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█ In October, 80 tech developers, students and industry experts gathered in Paris at the behest of Kering chief sustainability officer Marie-Claire Daveu to participate in 「Hack to Act」, the luxury conglomerate’s inaugural sustainability hackathon. For 48 straight hours inside the sun-soaked L』Atelier Richelieu event space, competitors vigorously prototyped updates to My EP&L; an app Kering launched in 2017 that uses data from the French luxury group’s Environmental Profit & Loss research to educate designers and students on sustainable design principles.
German retailer Zalando's hackathon, centred on sustainability. © Mike Chick / Zalando
The app already tracks carbon emissions, water consumption, air and water pollution along the supply chain. By the end of the competition, Daveu and the jury of experts — pulled from Kering brands, Google, the media company Corporate Knights and the World Wildlife Fund — awarded a €10,000 prize to a team of six who created a prediction and recommendation engine that would further assist designers.
In an effort to think and operate more like tech companies, fashion has embraced hackathons, once reserved for intensive digital prototyping by coders and software engineers. Now, the practice is becoming more targeted. In addition to Kering, LVMH, Prada Group and German online retailer Zalando have held hackathons centred on sustainability, as pressure surrounding the environmental impact of luxury fashion mounts.
The challenge lies in whether the proposed solutions generated by hackathons can and will be implemented in the real world — and whether they』ll have a measurable positive impact on the environment.
Fashion companies are turning to hackathons to spark carbon footprint-reducing ideas as the industry grapples with challenges including waste management, greenhouse gas emissions and water usage. They’re also a way for companies to both advertise and convey action surrounding their commitment to sustainability.
Moncler’s hackathon in July listed sustainability as one of the problem areas it would address, while LVMH brings together employees from across sectors, disciplines and continents in order to identify talent and new innovations for their hackathons. Some of LVMH’s more successful hackathons have yielded projects including zero-waste packaging for its wine and spirits category, and the implementation of a process that turns grape seed waste from its wine portfolio into a cosmetics ingredient. LVMH told the Financial Times in January that other eco-design innovations are currently in development.
For its 2019 hackathon, Burberry invited 35 undergrad and graduate UK students with design, engineering and business backgrounds to create a physical prototype of a 「Trench Coat of the Future」 with help from Burberry’s design and R&D teams. The goal was to glean ideas for sustainable innovation, plus find promising talent.
「It was a very positive experience,」 says a member of the winning team, who signed an NDA and spoke anonymously. 「How often do we get to sit down with engineers and people from multidisciplinary backgrounds?」 Burberry is currently looking to test the winning team’s proposal of a new leather-tanning technology that uses 70 per cent less water.
In October 2019, 80 tech developers, students and industry experts gathered in Paris for Kering's 「Hack to Act」 hackathon. © Jean-Luc Perréard
Other projects are further along. Consulting group Current Globalhosted a hackathon with Google UK in January 2019, resulting in a project currently in development with Stella McCartney that will collect and analyse data on the sustainability of cotton and viscose. Zalando held a one-day hackathon in June co-sponsored by Adidas that invited startups including Haelixa, Colabbriq, Sustainabill, Circular IQ and Oeko-Tex to collaborate on addressing supply chain mapping challenges. Zalando, which nestles the hackathons into a larger innovation and accelerator program for supply chain technology, ultimately pursued a pilot proposed by Sustainabill to identify the barriers that prevent suppliers from sharing supply chain data.
In 2018, the Prada Group hosted a hackathon for students from the two Schools of Management of Yale University and Politecnico di Milano in 2018. 「The main objective of the hackathon was to involve young generations in the conference’s project and to get their point of view on the conference’s topic,」 a Prada representative wrote in an emailed statement. None of the proposed projects, including the winning service that would use AI to 「sort data through the lens of culture to help conserve and regenerate cultural heritage」, have been developed.
Despite the flurry of activity, some experts wonder if hackathons are becoming more of a marketing ploy than a function for change. 「Many events that brands call 『hackathons』 are really 『ideathons,』」 says Liz Bacelar, co-founder of Current Global, who produced what she considers fashion’s first hackathon in 2013.
She defines an 「ideathon」 as a brainstorming event focused on a well-defined, well-researched idea. Hackathons, on the other hand, must result in a working product and a clear go-to-market strategy. 「I don’t see that in sustainability hackathons,」 she says. 「They sound good. But if they were judged on actual results and ideas that could actually go to market, I think their perceived value would diminish.」
Brands, like Prada, may host a hackathon with the goal to research a topic rather than launch a product. But Bacelar argues sustainability hackathons need to be backed by research, to identify challenges and to include industry mentors in fashion and R&D to guide young entrepreneurs. Otherwise, participants may not have the right contextual knowledge or technical expertise in place, and brands run the risk of concluding with a handful of silver-bullet ideas unlikely to be realised.
Prada Group hosted a hackathon for students from the two Schools of Management of Yale University and Politecnico di Milano in 2018. © Prada
A Kering spokesperson told Vogue Business in January that implementation of its hackathon-winning product – the recommendation and prediction app for designers – has not yet started, but will soon.
Jan Leyssens, co-founder of social good agency Switchrs, says, 「A hackathon can give a spark or bring new ideas or concepts to life, but it doesn't magically translate these into real products or new businesses.」 Switchrs has facilitated hackathons in multiple sectors, including one at a fashion festival in 2018 in Antwerp called MOOI. (One idea generated there, a circular children’s shoe rental company, is currently being developed into a business plan.) 「Whenever we host these kinds of events ourselves, we always put them in a bigger process that focuses on a more structural, long-lasting impact,」 Leyssens says.
Kering’s prize of €10,000 is so far a high note for hackathon awards. LVMH offered €5,000 to winners of a student hackathon it sponsored around beauty products, but other brands have only paid for travel expenses, offered mentorship and networking opportunities, or given out gifts to participants.
That seems rather less motivating compared to the €50,000 cash prize that will go to the designer or startup who wins the Yoox and Vogue Italia sustainable innovation competition this autumn. Or the €150,000 total prize money offered to winners of a sustainable fashion contest by the European Commission. Then again, these competitions will reward innovations that build on work that spans a year or more, instead of 48 hours.
「No one can turn on a dime, so it’s always a process,」 says Dr Anjali Sastry, a senior lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management. 「We tend to overemphasise the moment of innovation and underemphasise all the subsequent steps.」