co|wear

Startpage
keywords
pinned
display
borrowed
profile
new item
explore

Inspiration

It all started when we looked at the different tracks that Junction offered. We are all familiar with services like Uber and Airbnb, but what about fashion? We all have a lot of different clothes just laying around in our apartments; clothes that we barely use. The grass is always greener on the other side, and we constantly want new items of clothing, so why not borrow from each other?

What it does

Co|wear is fashion-as-a-service product. By being able to lend, and lend out items of clothing to other people, users can find new clothes. The different kind of items are displayed in GoogleMaps with pins at their respective locations.

If you like the item, similar items offered by Zalando are displayed. To spread the word and find new and exciting outfits, we have the Explore function. Explore allows the user to see the latest fashion pictures from Twitter. The user can then contact these fashionistas who aren't using co|wear and ask to borrow their clothes. We are essentially using existing social platforms to market our own.

How we built it

We built the entire product using Javascript, with a frontend written in React.JS and a backend written in Node.JS. We use a mongoDB to store users and items. In the backend we implement and talk to both Zalando's API, as well as Twitter's API. In the frontend we use a GoogleMap to display the user's current position and your closest borrowable items.

Challenges we ran into

One big challenge was to establish the scope of the project and what to focus on in the allotted time. We also used languages and frameworks (React.js) with which we had very little experience in order to learn. This felt like a fun challenge up until yesterday night at 2 in the morning.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are very proud of the overall feeling of the product that we've managed to build in 48 hours. co|wear is currently a prototype, but the basic functionality is easily demonstrated through our code. We also feel that the idea has potential to shake up a very traditional market.

What we learned

As always we have learned to work under pressure. It is a challenge to build something in 48 hours, and especially building something complex. We have also been given a lot of input from Zalando regarding their interests, and how we could make a business plan out of a simple idea. We have used new programming tools, which have been both fun and frustrating - but in the end extremely rewarding.

What's next for co|wear

There is plenty of work left. We want to make it easier for people to purchase at Zalando using our service. We would also like to create efficient algorithms for the recommendation system, as it is a core revenue-creating functionality of the product. We also want to improve the ease at which we poach users from existing social platforms. Not to mention, to develop the business model on which the product is built. Intrigued? Come talk to us!