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In the age of climate change, many people are trying to consume more mindfully. When it comes to fashion, this often means buying fewer clothes and wearing them longer. But that’s a hard principle to follow with children’s clothing. Kids grow out of garments quickly; they also rip and stain clothes with abandon. It’s tempting to buy them cheap clothes that you won’t mind throwing out after a few wears. And it’s easy to do exactly that when fast fashion for kids is abundant, everywhere from Target to H&M. Now, a new platform wants to make it equally easy for parents and kids to shop secondhand clothing. Rebecca Bahmani [Photo: courtesy Prelove Me] Today, Prelove Me unveils a membership-based platform that allows you to buy and sell used clothing exclusively for kids. And unlike other secondhand clothing websites like ThredUp and Poshmark, Prelove Me doesn’t transact in money but in credits. You get credits for sending in clothes, which you can then use to buy other products on the site. “In the age of fast fashion, it’s easy to think of clothes as disposable,” says Rebecca Bahmani, Prelove You’s founder. “We’re trying to push back against this by teaching them that their clothes have actual value, which they can use to buy other clothes.” The planet is drowning in clothing Some experts estimate that fashion brands produce upwards of 100 billion garments every year, for only eight billion humans. Producing these clothes consumes enormous quantities of raw materials like cotton and oil, and is responsible for up to 8.6% of the world’s global greenhouse gas footprint. There are now many companies like Circ and Repreve that are developing technology that will enable us to recycle old clothes into new ones, which is far less environmentally damaging than making new clothes from scratch. But until this kind of recycling is widespread, a more sustainable approach is buying used clothes. After all, there are already enough garments on the planet to clothe humanity for decades into the future. [Image: courtesy Prelove Me] With Prelove Me, Bahmani wanted to create a platform that would make it easier for families to access secondhand clothing for their kids. To shop the site, you must first become a member. There are three tiers of membership, ranging from $35 a month to $95 a month, that gives you access to between 30 and 75 credits every month. Clothes are priced based on their quality and brand. A Rockets of Awesome bomber jacket is 21 credits, a pair of Vans velcro sneakers is 31 credits. “A membership makes sense because families need to buy clothes for their kids on a regular basis,” she says. “Kids outgrow things quickly, and they have specific needs, like swimsuits for the summer.” Bahmani, who previously worked at a lace manufacturer called Klauber Brothers, Inc., bootstrapped the company. She spent years collecting the initial inventory by asking for donations to launch the site. But the company is also raising funds to allow it to scale, particularly when it comes to automating the logistics of receiving secondhand clothes, uploading them to the website, then sending them out to customers. ThredUp, a secondhand website that generated $260 million in revenue last year, has scaled thanks to its high-tech, highly automated warehouses. [Image: courtesy Prelove Me] To continue growing the platform’s inventory, members are invited to send in all the clothes that their kids have outgrown. They will get credits based on the quality of the garment. Clothes from designer brands and those in excellent or unworn condition will get more credits than those from mass market brands and clothes that show more wear and tear. But the website accepts clothes from all brands, including fast fashion labels like Shein. Bahmani point out that even clothes with a cheap price tag take a lot of resources to make, and it is just as important to keep them out of landfills. Bahmani wanted to make sure that families felt comfortable sending in clothes that are unwearable. Prelove will offer one credit for these clothes, and will send them to be upcycled at a company that produces housing insulation. “We’re trying to teach kids to dispose of clothes responsibly,” Bahmani says. “Upcycling is much better than just throwing them in a landfill. And in time, we’ll be looking at fabric-to-fabric recycling.” [Photo: courtesy Prelove Me] Teaching Kids Good Habits Prelove You’s website is designed to be fun, interactive, and simple enough for kids to use. The number of credits required to buy a product are clearly marked, and it’s easy to “favorite” products. And because it focuses exclusively on kid’s clothes, it is easier for kids to navigate. “Kids often want to be involved with choosing their own clothes,” she says. “We wanted to make the experience fun for them.” More broadly, however, her goal is to help instill more responsible shopping habits in kids. This website is supposed to make shopping pre-owned just as fun as shopping new. It’s also designed to give children a tangible sense of what a circular economy looks like, where clothes are kept in circulation as long as possible. There’s some evidence that young people are more willing to buy thrifted goods than previous generation: 83% of Gen Z is willing to shop pre-owned, and the global secondhand market has increased by more than a third in recent years. But at the same time, young people responsible for the explosion in ultra fast fashion brands like Shein and Temu. Many teens and twentysomethings now buy enormous quantities of clothesor “hauls”from cheap retailers and share them on social media. Bahmani believes that there is still time to shape the shopping habits of younger kids, so they grow up to be the kinds of people who understand the value of clothing and live more sustainably. “If they grow up being excited about shopping preowned, they’re likely to become adults who do the same,” she says.
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E-Commerce
Who lives in a pineapple under the sea and is coming to a mailbox near you? SpongeBob SquarePants, the star of the U.S. Postal Service’s newest postage stamps. The beloved Nickelodeon cartoon is the subject of a sheet of Forever stamps USPS will release on August 1 in a ceremony in Times Square, and wouldn’t you know it, SpongeBob is a perfect fit. Only the form of a square-shaped cartoon character perfectly matches the function of a square postage stamp the way SpongeBob does. [Image: USPS] The SpongeBob SquarePants stamps were designed by USPS art director Greg Breeding using artwork provided by Nickelodeon. They come in four different designs, two of which cleverly show only SpongeBob’s smiling face filling out the entire stamp. The other stamps feature SpongeBob with other characters from the show, including Patrick the pink starfish, Sandy the squirrel, Mr. Krabs, and Squidward. They’re perfect for birthday cards to grandkids, nieces, and nephews. And theyre worth noting for a legitimately funny design that makes the most of the limitations of a postage stamp’s small shape and size. A sheet of 16 stamps featuring the four designs will be available for $12.48. [Image: USPS] U.S. postage stamps are better known for their depictions of real people, from statesmen like George Washington and Ben Franklin, who appeared on the U.S. government’s first stamps in 1847, to pop culture icons like Betty White and Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek, who got their own stamps last year. Fictional cartoon characters like Buzz Lightyear, Bugs Bunny, and an assortment of Disney villains have gotten the postage stamp treatment before, though, and now SpongeBob joins them. SpongeBob SquarePants, which began its 16th season just last month, premiered in 1999. Created by animator Stephen Hillenburg, the show has inspired Pantone colors, pop art, and fast-food meals, and animation cels from the beloved cartoon are part of the Smithsonian’s collection. But with these USPS stamps, the cartoon has reached a new milestone. SpongeBob is now government-issued.
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E-Commerce
Design thinking, the notion that anyone can solve problems like a designer with the right method and mindset, was a mainstay of corporate America from the 2000s into the 2010s. In recent years, though, the ideology’s effectiveness has been called into question, and it has become one of the most divisive topics in the field. Now it looks like corporations have started sidestepping the term completely. When analyzing 176,000 design job listings for our annual report on Where the Design Jobs Are, we searched specifically for employers’ use of the term design thinking. We found that it dropped significantly year over year: by 9.1% in UX/UI design, 17.6% in product design, and a whopping 57.2% in graphic design. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}))}(); We have been scrutinizing the idea of design thinking for years. It began humbly, with late design luminaries including Sara Little Turnbull and Bill Morridge trying to codify the field’s human-first principles (work that would evolve at Stanford’s d.school). But as the term grew popular in the early aughtspresented primarily by the design firm IDEO as part magic, part skill that anyone could learn (just pay IDEO to learn it!)it became the de facto veneer for Fortune 500 corporations that wanted to chase some of that Apple magic. They, too, could attempt a design-forward viewpoint. My primary critique, echoed at some level by Michael Hendrix, a former IDEO partner, is that design thinking is not fundamentally different than the scientific method. The steps involved in design thinking, from forming a hypothesis to testing an idea, match up with the scientific method almost 1:1. And thats greatscience!but not particularly special. My second issue is that proponents of design thinking often frame it as synonymous with design, and to them, criticizing it is tantamount to challenging the value of design itself. But conflating the work of design and the practice of design thinking is a strategic error that has ultimately diluted design overall. I think it’s one of the main reasons that designers admit they havent reshaped business as much as theyd hoped in the 2010s. You dont need to look further than the troubles facing IDEO to know that the industry has fallen out of love with the term. The bottom line is that design is hard, and being great at it requires any number of hard and soft skills (and luck!) that cannot be gleaned from reading one book or sitting in on one workshop. It seems from the job listings we looked at that the design industry is starting to agree. For a fuller picture, I spoke to a number of insiders directly. Here’s what they told me. Design thinking’s loyal supporters Adobe is one of few lingering proponents of design thinking, and it still asks for proficiency in the framework in job listings. Design thinking “is a critical part of how our designers approach problems, and thats true across all areas, including and especially in the AI space, an Adobe spokesperson told me via email. “Our designers build products for people through user-centered problem solving, rapid iteration, and cross functional collaboration. Design thinking is essential to deliver thoughtful, impactful design regardless of the tools or technologies involved. Dropbox takes a similar approach. It still asks for design thinking skills in job listings. Melanie Rosenwasser, the company’s chief people officer, explained to me that it elevates design from aesthetic to strategic problem solving.” But it also asks for proficiency in other design methodologies. For example, we currently have a VP of core design role open where we ask to see demonstrated mastery of design thinking methodology with clear examples of successfully leading teams through the empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test process; as well as proficiency in complementary methodologies such as Double Diamond, Jobs-to-be-Done, Service Design, or Lean UX.'” The tacit supporters Few have the gusto for design thinking that Adobe or Dropbox do. Many companies say they support the methodology, but not so much that they would actually name-check it in their job listings. For instance, SharkNinja continues to stan for the phrase, even though the company doesn’t specifically ask for proficiency. Design thinking is essential to how we hire . . . every product we develop starts with identifying a real consumer problem and solving it through the marriage of thoughtful design and engineering, Molly Delaney, a spokesperson at SharkNinja, tells me. We dont always list design thinking as a specific term in our job postings because its principles are woven into how we describe the roles. Instead of calling it out on its own, we focus on highlighting the mindset and practices that reflect design thinking throughout the job description. Google’s Catherine CourageVP of user experience and data sciencecedes that the company doesnt ask for the specialty because the term isnt as prevalent as it once was. Yet the core idea of understanding user needs, iterating on solutions, and solving problems in a human-centered way continues to be crucial. She explains that design thinking “has been a useful phrase to help the broader population get a better understanding of user-centric thinking within the context of business. Mattel takes a stance that isnt quite for or against the term, acknowledging merely that it’s become something of a distraction from the design process. We don’t use the term design thinking in job posts, but we absolutely center the consumer in everything we do. It’s baked into our process, says Chris Down, executive vice president and chief design officer at Mattel. We try to cut the jargon and focus on what actually drives better outcomesempathy, iteration, and smart risk-taking. The outspoken critics Finally, some companis are staking a flag in the ground and stating what many designers believe to be obvious: Design thinking contains some useful ideas, but its largely a detached from the modern practice of design. Meta suggests that things have simply evolved. Design thinking certainly had its place in emphasizing the value of design and helped provide a structured approach to creativity for those new to the field,” says Joshua To, the company’s VP of product design, AR, AI and wearables. “But there’s merit to the idea that being too formulaic and process-heavy can get in the way of real innovation and improvement on things. A lot of the good design thinking has been metabolized in modern design. . . . We don’t really need a label anymore. Visa agrees that its time to move on, because many of the core principles being pursued by early design thinking advocatessuch as being human-centeredhave been well internalized by now. Its no longer required to ask candidates for design thinking training,” says Visa global head of design Robb Nielsen. “Design needs have evolved to prioritize a broader mix of capabilities including product strategy and systems thinking. Human-centered design remains central to how we work, but its just a part of a more holistic tool kit now. Regardless of your own thoughts on the matter, its been clear that the popularity of design thinking has been waning for some time. And now we have firm data on how corporate America has shifted away from the term, too. But that’s okay. Design has always beenand will always belarger than any one phrase or methodology. Thoughtful, beautiful work will continue, and hopefully at big companies, no matter what they decide to call it.
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E-Commerce
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