NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The New York Fashion Tech Lab, produced in collaboration with the Partnership Fund for New York City, Springboard Enterprises and Founding Members Alex and Ani, ANN INC., The Estee Lauder Companies, J. Crew, Kate Spade & Company, Li & Fung, LVMH, Macy’s, Ralph Lauren Corporation, and Verizon, officially announced the inaugural class of 2014 Lab Companies. The twelve week Lab program provides early stage fashion tech companies with unprecedented access to New York’s leading fashion retailers and brands.
“Launching the Fashion Tech Lab in New York is an idea whose time has come,” announced Kay Koplovitz, Chairman of Springboard Enterprises. “At the same time, the start-up community is teaming with innovators and technologists eager to address the pain points of fashion and retail companies as they transition to the social and mobile communities of their customers. This is a great opportunity for entrepreneurs to iterate their products and services with the companies they expect to serve. The opportunity to unite them is priceless."
“New York City is the fashion capital of the world with over 800 companies calling the five boroughs home. With that density, it’s only logical to pair our retail and fashion houses with the city’s growing tech sector and help bring to market innovative products that have the ability to improve the consumer experience and modernize the fashion industry as a whole,” said Maria Gotsch, President and CEO of the Partnership Fund for New York City. “By uniting some of the country’s largest retailers together with some of New York’s hottest fashion start-ups, we will help spur growth and create jobs across the fashion and tech sectors.”
The Eight Lab Companies, selected for their innovative products, will work closely with the NYFT Lab’s Founding Members and have access to industry experts, investors and fashion entrepreneurs. The program, which runs from May through July, includes one-on-one meetings with resources within the Founding Member organizations, office hours with industry experts and investors, issue workshops and residency at the AlleyNYC co-working space. The program culminates in July with a Demo Day presentation by all Lab Companies to an audience of industry executives, the fashion community, investors and the press.
2014 NYFTLab Companies:
Clothes Horse - Clothes Horse makes it easy for shoppers to buy clothes that fit online and for retailers to provide amazing shopping experiences. www.clotheshor.se
Nineteenth Amendment – A crowdfunding portfolio site & product lifecycle management tool for emerging fashion designers. The company manufactures on their behalf in the USA. www.19thAmendment.co
Perch Interactive, Inc. - PERCH is a revolutionary interactive technology for the retail environment. PERCH combines interaction with products and media. www.perchinteractive.com
Stylinity - Stylinity is the premiere platform for social shopping, combining in-store Style Stage for the perfect selfie with mobile and web-based tools to create a true omnichannel social shopping experience. www.stylinity.com
Stylit - Personalizing and contextualizing fashion shopping online by combining real stylists and machine-learning technology. www.mystylit.com
StyleSage – The company analyzes billions of pricing & social signals to answer: what designs are popular, how to price, how much to produce, and where to allocate inventory. www.stylesage.co
Suddenlee - A store fulfillment technology platform offering online shoppers unlimited free next day delivery from their favorite fashion brands. www.suddenlee.com
Trendalytics - SaaS visual analytics platform that measures consumer response to fashion and beauty trends using insights from search and social platforms. www.trendalytics.co
For more information about NYFT Lab, visit www.nyftlab.com and follow @nyftlab on Twitter.
