of what our industry is actually like. This idea of the industry that we're operating in is built off of economies of scale.
00:06:55
Speaker
And as much as you can do a pilot launch with an innovator, actually turning it into something that displaces the ubiquitous material for something that is more earth-positive, as Pengai would say, I think the price and the scalability of that innovation become really key to actually building momentum and maintaining it.
What Makes a Successful Application?
00:07:16
Speaker
So beyond a hype or pilot launch,
00:07:19
Speaker
Pangaea will struggle to really adopt innovation at scale, simply because of the challenges that you're describing. And I think it's something that we're all facing into right now as an industry.
00:07:31
Speaker
understanding to convince a consumer to buy something that is, for example, an alternative to cotton, maybe a recycled fiber, why, if the price is so much more significant, should they purchase it? And how do you tell that story? How do you build that narrative? How do you really have a clear benefit to a consumer if you're trying to display something that is ubiquitous? And like you said,
00:07:54
Speaker
In case you didn't catch everything they said, here's a quick little summary. Ella highlights the need for stating very clearly the problem that you're solving with your innovation. So no matter how excited you are about your technology, it is unlikely that anyone will want to invest money and time in your work if it's not solving a challenge that we're facing. So spend time painting a clear picture of the problem you're solving.
00:08:19
Speaker
Jillian, Adam and Chelsea all wanted to see scalable solutions. We can't make a dent in the fashion industry if our solutions are not scalable. Fashion is high volume and a low cost game. So to have an impact on the industry, we need to come up with scalable and cost effective solutions for the supply chain. As you heard here, both Pangaya and Alexander McQueen are all open to new materials and innovations. They love it, but they're looking to adopt new materials that can scale
00:08:47
Speaker
and are cost effective. Otherwise, there's very little that they can do with it. So that is a really important point to remember. Don't worry if your solution is not scalable yet. As long as it has the potential to scale, that is what they're looking for. Matthew feels that there are great opportunities around traceability and digital passports as new policy come into place in 2026. He also reminds us how important it is to communicate a passion and excitement in the application.
00:09:15
Speaker
I mean, if you're not excited about your idea and vision, it is very difficult for anyone else to be thrilled about it. So bring your energy into the application and present to the judges something that will totally blow their socks off. So now that you have the insights from the judges themselves, I'm sure you're going to put together a cracking application. The deadline is Monday, 25th March, 2024.
00:09:40
Speaker
I want to digress a little bit here for a minute before I go back to the launch. When I usually hear about competitions like these, I am really excited. But then a little voice inside my head starts listing all the reasons why I should not apply for this challenge or why my work isn't what they're looking for. And this happened recently when I heard about an Innovate UK competition. This is the UK's innovation agency.
00:10:04
Speaker
I heard about it and this little voice inside of me took over and I found all sorts of reasons why I shouldn't apply. But my lovely husband kindly reminded me that I wasn't on the judging panel of this competition so it might be better to let the Innovate UK judges decide for themselves if they should support me and my project.
00:10:25
Speaker
I thought fair point. So I put together my application and submitted it with very little expectation. And today I am thrilled to announce that I'm one of the winners of this national award. There are 233 winners and we were selected from I think over 2100 applications from across the UK. And I really am
00:10:50
Speaker
So excited to share this news because I know I can use the support to produce this podcast and bring you richer, deeper conversations from diverse experts who are leading the industry. This podcast has been a passion project of mine and receiving this award has been an incredible encouragement affirming the value of inspiring, informing and connecting people across the discipline.
00:11:16
Speaker
Remember that you're not on the judging panel, so do consider applying if you are eligible, and I want to wish you all the best of luck.
Innovative Case Study: Modern Synthesis
00:11:24
Speaker
Now, back to the launch. The same evening, we also had Jen Keene, founder of Modern Synthesis, share about her experience in building a fashion startup and developing innovative solutions using biomaterials. Modern Synthesis was one of the winners from a previous innovation challenge run by Fashion District,
00:11:44
Speaker
And here's a clip of Jen discussing the work that they do. So we're a London-based biotech company bringing life to new materials, and that is biology and our renewed understanding of the living world around us into not only the materials that we use, but the systems that we have to create those materials and rebuilding those supply chains.
00:12:06
Speaker
We've developed a new class of fine materials, as we say, where we work with bacteria to produce a type of non-woven textile that can be used to displace materials like leather, as we've talked about, but can also with future replace synthetics and a wide variety of coded textiles in applications in fashion, but also beyond that into other industries
00:12:36
Speaker
So I can explain a little bit about the material that we make. So bacteria, we found them in kombucha tea. So you probably all heard of kombucha materials. And that's scoby that they produce. Most of that material is produced by the bacteria, not the yeast in there. And it has really interesting properties. So you get this nano material called bacterial nanosellulose. And what we were looking at is these nanostructures and fibers and their ability to make
00:13:04
Speaker
really interesting bonds with each other, but also other materials. And so we developed a new type of material where we take, this was a yarn scaffold that we developed the pattern in-house actually on our custom robots, created this pattern and then formed that material around that textile to create this composite material that we use for the body of the bag. So all of this material for this bag was actually grown in-house.
00:13:31
Speaker
formed together in-house and then given to Danny's team.
00:13:35
Speaker
Jen and Lauren Bartley, the head of innovation at Garni, talked about their partnership and product development of the bow bag. Now the bag, which is one of the iconic bags really, was previously made from recycled leather. But now with this partnership, they are working towards making the entire bag out of nano cellulose materials made by bacteria. How incredible is that? So check out the link for modern synthesis below in the information as well.
00:14:05
Speaker
I mean, altogether it was a fabulous night of networking and meeting people doing some incredible work in the fashion and textile industry. I will definitely be inviting some of them as guests on this podcast. So do keep an eye out for more. Please do follow and subscribe to the podcast so you can get all the latest episodes as soon as it drops.
Engagement Call: Participate in a Survey
00:14:25
Speaker
and leave a review. I would love to hear from you. There's also a tiny two-minute survey for you to participate in if you like. This would greatly help me plan and curate future episodes, so I would deeply appreciate it if you could take some time out to do that as well. As I mentioned, I want to use this award to bring you the most valuable episodes going forward, and your feedback will help me do this. The link to the survey is also in the show notes.
00:14:53
Speaker
Thanks everyone, stay tuned for the next one. Bye for now. This is your host, Millie Tharkin.