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Public Thread X Upcycled Luxury Collab

We want to design and bring to market a new collection of upcycled luxury products in collaboration with area designers, artists and entrepreneurs.
https://www.publicthread.co
January 5×5 Night at Start Garden
Voting Closes:

January 20, 2025 11:59 pm

About this idea
Public Thread is piloting a new strategy to design and bring new styles of upcycled luxury products to market. We want to host an open call opportunity to work with local/regional product designers, textile based artists, entrepreneurs, and graphic designers on a new collection of upcycled products. We are seeking to grow our product offerings while also innovating for new ways to utilize more of the scrap and surplus textiles waste from across the greater Grand Rapids area. How it will go: - We will put out the call for proposals to work with area designers, artists, entrepreneurs, etc to pitch to us new product ideas incorporating upcycled textiles. - We will work on developing and prototyping the ideas that work. - We will compensate the designers for their ideas/product development. - If we bring products to market we will establish a revenue sharing model for working with external designers/artists so that they can get paid, we can cover our costs and we can establish new product line(s).
Impact
This project is something that we have long wanted to do but have not been in a position to launch until now. We believe this will not only assist us with identifying untapped ideas for upcycled products, it would allow us to create the platform to establish a collaborative design and product development process with area designers, artists and entrepreneurs that lessens the financial burden on Public Thread and on the designers. This program could help us divert hundreds of pounds of textiles from going into landfills and would support cut & sew production jobs within Public Thread and in Grand Rapids. As this program grows we could work with hundreds of interested designers, artists and entrepreneurs, divert thousands of pounds of textiles and support the growth of a sustainable creative economy with products made right here in West Michigan.
What I'll do with $5,000
Pay the designer(s)/entrepreneur(s) for their designs/ideas for the collection. Cover the costs for staff labor and materials to prototype, make samples, do production planning and sourcing for any additional materials. Manufacture a small batch of the products/collection. Develop a collab marketing and sales strategy to ensure a successful collection. Products could be sold online, at the retail store at Artists Marketplace at Studio Park or both. Pay an attorney for the creation of a revenue sharing model to compensate and protect the artist(s) and Public Thread.
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