[Fall 2018] Harmony in Society: Team WEshARE

Team Name: WEshARE

Team Members: Jimin Ahn, Sumin Lee, Jiwon Paik

The problem that we are trying to tackle is the high barriers to entry that exists for suppliers of the second-hand fashion industry. Clothes trading or secondhand shopping has been suggested as solutions to the social issue of overconsumption of fast fashion or the effective utilization of the wastes of fast fashion, but in reality, the solutions are not well used in the status quo. Some reasons that we analyzed were:

1. The existing second-hand online shopping malls or platforms as well as the ‘clothing’ section of second-hand platforms focus on the ‘second-hand’ aspect more than the ‘stylish’ or ‘unique’ aspect that can be emphasized. As a result, secondhand clothing and accessories do not seem fashionable nor attractive.

2. Secondhand shops that may actually be unique and stylish are usually offline (Ex. Dong-Myo second hand shopping area) but the fact that buyers have to go to visit the actual shop may be a burden.

Our solution is to help suppliers sell secondhand fashion items easily. The objective would be to lower the barriers of entry of the buying and selling of secondhand fashion items, and to enhance the ‘reusing’ culture. We plan to utilize the application platform because it is one of the most accessible platforms in the 21st century. In our app, we plan to help not only offline secondhand shops but also individuals to become sellers but also help sellers have their own theme and edge they want to emphasize in their items.