The Vogue Business 2024 100 Innovators: Tech innovators

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You could argue that human involvement in the future of technology matters now more than ever. As generative AI takes hold and long-held promises about the potential of automation come to fruition, the people behind the scenes at startups and fashion brands experimenting with new tools are the ones shaping how we’ll interact with technology from here on out. It’s no small task. These innovators are rethinking our relationships with brands and technology, challenging perspectives and taking spaces like gaming and the metaverse to new places. From founders to big tech agitators and brand leads, these are the people determining the future of fashion tech.

Jana Bobosikova

Co-founder | Kiki World

An old adage in product development and marketing is “go where the customer is”. Kiki World, the brainchild of co-founder Jana Bobosikova, takes that concept much further by directly asking customers to vote on product decisions. In return, customers can earn points that go towards free products, and they can receive blockchain-based tokens that offer partial ownership of the company.

Kiki is a Web3-native beauty brand whose products play to a techie, youthful mindset without hammering home the NFT refrain. Its NFC-chipped press-on nails made waves at New York Fashion Week in February, appearing on the Dauphinette runway and igniting the imagination of creators eager for a way to share their Instagram accounts while waiting in line. Other popular products include a ‘Pretty Nail Graffiti’ (or PNG) peel-off nail polish pen and a temporary hair colour called ‘One Night Strand’, while voting for the ‘Skin Development Kit’ (or SDK) sticks remained in progress. In the first year since its 2023 founding, Kiki World attracted more than 100,000 “reward actions” (such as voting, minting and using products) in community-created experiences and products. The voting-first approach, which also reduces the number of unsold products, has attracted the attention of investors as well. This April, it announced $7 million in funding from industry heavyweights A16Z and The Estée Lauder Companies’s New Incubation Ventures, among others.

Emily Gittins

Co-founder and CEO | Archive Resale

With luxury resale on the rise, brands are left in a predicament: should they play along or watch as third-party resellers shift their existing products? Emily Gittins, CEO of Archive Resale, wants to help brands own independent resale channels. Brand partners include Ulla Johnson, Oscar de la Renta and Sandro. Using her tech background, Gittins powers resale software for brands in a bid to work towards a circular economy. Unlike competitors, Archive is peer-to-peer only, so brands never have to hold inventory.

Key to Archive’s strategy is that it enables retailers to be flexible. At Ulla Johnson, customers can choose to shop from the designer’s own closet. At Pangaia, the programme also integrates digital ID company Eon so that all products sold going forth will be tagged with digital IDs that enable resale at the click of a button. Most recently, in February, circular fashion hub Advanced Clothing Solutions came on board to offer partner brands access to their cleaning and repair solutions at the UK’s ACS hub. At the helm, Gittins is developing new solutions alongside Archive’s base offering to onboard more brands to owned resale — a channel she expects every brand to have in the near future.

Matthew Haag

Founder and CEO | 100 Thieves

Former pro-gamer Matthew Haag launched gaming organisation 100 Thieves in 2017, aiming to create cool gaming merch that was less obvious, more unique and better quality than existing product on the market. It’s become the largest fashion brand in gaming, and has collaborated with Adidas and Gucci, as well as operating esports teams and hosting major gaming events for its community. Under Haag’s leadership, 100 Thieves has signed prominent influencers like TikToker Vinnie Hacker and YouTube gaming star Rachell ‘Valkyrae’ Hofstetter, who promote the business on their socials. 100 Thieves secured $60 million in series C funding in 2021, taking its total funding to date to $460 million. Key investors include Drake and Cleveland Cavaliers owner (and StockX founding investor) Dan Gilbert.

Marcus Holmström and Gustav Linde

Co-founders | The Gang

Entrepreneur Marcus Holmström and game designer Gustav Linde are co-founders of gaming studio The Gang, which launched in Stockholm in 2019 and is the engine behind a series of popular games and fashion brand experiences on Roblox. The Gang was early to recognise the potential of Roblox as a platform for brand activation and has helped various fashion and lifestyle labels build Roblox worlds to reach new, young consumers. Its projects include the Gucci x Vans co-branded world, Givenchy Beauty’s winter world and footballer Jack Grealish’s appearance in Roblox’s Gucci Town. The Gang, which now operates across Lisbon, Stockholm and Kuala Lumpur, creates mini games and interactivity tailored to each brand and has even implemented personalisation of virtual products within Roblox worlds, which brands such as Vans can use to learn about customer likes. It was profitable in its first year of operation (2020), and is now an eight-figure business.

Valerie Leblond and Dumene Comploi

Co-founders | Blng

Generative AI is seen as a broad technology that can hypothetically expand access to design and creativity and shorten the time it takes for creatives to translate ideas into tangible products. Valerie Leblond and Dumene Comploi, co-founders and the CEO and CTO of Blng, are bringing that technology to the fine jewellery industry in a practical, specific way, having created a tool that speeds up and simplifies the technical and slow process of 3D modelling and rendering in jewellery design.