Hackathon Date: 7-8th Oct 2023
- Problem statement: BCG track
- Are you applying for the grant with the same project you submitted at the vechain Hackathon: Almost. Our original project was Artika Refashion, this Sozo inFashion is a spin-off of the original as a new approach to using Vechain. Our team has split from Artika Refashion and is NOT affiliated with Artika Refashion.
- Project name: Sozo inFashion
- Team name: Sozo inFashion
- GitHub handle: Zibilicious
- College / Employer: Boston University
- Payment Address: 0x50545abB29D7e1724d04958eB2c31aBEF4227559
We are Sozo inFashion, formerly known as Artika Refashion, a marketplace that connects independent fashion designers with users for fixing, upstyling, and innovating fashion. Following extensive discussions and research, three original Artika Refashion team members—Zi, Anna, and Alika—have identified a better opportunity to champion sustainable fashion by applying Vechain's innovative approach to Web3. While Sozo remains a marketplace connecting independent fashion designers to users, it differs from Artika by encouraging the commissioning of new fashion pieces rather than fixing and upstyling. This process is akin to a consumer commissioning an artist for a painting. The idea emerged when we realized that the back-and-forth shipping process for delivering used clothing pieces to a fashion designer would result in a surge in carbon emissions, contradicting our mission of promoting sustainable fashion. With Sozo, we limit the shipment to a one-way process, and we have future plans to reduce carbon emissions as the project grows.
Vechain Application Unlike Artika, where NFTs are created for each clothing piece, we shift our main focus to designers—the backbone of this app. With Sozo, designers are each affiliated with blockchain technology to track their design history. This ensures that designers receive proper credit for their work, and users can trust a designer's experience.
The New Approach
For Sozo, we have adopted the lean startup methodology, testing the product through rigorous user surveys, market research, and finding a product-market fit before fully developing the tech. Our general approach involves using the initial round of funding to conduct extensive interviews with fashion designers, customers, and various small fashion brands. This provides a better understanding of necessary app features and uncovers potential problems. Once we gather sufficient user data and conduct thorough market research, we will begin building the technical aspects. Simultaneously, we will conduct User Acceptance Testing (UAT) to ensure that we are always attuned to the needs of our designers and users.
Why Sozo inFashion and not Artika Refashion
As different philosophies and Vechain implementation ideas emerged while working on Artika Refashion, our team split into two. The main differences between Sozo and Artika are as follows:
- At Sozo, we firmly believe that implementing blockchain technology for designers, rather than focusing solely on clothing, aligns more closely with our core philosophy of prioritizing support for designers. Our goal is to revolutionize the demanding fashion industry for designers by harnessing the power of Vechain's sustainable blockchain. Vechain's blockchain stands out with EVM compatibility, low gas fees, and a dedicated emphasis on sustainability. With its extensive ecosystem of libraries, we are confident that it will deliver the optimal development and user experience for our platform. By integrating Vechain, we not only streamline the design process but also contribute to a more sustainable and efficient fashion industry, empowering designers to thrive in a cutting-edge, environmentally conscious landscape.
- At Sozo, we believe that engaging with customers and designers first provides greater strength in building a successful product that people will use. Rather than building an app without talking to potential customers, we believe that this approach is crucial to creating something enduring.
- Smart contracts, written in Solidity, on VeChainThor.
- React Native frontend to create single codebase for all platforms (iOS, Android, Web).
- back4app BaaS to efficiently create, manage and scale backend resources.
- RESTful API backend made with back4app.
- Real-time database, provided by back4app, to store user data and link related objects.
Our PoC was submitted to the VeChain/EasyA hackathon and can be found https://github.com/KShervington/sozo-app
We distinguish ourselves with a digital platform connecting independent fashion designers to users. This platform enables users to commission new fashion pieces, akin to acquiring an art piece. We've identified a prevalent issue in the fashion industry—many independent designers often find themselves working in roles they dislike, all in pursuit of an opportunity with a larger design firm or brand.
Our ultimate objective is to become the Spotify for fashion.
- Web2 Competitors:
- Depop
- Poshmark
- Thredup
- Stitch Fix
- Fiverr
- Upwork
- Etsy
- Zi Zheng (Team Lead)
- Kyle Shervington (Developer)
- Alika Grigorova (Project manager)
- Anna Sokolova (Project manager)
- sozoinfashion.com
- Zi
- Zi has 4+ years of experience working cross-functionally developing and managing mobile apps and websites from marketing agencies and startups to global corporations like Goodyear and Bank of America.
- https://www.zizheng.io/
- Kyle
- Kyle has 5+ years of experience designing and building custom software solutions. He has experience building cross-platform apps for startups, establishing cloud-based testing solutions at fortune 500 companies and creating purpose-built software tools for scientific research.
- Anna
- Anna has started multiple initiatives and held club leadership positions , as well as gained professional experience managing operations as an intern at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices.
- Alika
- Alika has worked as a project manager for non-profit initiatives, and gained professional experience as a financial analyst in a private business company.
- https://github.com/KShervington/sozo-app
- https://github.com/KShervington/sozo-smart-contracts
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/zi-zheng/
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-shervington/
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-sokolova-419a41273/
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/alika-grigorova-61159b281/
| Milestone 1 | Milestone 2 | Milestone 3 | Milestone 4 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Estimated Duration | 30 d | 60 d | 30 d | 20 d | 140 d |
| Full-time equivalent (FTE) | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Cost (up to $ 30,000) | $ 5,000 | $ 5,000 | $ 10,000 | $ 10,000 | $ 30,000 |
| Number | Deliverable | Specification |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Website | Design and launch a well-crafted temporary website that actively showcases our app, services, and future vision. This will ensure that people surveyed gain a tangible and actionable insight into what our app is all about. |
| 2. | User Surveys | Publish surveys online through various marketing channels to gather at least 100 users to submit feedback on the problem we are tackling. |
| 3. | Designer Surveys | Take proactive steps to personally engage with independent fashion designers, conducting in-depth interviews to ensure that the functionalities we are building align precisely with their desired features. |
| 4. | Technical Roadmap | With the collected data, draft a more definitive roadmap for development. |
| Number | Deliverable | Specification |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Documentation | Create in-depth documentation outlining API functionality (smart contract triggers, user authentication, data management). |
| 2. | back4app | Create resources (API, databases, test data, etc.) on the back4app platform, as outlined in the documentation. |
| 3. | Smart Contracts | Create smart contracts for tracking user history stored on VeChain Thor (conducted on the VeChain testnet by interacting with a public node via the Thorest API). |
| 4. | UI | Create barebones UI in in react native to ensure basic frontend-backend communication. |
| 5. | Unit Testing | Conduct unit testing of all major functions and smart contracts to ensure business logic robustness. |
| Number | Deliverable | Specification |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Build UI | Iteratively build frontend according to design mockups; Done on a per screen basis where functionality is consistent across all platforms. |
| 2. | Connect Backend | Install the Parse SDK via respective node module and initialize it using App Keys provided on the back4app website. |
| 3. | Functional Testing | Ensure UI interactions propagate through API to trigger smart contracts and testnet updates. Similar testing for traditional database querying and updates. |
| Number | Deliverable | Specification |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Deployment | Deplay app on the App and Google Play Store. Store compliance would have been verified in previous milestone while creating beta builds of the app. |
| 2. | Write tutorials | Create blog posts on the website to teach new users how to best use our product. |
| 3. | Marketing | Create a marketing campaign to attract new users. |
Develop a decentralized platform that actively connects designers and users, streamlining sustainable fashion. Utilize blockchain technology to represent each designer, ensuring meticulous tracking and verification of every fashion piece. This strategy aims to enhance credibility within our fashion designer ecosystem.
Introduce a "sustainably produced" line of clothing, tracked through NFTs and historical records in the supply chain. Our tokenized loyalty system will include Early Access Tokens and VIP Event Access Tokens, which enhance demand and create unique opportunities for users. This collaboration is mutually beneficial, allowing luxury brands to build a "green" reputation without sacrificing profits while gaining new customers. Sozo 2.0 also enables users to trade redesigned clothing, boosting engagement and demand. Our long-term vision is to become the go-to social media app in the Web3 fashion industry for entertainment, inspiration, and services.
We have already created UI mockups and a pitch deck which was presented at the Vechain/EasyA hackathon at Harvard. We won 2nd place on the BCG track with these assets, and have edited them since then to reflect the budget and time available provided by this grant. Our original application Artika Refashion is no longer a part of this current team and the current team is no longer affiliated with Artika Refashion. We believe that this new approach for applying Vechain to our sustainable fashion tech, we would be able to adopt a far greater usage of the application. We also believe that our current team of 4 has more horsepower to drive the project far greater than what the hackathon had to offer. We are excited to build this and test it. Thank you for your consideration and please reach out if there are any questions or concersn about our previous application and we will be happy to resolve any concerns.
- Peter Zhou (Chief scientist at Vechain)
- Marina Fortunato (Project manager at Vechain)
- Bernhard Kronfellner (Boston Consulting Group)