Offline Crowdsourcing - The Openwear Collaboration

http://openwear.org/lookmap

In 2010, the Openwear platform hosted a workshop on collaborative design, which explored crowdsourcing offline, i.e. a group of eight people from different countries was formed and the members were asked to perform design tasks in a collaborative context. The participants were interviewed afterwards as to their experience and opinions concerning this “real life” crowdsourcing event.

What was really interesting about the outcome of this project was that Openwear participants view collaborative design as something beneficial for the fashion industry and possibly even for society as a whole. The Threadless community on the other hand lays a strong emphasis in the on the assumption that crowdsourcing enhances personal skills. They value the feeling of belonging, inclusiveness and diverse influences that come with being part of an international, versatile online community, not only because they feel it has a positive effect on their design work, but also because they appreciate the socialising aspect of it.

In comparison, Openwear collaborators put the benefits of collaboration into a significantly larger context, not considering personal advantages at all. They believe that collaborative design can benefit the fashion industry as a whole by providing a better, more focused innovation process that can pinpoint consumers’ actual needs.

It's All About the Profession!

With everybody talking about consumer empowerment through crowdsourcing I found it a bit bewildering, that on the one platform where that form of consumer interaction would be most likely, it is actually professional designers that create the products.

                   http://www.threadless.com/Made/

Having taken a closer look at the Threadless community and their gallery of submitters, I found it it quite surprising that only 5 out of 29 people are not either professional graphic designers, illustrators or involved in any kind of other artistic profession. Can that even be called consumer empowerment? I don't think so. In fact, it looks like the opposite. It seems like yet another classic producer-consumer relationship with the difference that the Threadless corporation does not have to legally employ or sub-contract their designers who even do the work without having the security of actually getting paid.

Yay, another win-win-win-situation for the company!

It's a People's Business...

This might not be surprising, but the main driver for crowdparticipation on commercial platforms is...

        ... not money.
        ... not fame.
        ... not the design work itself.

It is being part of a community! All of the above are definitely driving factors as well, but they all fall through, if there is no strong community to tie the people in.

The Game is on!

Not only are Threadless designers keen on sharing their ideas, thoughts and designs with community members, they are definitely eager to win as well. It seems as though it's some sort of obsession for them to create something that is widely appreciated and printed, therefore coming to life.
Here are a few quotes on that:

"Threadless and designers have been searching a very long time for the secret formula. And, I think, nobody has got the answer at this point."
( Jaco Haasbroek, Graphic Designer, Cape Town)

"And after getting my first print it really gave me, you know, the confidence that I really needed to keep submitting and making more things. I always get a little bit of a kick whenever I see somebody on the street wearing a Threadless T-shirt."
(Will Bryant, Illustrator, Portland, USA)

"I think when I first started I would see what got printed and I would think: ‘Oh, I could do that! And then I would try to imitate it or try to do something so it would fit in."
(Katie Campbell, Designer, Savannah, USA)

Diversity Rules in Threadless!

Checking out the Threadless community I was amazed by the diversity of people. They come from different countries and all walks of life. Brazil, Austria, South Africa, UK, US and the Netherlands are only a few examples. And what's even more striking is the fact that some people have jobs that have nothing creative to them, like quality management in a manufacturing plant or driving vehicles on a construction site. Of course there are also community members that are graphic designers or illustrators. But, they all have one thing in common: They use Threadless as an outlet for expressing themselves outside their day-time jobs, for making progress in their art work and most importantly, being a part of a very inclusive, dynamic and design loving community.

Admittedly, I might be a bit narrow-minded, but could you believe that

somebody working that job...                                                                 ...lives in a place looking like that?

Crowdfunding Might Not Be the Midas Touch.

Relating to the previous post, here is another example of crowdfunding gone wrong.

“Catwalk Genius introduced the concept of ‘crowd-funding’ to the fashion industry. In short, anyone may buy shares in a new fashion collection. The funding collected is used to create a clothing range and the revenues from its sales are shared equally between designer, supporters and Catwalk Genius. Supporters are given perks in return for their support, such as signed design sketches or seats at a catwalk show.” (http://www.openbusiness.cc/2010/01/13/catwalk-genius/)

 After closing down they explain that they had difficulty providing a constantly adapting and appropriate web surface as well as boosting constant traffic on their sight.


Possible learnings from Catwalk Genius and Sew Love might be:
* Crowds don't just turn up out of nowhere and stay. Potential crowdsourcing members need to be directed to the website and
  constantly encouraged to stay active.
* Crowds don't seem to like financial commitments prior to the production.

Fashion in the Hands of People Who Wear it - Crowdsourcing and Crowdfunding in One Go!

I just found a new venture that tried combing crowdsourcing and crowdfunding in an attempt to create a risk-free business. On www.sewlovestore.com people are asked to submit designs, comment on others and vote for projects that then get produced. So far nothing new. But what then is requested of the community is to place a pre-order on the items they want to buy.
I guess the two founders saw the potential of crowdsourcing comminuties being able to provide good designs and demand at the same time and where hoping to reduce their own investments. Unfortunately, there wasn't much traffic on the site and seems as though project sourcing has come to a halt.

 

However, in this little video on their business idea it becomes clear what they want to achieve and why they want people to participate. They want to:
... stop the cycle of fashion dictated upon the consumer.
... enable the consumers to express their true self through fashion created by themselves.
... control where and how fashion is being produced.

The incentive for the designers, apart from producing an item they want, is:
... their name on the tag.
... royalties on sales of the item.
... being part of a community of people who want to change the world of fashion.

Fame & Fortune!

Relating to my earlier post I would like to add a Threadless Youtube video I just found. The central message with which they are trying to lure people into participating is "fame and fortune".

I think we might be getting closer here! Granted that Threadless seems to pay the winning designer a fairly high prize money it still doesn't seem to be the only motivating factor for people to join a crowd. Apparently Threadless seems to think that a good portion of ego massage is necessary as well.
 

In fact, it might be even more important than the money, which is why ModCloth don't even bother offering any compensation to their "buying crowd" other than sweet-talk. If you read their call for participation you will find a lot of schmoozing going on, making the crowdmembers feel important.

Crowdsourcing Fashion Buying - A Win-win-win Situation?

http://www.modcloth.com/shop/be-the-buyer

Seems they couldnt get enough of involving their community! Three years ago ModCloth introduced their "Be the Buyer" programme asking their customers to vote for design samples that then get produced and sold.

Does that sound familiar to you? Yes, Threadless was the first to base their entire business idea on their community producing designs and choosing what gets produced. These two companies are surely not doing this out of social-mindedness. Those $ 7,120,00 that have been awarded to winning artists over the last years are only a fraction of what Threadless is turning over. And there are many more reasons than just high profits. By crowdsourcing idea generation, marketing and sales forecasting...

*Win no. 1* ...less specialised staff is needed, therefore reducing fixed costs.
*Win no. 2* ...innovation failure rates are low (or even non-existent), as the buyers design and choose the garments they want.
*Win no. 3* ...there is a significant reduction in unsold stock, so no clearance is needed.

There can be many more wins in this constellation, which makes it pretty obvious why more and more companies try to jump on the crowdsourcing wagon, doesn't it?

The question that remains here, what's in it for the crowds? Is it money, too? Given the numbers above are true, a quick calculation (7,120,000 ÷ 1,570) shows that the creator of each winning design got an average of $ 4,535,03. Not bad at all, yet probably not the only reason. I will look further into this...

Contest or Crowdsourcing?

http://www.ecouterre.com/modcloth-unveils-crowdsourced-u-s-made-make-the-cut-collection/

The fashion retailer ModCloth is often referred to as one of the few companies that know how to make use of crowdsourcing. Three years ago they launched their "Make the Cut: Premiere Collection" which was sourced and selected from customer submissions. ModCloth gave the final vote to Facebook users. The winning designers got a prize of $500 and their name printed on the garment.
The question is: Is this actual crowdsourcing or a simple design contest with customers being the final jury?

Finally a real word: “It’s not outsourcing; it’s crowdsourcing.” (Howe, J, 2006)

 

http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2013/06/oed-june-2013-update/

Did you know that the term "crowdsourcing" made it into the Oxfors English Dictionary this year?

Considering that the OED defines the verb “to crowdsource” as “obtain (information or input into a particular task or project) by enlisting the services of a number of people, either paid or unpaid, typically via the Internet“ (2013) it seems quite noteworthy that the dictionaries’ content itself was once gathered by an early form of crowdsourcing in the 1800s. Volunteers used to send in paper slips of current word usages with which the dictionary was put together.

Getting to Know the Crowd

In times of fast fashion, fast consumption and fast digital media, consumers have access to global products and information. With increasing knowledge and easier access to design programmes, people have even developed the confidence to design exactly the products they want. At the other end companies are struggling with high innovation failure rates, sustainability issues and demanding consumers. Traditional R&D, especially in the creative industries, is being challenged by an emerging trend of interference by the consumer, one form of this being crowdsourcing.

Fast fashion is dominating high street nowadays and considering the abundance of products it is worthwhile looking into the reasons for existing collaborative innovation in this field. Unlike crowds that innovate because of an unfulfilled physical need, there must be a psychological need within crowdsourcing in fashion and design that could possibly have a strong impact on the industry in the long run. What determines, drives and motivates this will, shall be the main focus of this blog.

This is an open space to gather information, thoughts and ideas on my current research project on consumer behaviour in corwdsourcing in fashion and design, and a platform for open discussions.

So, let's talk about the crowds!