"Uber for tailors" wins Sustainable Fashion Challenge
Amanda Jonsson puts a pair of worn-out shoes in a bag. If all goes well, they will be back in a week, good as new. After half an hour’s interview, Pastisch, an "Uber for tailors", has secured their first customer.
Inspired by Uber and Tiptapp
The idea behind Pastisch is inspired by solutions like Uber or Tiptapp, with the goal of making it easier for you to repair your clothes and shoes. You simply take a picture of what you want to repair, upload it to their website, and wait for offers from tailors near you. The garments get picked up from your home, and return repaired and delivered in an elegant box.
- Sustainability is very important to us, says founder and KTH student Axel Andersson. If you have a piece of clothing or a pair of shoes that you love, you want to keep them as long as possible, and repairs are extremely resource efficient compared to buying new items.
Wanted to repair his shoes
Eric Bojs first came up with the idea when he wanted to repair his one-year-old sneakers that had were already getting worn out. Before he found someone willing to fix them, he had to go around town and ask five or six different tailors. Erik, who studies Industrial Management at KTH, figured that there must be a better to find a tailor and teamed up with Axel Andersson, another Indek student. Together they came to KTH Innovation last autumn, where they met with business development coach Tom Magnergård to discuss their idea. However, as so often happens, exams and life got in the way, and they put their idea on hold.
Forming the team
A few months later, Leone Lee and Amanda Jonsson, students in the Fashion Studies program at Stockholm University, visited Sustainable Fashion Day, an event organized by KTH Innovation to inspire more people at KTH to develop ideas for a more sustainable fashion industry. They started talking to Tom Magnergård about their idea about making it easier to hire tailors. Tom connected the two groups, and so the team behind Pastisch was born.
- The problem we want to solve is that it is too much of a hassle to repair things, says Leona Lee. I know how to sew, but I still have a bag of clothes that need to be fixed in my closet. Many people buy new clothes instead of repairing the ones they own and throw away their old ones.
Won Sustainable Fashion Challenge
Team Pastisch won Sustainable Fashion Challenge, KTH Innovation's latest idea competition. The team receives 50,000 in funding to develop their idea and get invited to participate in some activities around H&M Foundation's Global Change Award, the world's biggest innovation challenge for fashion innovation, where KTH is a partner.
- It feels crazy that we won. We are really excited, says Amanda Jonsson.
- This is the first confirmation that people are interested Pastisch, and that it is not just us who this is a good idea, Erik Bojs continues. It’s really motivating!
Securing their first customer
When asked what the plan is for the future, the answer is unanimous: securing their first customer. When I show my own favorite sneakers, adorned with their own holes in the toes, the suggestion comes straight away:
- We can take them! Give us your shoes and we will make sure they get fixed.
My shoes disappear into a brown paper bag and the team leaves Teknikringen 1. One week later, we meet again. My shoes appear from the Pastisch box wrapped in silver tissue paper. The holes are gone.
By Lisa Bäckman