Innovators By Current Global

As consumers seek to shop and live in a way that is aligned with their digital habits, retail is feeling the pressure to transform, says Andrew Deitchman, co-founder of modern convenience retail concept New Stand. Speaking to Liz Bacelar on the latest episode of TheCurrent Innovators podcast, he discusses the importance of offering consumers thoughtful service in both physical and digital worlds. "In many ways when you think about what newsstands were, they were your window into the world... Today discovery obviously happens on the phone, but it also is more and more physical. We're physical beings and we like actually going into locations and touching things, so [with New Stand] we want to be able to provide that as a distribution point for content; that content also being physical products," he says. Deitchman's concept, which he co-founded with Lex Kendall in 2015, is the reinterpretation of the convenience store experience, where consumers are met with a mixture of curated products and mobile

In order to get sustainable products out the door we have to create the kind consumers actually want to buy, Dan Widmaier, CEO of advanced materials technology company, Bolt Threads, says on the latest episode of TheCurrent Innovators podcast. Speaking to Rachel Arthur, he says it's all very well having a vision for the future driven by deep technology – in his case, best known as spider silk – but if the consumer doesn't like it, it's irrelevant. "Ultimately it is up to the consumer," he says. "[We're] seeing the speed at which consumer taste is changing – 2017 was a transformative year for sustainability. It is getting big really fast and it's becoming one of the issues at the forefront of the industry because it touches everyone... No one wants to work in an industry where you say, hey, you know what I'm going to do today, I'm going to mess up the world for the future. Everyone wants to make it better. So it's not surprising. We all want to feel like we are working towards some greater goo

"Everybody is always trying to figure out what's next, and sometimes you've got to live in the now," says Jeff Zuckowski, vice president of industry relations at music service Pandora, on the latest episode of TheCurrent Innovators podcast. Speaking to Liz Bacelar, he highlights the importance of balancing newness and familiarity, and how companies should be striving to innovate in the present, and not the future in order to stay ahead. For Pandora, disruption began when consumers flocked to digital to listen to music how they wanted, when they wanted, says Zuchowski. But every disruption is preceded by a phase of resistance, he notes. For digital music, it took big industry players a while to realize the power of investing in platforms that tap into the growing consumer needs for convenience and discoverability. Although Pandora currently sits at number two in the US market behind Spotify, many would discard the company's recent attempts to stay in line with competition. Zuchowski disagrees with

L'Oréal is on a mission to marry technology and beauty in order to enhance their customer's lives, says Guive Balooch, global vice president of L'Oréal's Tech Incubator on the latest episode of TheCurrent Innovators podcast, hosted at SXSW 2018. At the core of that purpose is the team Balooch runs, which works as an R&D lab for beauty tech. "When we started about five years ago, our goal was to make sure we could find the link between personalization and technology and find a way to get consumers the right product for them," he explains. Since its inception, the team has developed products such as a connected hairbrush, a UV sensor worn on the nail, the first example of an augmented reality make-up app, and most recently, an on-demand system called Custom D.O.S.E. for SkinCeuticals, which dispenses serum personalized to the customer's skin needs in under a few minutes. Technologies such as AI and machine learning have conditioned consumers to become more demanding than ever in finding product

For the latest episode of TheCurrent Innovators, Liz Bacelar chatted to Jodie Fox, co-founder and creative director of online custom-made shoe platform Shoes of Prey, about the company's eight-year evolution and how they plan on changing the way women buy and wear shoes. For Fox, the brand's success in offering customized shoes at on-demand speed, lies in owning the whole manufacturing process, which is where a lot of other similar companies fell short during the customization boom in 2010, she says. In its early stages, selling the idea of building a factory that would do one shoe at a time was met with a lot of negativity. The company now employs 200 people, however, most of which are based out of their own factory in China, and can have a pair of shoes in the customer's hands in under two weeks. The importance of creating a company anchored in technology means that as fashion evolves and becomes more embedded with tech, Shoes of Prey is at the perfect standing, Fox explains. "One of the things we

In an increasingly digital world, designing physical products that are genuinely useful and evoke an emotion from the consumer, is a tough challenge, according to Gadi Amit, president and principal designer at NewDealDesign, on the latest episode of TheCurrent Innovators. With tech's fast-moving evolution comes a need to design objects that are sustainable and desirable, he highlights in his conversation with Liz Bacelar. Best known as the designer behind the original FitBit wearable device, Amit thinks technology is still very much about utility, but that pioneers such as Apple's Steve Jobs and Jony Ive have ignited change. Consumers are now becoming increasingly accustomed to technology pervading many aspects of their lives, and as a result are looking for objects that enhance their personal experiences by creating deeper connections, he says. When developing a successful wearable product, for instance, brands need to look beyond designing status-seeking elements to ask basic questions, such as: "Wha

There's a very simple filter that comes with working at Google, and it's about putting the user first, says Tomas Roope, creative lead at Google Zoo, the tech giant's think tank focused on pushing the limits of creativity through technology. Talking to Rachel Arthur in a live recording of TheCurrent Innovators podcast from the FashMash Pioneers event in London, he says: "They way we think is always user-first. Are we really solving something for somebody here? ...At Google we're about solving problems at scale." That attitude should be applied to every business, including those in the fashion and retail vertical, he explains. The Zoo is a small team that is designed to be a conduit between creative agencies and Google's own products, its engineering teams and its data. The result is all manner of both creative and technology-driven projects for different industries, from a coded couture dress for H&M's Ivy Revel brand, to an advertising campaign redefining what masculinity really looks like to

Chinese payments company Alipay is on a mission to wean US consumers off traditional payment behaviours. Creating an integrated experience is at the center of making that happen, Alipay's president of the Americas, Souheil Badran, explained to Liz Bacelar on the latest episode of TheCurrent Innovators podcast. "So far the whole US market has been so used to credit cards. And when you look at it from a tech perspective all the apps we use are in their own silos. They're not connected at all," says Badran, explaining that the Starbucks app is one of the few examples of an integrated experience based around the consumer's lifestyle. In order to achieve seamlessness, Badran hopes to see better collaboration with retail in what he calls the Uber experience – when getting from point A to B, the user no longer has to think about the payment aspect of it. This everyday ease of use is already being achieved in China, where Alipay's 520 million users have access to over 60 sub-applications integrated under

There's little point in looking at all of the innovation surrounding e-commerce today, if you don't first have the basics in place, Paolo Mascio president of online flagships at Yoox Net-a-Porter Group, explains on the most recent episode of TheCurrent Innovators podcast. "If you can't get the fundamentals right, forget about artificial intelligence," he says. "Really, execution is the key word. It's very easy to mess up with your customers ... A bad customer experience is even worse than not giving [them] an experience at all. It's better not to open Russia or China if you can't serve them in the proper way. Discontent spreads... which is setting the base for a failure in the future as well." Both Yoox and Net-a-Porter are businesses known for their innovative approaches to e-commerce – the former for supporting brands on running their own operations, and the latter for its first-rate customer experience. While together they're focused on maintaining their market leading position, many

The Levi's Commuter x Google Jacquard smart jacket is the first of its kind – a commercially ready piece of wearable tech that's both fashionable and washable. But more than that, it's one of the only "devices" out there aiming to tackle the idea of obsolescence, Paul Dillinger, VP of global product innovation at Levi's, says. The jacket itself is designed for urban cyclists, or as Dillinger refers to it, "for people who live in the city and need to get around". It's based on the existing Levi's Commuter Trucker jacket, but embedded with technology in the sleeve in order for it to operate a number of useful functionalities for wearers. It launched to the public in September 2017 for $350 in stores and online. "It's a classical denim trucker jacket that is designed to make an urban cyclist's life a little safer, a little lighter, a little better. To that we've then added about 15 rows of capacitive yarn in the left cuff, that forms an area that is capable to be touched." Users

At CES this year, beauty and transportation were two of the most innovative sectors, from self-driving vehicles to next generation hair and skincare [LINK]. In this episode of TheCurrent Innovators podcast, we bring you Henkel and Lufthansa, two companies focusing on revolutionary technology in a way you wouldn't necessarily expect. First, we headed to the Henkel pop-up salon at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, where celebrity stylist Kim Vo gave us an exclusive treatment with Henkel's new product, SalonLab. This customized, data-driven service offers a 3D preview of color and texture based on each individual's hairstyle. "This is the first digital ecosystem of connected devices that quantifies hair and offers personalized products and services in the salons," Anne Lemon from Henkel's digital headquarters, explains. "Our biggest challenge right now is to evolve from a beauty company to a data-driven company." This is also what makes this innovation so cutting edge, Vo adds. Before Salon

H&M has a big goal: to become 100% sustainable and renewable while maintaining prices low and keeping quality up. It's a big ask with some short timelines to achieve it. The question is whether the second largest clothing retailer in the world can really ever be considered eco-conscious and sustainable while pumping out fast fashion? Is it all a contradiction? One thing we know for sure – millennial consumers seem to be more concerned about manufacturing practices and their effects on the environment than ever, according to Nina Shariati, who leads transparency for the H&M Group. She sat down with TheCurrent's Rachel Arthur in Copenhagen to discuss the brand's latest projects in this space, why transparency doesn't equal sustainability directly, and what its plans are to continuously push the boundaries to appeal more to consumers with an eye for the environment. ___________________________________________________ TheCurrent Innovators is a podcast about the leaders pushing the boundaries of fashion,

Artificial intelligence (AI) is revamping how we live our lives, how we communicate, how we shop. And it's doing so at a rapid pace. First Apple's Siri, now Amazon's Alexa; both already household names that are set to become ever more popular in the year to come. In fact, Amazon just decreed its Echo devices as the biggest sellers this past holiday season. TheCurrent's Liz Bacelar spoke to the "father" of Alexa, William Tunstall-Pedoe, a British entrepreneur focused on world-changing products powered by AI and other deep technology. Recorded with a live audience at the London College of Fashion, he discussed the future of the voice interface, how AI will change retail and which of Alexa's skills is truly the most useful to him. TheCurrent Innovators is a podcast about the leaders pushing the boundaries of fashion, beauty and retail. Hosted by Liz Bacelar and Rachel Arthur, each episode is a frank conversation about the challenges and opportunities faced by top brands and retailers around the worl

Disruption, courage and innovation are the pillars around which Only the Brave, or OTB, the parent company of fashion brand Diesel, are built. But they’re also words that Stefano Rosso, CEO of the brand in North America, lives by as he faces the challenge of rebooting the denim business in the US. In the 1970s, his father, Renzo Rosso, the iconic founder of the brand, disrupted the jeans industry by building a fashion empire focused entirely around the message that different is cool. Today, Stefano is maintaining that view of challenging conformity, all the while tackling how it looks in the digital era. TheCurrent’s Liz Bacelar sat down with him to talk about how Diesel lost its way, what it’s doing to get back in the game, how luxury can survive the tech revolution and whether virtual reality is (possibly) the future of the industry.