Publicatie in TechMag: geschreven door Magali De Reu - Start it @kbc

The Story of COSH! : Bringing Transparency and Conscious Shopping to Individual Consumers in the Fashion Industry

Given the glo­bal sup­ply chains of many major indu­stries in the ear­ly 21^st Cen­tu­ry, it’s under­stan­da­ble that a lot of con­su­mers of their pro­ducts would beco­me inte­rested in the con­di­ti­ons and qua­li­ty of what goes on far from what they can see. We want to spend our money in res­pon­si­ble ways when we can. But that’s the pro­blem, often we don’t have enough infor­ma­ti­on to know, or it’s too dif­fi­cult to get at the time of pur­cha­se. That’s whe­re COSH! comes in, to help make con­scious shop­ping more con­ve­nient and avai­la­ble than befo­re. Recent­ly, we sat down with Niki de Schry­ver, foun­der of COSH! to ask her about how she got star­ted, how Start it @KBC is hel­ping her jour­ney, and whe­re to go from here.

The Concept and Problems with the Global Fashion Industry

We’ve all been hea­ring about pro­blems in the glo­bal Fas­hi­on Indu­stry for deca­des now. Using low-paid labor, being major pol­lu­ters, and so on. And the­se sto­ries have had an impact on how peo­p­le want to shop. With her more than 14 years of expe­rien­ce in the sec­tor, Niki has seen this shift up clo­se. ​“I noti­ce that cus­to­mers of the major brands are incre­a­sin­gly deman­ding transpa­ren­cy about the sustai­na­bi­li­ty of their pro­duct choi­ces,” she says. Often times, the brands and sto­res are obscu­re about the labor and envi­ron­men­tal impact of their pro­ducts, whe­ther in per­son or on the web. She points out, ​“The chan­ce that that 3 Euro t‑shirt is made with sustai­na­bly-sour­ced mate­ri­als is very small, you see.” Many cus­to­mers can know some­thing like this, but lose sight of it at the time of pur­cha­se becau­se the incen­ti­ves to make bet­ter choi­ces aren’t the­re. And that’s whe­re COSH! comes in ​“I want to acce­le­ra­te the tran­si­ti­on to a sustai­na­ble fas­hi­on indu­stry by mat­ching cus­to­mers fas­ter with sustai­na­ble pro­duct lines and brands,” says Niki.

“Many cus­to­mers for­get their good inten­ti­ons once they are shop­ping, becau­se they do not have the right infor­ma­ti­on, or becau­se they can no lon­ger see the trees through the forest”

With COSH!, a cus­to­mer in a shop­ping dis­trict will recei­ve noti­fi­ca­ti­ons from the app about the sustai­na­bi­li­ty ratings (from A – Best, to E – Worst) of sto­res and brands in the area. It will also be able to show near­by loca­ti­ons with bet­ter sustai­na­bi­li­ty ratings. And if cus­to­mers pre­fer to shop onli­ne, they will be able to run a check through COSH! right on the machi­ne direct­ly, and offe­red more sustai­na­ble opti­ons from other onli­ne retai­lers. Niki knows that many cus­to­mers want to shop in a sustai­na­ble way, but aren’t given the right infor­ma­ti­on in the right way at point-of-pur­cha­se. ​“They for­get the­se good inten­ti­ons once they are shop­ping, becau­se they do not have the right infor­ma­ti­on, or becau­se they can no lon­ger see the trees through the forest.” COSH! gives them that infor­ma­ti­on, right in their hands.

Getting Started with COSH

Becau­se Niki is such a long-term vete­ran of the Fas­hi­on indu­stry, and has wor­ked in the C‑Suite with so many brands and pro­du­cers, she came to the star­tup world with the con­tacts and expe­rien­ce in the field that she nee­ded. The idea itself, though, grew out of the event Hack­Bel­gi­um, ​“It’s an event whe­re you col­la­bo­ra­te with a who­le group of other entre­pre­neurs and foun­ders.” Niki was able to devel­op the idea through her years of expe­rien­ce in sustai­na­ble fas­hi­on and espe­ci­al­ly as a con­sul­tant for small brands get­ting star­ted in the fas­hi­on world, and hand­ed in the first pro­po­sal to Flan­ders Cir­cu­lair in 2017. Niki per­sisted becau­se she belie­ved in her core idea. ​“I regu­lar­ly saw that it was dif­fi­cult for the­se brands to find enough clients fast enough to stay in busi­ness. The­se kinds of brands need a fas­ter way to find the right clients and stand out.”

That put together the client side of the busi­ness con­cept, but she still nee­ded part­ners of her own. ​“I had a pro­ject part­ner in the begin­ning, but he chan­ged to pur­sue his own pro­jects, and now we are loo­king for poten­ti­al cofoun­ders, espe­ci­al­ly a CTO with a com­mit­ment to sustai­na­bi­li­ty.” But the pas­si­on for the pro­ject is the­re, and the clients and indu­stry she’s tar­ge­ting need some dis­rup­ti­on. So Niki is kee­ping at it ​“It’s hard to make the right choi­ces in this indu­stry. A lot of brands claim that they’re sustai­na­ble, but they’re real­ly just ​“green­was­hing.” COSH! has an impor­tant role to fill gui­ding cus­to­mers to more sustai­na­ble pro­ducts, based on cer­ti­fied infor­ma­ti­on and sci­en­ti­fic fib­re research on the cir­cu­la­ri­ty of the gar­ment after use.

Making it Happen with Start It

Sin­ce their incep­ti­on, both COSH! and Start it @KBC have under­stood the impor­tan­ce and cen­tra­li­ty of brin­ging talen­ted peo­p­le together to work on pro­jects that con­nect to their pas­si­on. And Niki says that eve­ry day, the com­mu­ni­ty at Start it @KBC makes it worth it. ​“It’s real­ly inte­res­ting, and a very vibrant com­mu­ni­ty. All the ses­si­ons and work­shops are enri­ching and edu­ca­ti­o­nal. The only hard part is that I’m still here by myself, and I can’t attend everything.”

“The men­tor­ship aspect of Start It has been great”

Of cour­se, Start it @KBC also emp­ha­sises the impor­tan­ce of having the spa­ce be a learning com­mu­ni­ty as well as a spa­ce to col­la­bo­ra­te and net­work. And for Niki, it’s been espe­ci­al­ly help­ful to be able to sha­re her expe­rien­ces with some entre­pre­neurs who have been in their star­tups a litt­le lon­ger. ​“The men­tor­ship aspect of it has been gre­at. To enga­ge with the other foun­ders and co-foun­ders, and hear about how many of them have been through the same strug­gles. And that way, I got a few col­lea­gues,” she says.

There’s still a lot of work left to do on COSH! We are pivo­ting with the busi­ness model, based on fur­ther mar­ket research. ​“And we’re still see­king the right part­ner to build a proof of con­cept within accep­ta­ble bud­get,” adds Niki. There’s a lot of work ahead for COSH! and for Niki, but given the obsta­cles over­co­me so far, and with the help of the com­mu­ni­ty and ser­vi­ces at Start It @KBC, the sky­’s the limit. In the 21^st Cen­tu­ry, we all need to be more con­scious of our shop­ping, and COSH! is at the cut­ting edge of our evol­ving shop­ping habits!

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Writ­ten by Maga­li De Reu