Project Details
Project Timeline: This project is ongoing. We are currently developing packaging, 3D clothing models, and displays to grow the EcoThreads shopping experience.
Project Role: Project Collaborator, App Prototyper, 3D Product Modeling Specialist
I collaborated with Isabel Nixson and Georgia Weeden to develop the concept for EcoThreads. We then individually developed specific components of the brand experience and interface.
A sustainable fashion app for the next generation of shoppers.
Gen Z is a powerful force in the retail market, prioritizing convenience, authenticity, and sustainability. While they actively seek eco-friendly fashion, there is no marketplace that combines sustainability with the mainstream brands they love. Existing platforms often lack high-demand brands, forcing consumers to choose between style and ethics. EcoThreads fills this gap by creating a curated marketplace that merges sustainability with the most prominent brands Gen Z shops from, making conscious fashion more accessible and desirable.
Branding
Isabel developed the brand identity of the app so that Georgia and I could bring those elements into physical and digital spaces. This process started with us pulling together inspiration in a shared Pinterest board, which then informed Isabel's creative decision making.
Images played a large role in Isabel's process of creating a brand language. She paid particular attention to textile patterns, florals, and fashion photoshoots from a variety of found images to establish our color palette. These images also served as inspiration for our wordmark and logo, which I used throughout the interface of the app
The App
The online clothing market is divided between new and secondhand fashion, with little crossover between the two. Many marketplaces either cater to older demographics or have price points that are out of reach for the average college student. EcoThreads bridges this gap by combining top retailers’ new and thrifted garments in one platform. It eliminates the need for outside research by verifying sustainability upfront, breaking down each garment’s environmental impact and ranking its sustainability based on its composition. Additionally, the app recommends similar thrifted items, making conscious shopping more seamless and accessible.
Our goal with EcoThreads was to create an intuitive shopping experience without any learning curve, making sustainable fashion accessible to all users. The app includes all the essential features of a typical online retail platform, allowing users to seamlessly browse by category, search for specific items, manage their cart, and review their account information. By maintaining a familiar and user-friendly interface, EcoThreads ensures that shoppers can easily navigate the platform without the need to adjust to a new system, making ethical and sustainable shopping as straightforward as possible.
EcoThreads offers the same selection of sizes and styles available directly from top retailers, ensuring users don’t have to compromise on fit or variety when shopping sustainably. Each listing provides a detailed sustainability ranking based on the garment’s composition, helping users make informed choices at a glance. Additionally, the app suggests similar secondhand alternatives, making it easier to find thrifted options without searching across multiple resale platforms. By combining new and pre-owned fashion in one seamless experience, EcoThreads empowers users to shop consciously without sacrificing convenience or style.
The EcoThreads app prototype was designed using Figma, allowing for a fully interactive and user-friendly experience. The prototype replicates the look and functionality of a real shopping app, showcasing seamless navigation, intuitive filtering, and smooth transitions between pages. Each feature was carefully designed to ensure a familiar yet elevated shopping experience, integrating sustainability rankings and secondhand recommendations without disrupting the typical retail flow. By prototyping in Figma, we were able to refine the user interface and interactions, ensuring that EcoThreads is both visually appealing and easy to use.
Algorithm
Isabel developed an algorithm for EcoThreads to promote a more balanced and sustainable approach to fiber consumption. Through her research, she found that no single fiber has a perfect life cycle—each comes with its own benefits and drawbacks. A truly sustainable system requires a more even distribution of fiber usage rather than over-reliance on a select few.
To address this, Isabel’s algorithm analyzes data from users’ recent purchases to determine which fibers are being overused and which need more circulation to create a more sustainable balance. When a user searches for a garment, the algorithm ranks fibers based on their current popularity and durability. It then generates 50 search results, labeling garments by their title and dominant fiber content. The listings are sorted using a popularity score, prioritizing less frequently purchased fibers to encourage a more diverse and sustainable fabric ecosystem.
Retail Experience
Georgia designed a dedicated EcoThreads retail and return space using Revit, providing an in-person solution for returns and resale. This storefront helps reduce landfill waste while minimizing the emissions and packaging associated with shipping returns. Customers can return unwanted items, recycle packaging materials, and shop discounted, previously returned garments—all in one location. Upon return, employees assess each item’s condition, determining whether it should be resold at a discount or donated for upcycling. By integrating a physical space with the app, EcoThreads creates a more sustainable shopping cycle, extending the life of garments and reducing environmental impact.
