Bold Brands: Technology and Innovation in Apparel

Listen in as host Jeff Mergy talks with Carolyn Mair, Behavioral Psychologist & Author of The Psychology of Fashion. They discuss apparel's impact on human behavior, sustainability, and how what we wear influences our emotions and moods.

Listen in as host Jeff Mergy and Bethany Muths, Chief Marketing, Digital, and Omni Officer at Mizzen+Main, discuss driving customer engagement through product and marketing in the latest episode of Bold Brands.

Join us as host Jeff Mergy discusses the latest in video commerce & apparel technology, and how it's shaping the future with Sophie Abrahamsson, President of Americas at Bambuser.

Listen in as host Jeff Mergy talks with Cecelia McAleer, an apparel industry executive with over 25 years of experience in leading, building, and developing Technical Design and Product Development teams. They discuss how apparel design has evolved over the years, the role that data plays in fit and sizing, the importance of fit preference to today's consumer, and more.

Join us as we chat with Naomi Blackman, co-founder of alder apparel, about what inspired the creation of the brand and how they're working towards changing what inclusivity means in the outdoor apparel industry. Founded in Toronto in 2019 by Naomi and National Geographic Explorer Mikayla Wujec, alder apparel was created after noticing a lack of stylish, versatile, well-fitting, and size-inclusive women’s apparel options for exploring the outdoors. Learn more about how they incorporated feedback from their customers to grow their product line, how they're trying to change the way women think about clothing size, the challenges of designing clothing for a wide range of body shapes and sizes, and more.

Join us on this exciting episode of BOLD Brands as we sit down with Marie Gloss, SVP of Content Strategy, and Brian Filler, CRO at Hyde Closet, the breakthrough company disrupting the traditional menswear industry. Hyde Closet delivers professionally styled, rental menswear in subscription boxes to simplify shopping while generating valuable data insights. Uncover how they offer unique exposure for emerging brands, drive effective marketing through style curation, and help large brands mobilize idle inventory—a must-listen for those keen on innovative retail and inventory management solutions.

Join us for an inspiring conversation with Justyna Przygonska, co-founder of The Odder Side, and brand manager Monika Bozyk. Learn how the brand integrates sustainable practices throughout the business by implementing eco-friendly production methods and reducing packaging waste while creating stylish apparel for the modern woman. Discover the team’s bold approach to building a brand, creating covetable clothing, overcoming the challenges of a competitive retail environment, and scaling sustainably beyond its Polish roots.

Join us as we sit down with Maria McDonald, the Director of Sustainability at https://unitedbyblue.com/, a brand dedicated to creating sustainable and ethical products for outdoor enthusiasts. Maria shares her insights on sustainability in the fashion industry, the challenges and opportunities in creating eco-friendly products, and United by Blue's positive impact on the environment. Don't miss this fascinating conversation about ethical consumerism, sustainable practices, and the fashion industry's future.

Join us as Edzard van der Wyck, the visionary co-founder of UK-based apparel knitwear company Sheep Inc., shares how data can disrupt an apparel category for the better, why the brand is using technology to track and optimize their production, manufacturing, and distribution, and exactly how Sheep Inc. became the world’s first carbon negative apparel brand while supporting animal welfare and land regeneration. Listen now on BOLD Brands!

Ebru Debbag, Executive Director of Global Sales and Marketing at SOORTY is a veteran in the industry and takes an impact-at-scale approach to drive positive change through one of the world’s most prominent vertically-integrated denim jeans manufacturers. Ebru has introduced a New York showroom cum collaborations space to foster future possibilities in denim design and manufacturing (Space D), launched a series of CSR projects to keep the community thriving, and introduced a more regenerative approach at SOORTY, with circularity top of mind. Listen now for great insights on innovation in the denim industry.

Volumental is a fit-tech pioneer that matches customers with perfect-fitting shoes through computer vision, purchase data, and AI from 3D scans to recommend the optimal sizes, brands, and styles for each customer. BOLD Brands speaks with Brent Hollowell, Volumental’s Chief Marketing Officer, to find out how AI is already disrupting the footwear industry for the better and how to communicate this tech innovation to customers in a way that is human and relatable. A must-listen for anyone in footwear.

Silq is modern businesses' first and only all-inclusive flat rate shipping solution. Ram Radhakrishnan, Silq’s CEO and co-founder, speaks with BOLD Brands host Jeff Mergy to outline how the company uses proprietary inspection data to deliver predictable shipping costs and transit times to empower apparel manufacturing companies to scale their business effectively. Listen now.

Geren Lockhart is the co-founder and CEO of lifestyle and fashion brand, Canava - a company that prioritizes positive impact and offers world-class, functional, lasting products. A former executive VP of Emerging Brands at J. Crew, Geren started Canava with co-founder Yisbel Zamora to create a sustainable lifestyle and apparel line that focuses on redefining the tools of a conscious lifestyle. Learn how a focus on transparency and authentic narrative has helped the brand grow, and why addressing fit and sizing when selling apparel online is crucial to creating an inclusive, and successful, brand.

Founder & CEO of Factory45, Shannon Lohr works with idea-stage entrepreneurs to launch brands that are sustainably and ethically-made. She has worked closely with startup apparel companies from all over the world to create environmentally-friendly products while empowering transparency in the supply chain. BOLD Brands host Jeff Mergy speaks with this Wall Street Journal “Woman of Note” to find out how apparel brands can increase supply chain transparency through sourcing, localization and storytelling, as well as what exactly the future of fashion entails.

As the VP of partnerships for resale tech company Recurate, Karen Dillie draws on her deep retail and resale experience honed from previous roles at Sotheby’s and The RealReal, to help brands integrate a peer-to-peer marketplace seamlessly into their existing eCommerce platform. Fueled by her passion for sustainability and circularity, Karin gives us the inside scoop on why resale is imperative for brands, both as a positive environmental approach and as a revenue driver. Listen now to discover how Recurate leverages the blockchain to ensure authenticity, why it is the only tech resale provider that directly integrates into a brand’s eCommerce, and how it uses data to drive smarter decisions at the companies it partners with.

Vanessa Barboni Hallik is the founder and CEO of the first B Corp certified luxury fashion brand, Another Tomorrow. A former Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, Vanessa left her finance career to focus on sustainable fashion after learning about the repercussions of apparel supply chains. On this episode of BOLD Brands, our host Jeff Mergy, speaks with Vanessa to discover how Another Tomorrow is reinventing the way luxury brands do business by providing complete tech-enabled supply chain transparency and embedded resale, and how fashion start-ups can integrate activism in a way that is both impactful and effective. Listen now!

Play Out Apparel is a gender, race, age, sexuality, size, and ability-inclusive brand launched in 2018. Starting with gender-inclusive underwear and streetwear with sizing from XS to 5X, the brand is also developing its own gender-equal swim category to launch this year. Bold Brands speaks with its CEO and co-founder, Abby Sugar, on what it takes to build a truly inclusive brand, how the company embodies its values throughout the manufacturing and marketing process, and what making it to the Forbes 2021 Next 1000 list means for them.

In this episode of BOLD Brands, host Jeff Mergy speaks with John Strotbeck, the founder of Boathouse Sports, a custom athletic outerwear and gear brand that combines mass customization with lean enterprise to deliver the highest quality product to over 500,000 teams and 10 million athletes over the last two decades. Discover how Boathouse Sports started with a handful of products before turning into a full apparel team supplier nationwide and abroad, all while keeping manufacturing in Philadelphia, PA. 

In this episode we speak with outdoor apparel brand Livsn’s founder, Andrew Gibbs-Dabney, to find out how their dynamic and sustainable approach to building the brand, and its product, paid off. Livsn is an outdoor apparel brand for people who value collecting experiences more than stuff. Their apparel is built with quality and longevity in mind—providing its customers with durable, versatile and good-looking clothing to help them enjoy the great outdoors.

In this episode, our host Jeff Mergy speaks with Marije de Roos, the self-styled Circular Fashion Detective to find out what circular fashion is and what it means to her. Learn how the industry can build trust without greenwashing, and why fully-compostable fabrics need to be the future of fashion. Marije’s own brand - Positive Fibers, recently created the world’s first fully-compostable jacket as proof that fashion and ethics can work together to create something beautiful. Listen now on Apple Podcasts.