Startup Series: unspun
unspun is a robotics and digital apparel company building custom jeans for each consumer, on demand. Their mission is to reduce global carbon emissions by 1% through automated, localized, and intentional apparel manufacturing. By using the iPhone FaceID sensor to create a digital avatar, unspun can instantly tailor and build each garment to the actual customer, and deliver a completely custom product (style, fabric, stitching color, etc) at off-the-rack prices. The company can do this all while eliminating unsold inventory waste,which represents a $150B/yr. loss in the industry as a whole. Recently included in Time's “Best Inventions” and PopSci's “Best of What's New,” unspun is leading an industry, notoriously plagued by waste, towards a more sustainable and profitable future.
unspun co-founder and CTO Kevin Martin walks me through what motivated him and his co-founders to tackle this massive challenge within the fashion industry. We also discuss the future of apparel in a COVID world, how unspun's core robotics technology fits with their consumer-facing brand, and Kevin's vision for the future of automated and localized manufacturing. Kevin was a great guest, and I learned a lot about the climate impact of the apparel industry.
Enjoy the show!
You can find me on Twitter @jjacobs22 (me), @mcjpod (podcast) or @mcjcollective (company). You can reach us via email at info@mcjcollective.com, where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.
In today's episode, we cover:
Climate challenges in the fashion industry and how unspun addresses them
An overview of unspun and how Kevin started the company
The company’s core robotics technology
How unspun approaches the consumer market
Kevin's vision for the future of automated and localized manufacturing
