British initiative Koalaa and Bangladeshi start-up Moner Bondhu have won the top prize in the Tommy Hilfiger Fashion Frontier Challenge. The winners received their awards on Thursday at Tommy Hilfiger’s headquarters in Amsterdam. Both initiatives received the jury prize, and Koalaa also received the audience prize, partly because of its moving presentation.
Five initiatives took part in the final round. The first is Care + Wear, a New York-based healthcare clothing company that makes clothing for people in the hospital to make them feel more comfortable than they would in traditional hospital clothing. The second finalist is Ida Sports, a British company that designs football boots specifically for women to improve their performance and comfort. Koalaa is a British initiative that makes comfortable, affordable and soft prosthetics. The fourth finalist is the Dutch-American company Tactus, which "smart clothing" developed to help deaf people experience music better. Finally, the Moner Bondhu initiative from Bangladesh, which offers accessible and affordable mental health help – especially for workers in garment factories.
A total of 259 companies and initiatives applied for the Tommy Hilfiger Fashion Frontier Challenge. The entire process from application to graduation takes a year. Last November, the five finalists took part in a design sprint to further improve the product. On Thursday morning, just before the awards ceremony, the finalists presented their initiative to a jury that included Tommy Hilfiger himself, after which a decision was made.
When it was announced on Thursday that Koalaa and Moner Bondhu were the winners of the EUR 200,000 prize and a year-long mentoring program at Tommy Hilfiger and Insead, there was great excitement. Not only because of the nervousness before the big moment, but also because the winners all have a personal reason for founding and working on their initiatives. For example, Tawhida Shiropa, the founder and CEO of Moner Bondhu, has witnessed her own mother struggle with her mental health. The passionate story of Koalaa founder Nate Macabuag is complemented by the emotional portrayal of marketing manager Nicole Brennan, who recounts what it’s like to hold her young son, push the buggy and her "to spread wings". The story touched a large part of the audience, who at times came close to tears, and those watching the live event. After an (online) round of voting, Koalaa was declared the audience’s favorite and received an additional 15,000 euros.
Tommy Hilfiger Fashion Frontier Challenge: Koalaa and Moner Bondhu big winners
The Tommy Hilfiger Fashion Frontier Challenge is taking place for the fourth time. A competition the brand created because it wants to use its own platform to make a positive impact on the industry, CEO Martijn Hagman told FashionUnited. The current challenge specifically focused on initiatives that have a social impact. “We felt like there weren’t that many initiatives in the industry in the social space yet,” Hagman said. Therefore, with each edition of the Fashion Frontier Challenge, the company will continue to examine what kind of initiatives the industry could urgently need at that time and focus on them when inviting applications. “We will continue to develop and optimize the program"he said.
The Fashion Frontier Challenge aims to improve the industry and help startups and scale-ups continue to grow. “We’re not looking at what these companies are doing for us, we’re looking at what we can do for them"said Hagman. But that doesn’t mean that past finalists or winners aren’t already associated with Tommy Hilfiger. For example, there is Apon Wellbeing, which makes life easier for factory workers in Bangladesh through affordable health insurance. “Some of the factories that Apon Wellbeing works with are also factories that Tommy Hilfiger works with, so we also benefit indirectly because the factories are getting better", the top manager explains to us. Then there’s last year’s winner, Lalaland, which uses artificial intelligence to create digital models. Tommy Hilfiger is working behind the scenes with the company on a pilot to implement these digital models as well. Whether the company wins or not, there is always the possibility that Tommy Hilfiger would like to work with the participants.
The founder and designer Tommy Hilfiger personally closed the award ceremony with a final statement and advice: “We can only change the industry with new ideas. So never give up."