Urbanic

Urbanic was founded with key Gen-Z qualities of individuality, social and environmental responsibility, and a non-bending mentality to making certain everyone has a seat at the table. The last has become pivotal to the brand because in the markets and consumer groups within which they operate are communities where, historically, only narrow standards of existence prevailed. For example, they’ve led the charge on controversial concepts such as the acceptance of homosexuals in India or the amplification of body positivity in Latin America. This mission of inclusive values and bringing stylish clothes to underserved populations away from city centers in regions such as Latin America, India and MENA–consumers who lack access to stylish yet affordable clothes–has paid off. Urbanic is now the #1 DTC brand in India and the company as a whole boasts annual sales of over 400m USD. “The biodegradable packaging is expensive for us and also a challenge because we are an affordable and accessible brand targeted towards the mass consumer in developing economies,” says James Wellwood, Partner at Urbanic. “But we were able to take on these costs because our inventory model is so precise. In essence, our machine learning and AI technology to create inventory on-demand as opposed to creating unnecessary stock keeps our production very lean and this has been our most important asset towards achieving other goals.” Wellwood goes on to explain that Urbanic’s eye towards sustainability has been...

London-based Urbanic speaks to the mass premium consumer in emerging markets to bring them access to ... [+] fashion via e-commerce, something this consumer has never had marketed to them in the past. Urbanic “These segments of society are not underserved, they are unserved,” says James Wellwood in a phone interview from London. Wellwood is a Partner at Urbanic, the latest fast fashion e-tailer to enter the scene. He is speaking of the target audience to whom his company sells their products; an audience who have gone so unnoticed as potential fashion consumers, that they have never been marketed to in any capacity.They call them mass premium consumers. In emerging economies, where populations soar and where income disparity is even bigger, Urbanic discovered that mass premium consumers for whom even Zara is too expensive had little to no options to shop for fashionable clothing. Even more targeted within this market, Urbanic specifically speaks to Gen Z consumers who have been priced out of fashionable clothes. “Fast fashion is a term that is unwelcome these days, and we are aware of this,” says Wellwood. “Although, we are reconstructing the idea of fast fashion. For us this involves a combination of not having brick and mortar retail, a zero inventory model, providing a quality product at a good price, and an advanced use of technology and AI to manage any sort of waste, especially in respect to consumer demand. We don’t create anything until we know we will sell it.” Th...