The 10 Finalists of Reimagine Fashion: Changing behaviours for sustainable fashion

This week the European Commission announced the Finalists for the 2020 European Social Innovation Competition around the topic of Reimagine Fashion: Changing behaviours for sustainable fashion.

Here are the ten finalist projects from 9 countries, which are now competing for three prizes:

Airwear by Fairbrics (France)
A technology that converts the CO2 emitted during fabric manufacturing into new synthetic fabrics.

Kleiderly | Converting Clothing (Germany)
A start-up that turns recycled clothes into durable material used to make a range of products, from furniture to suitcases.

MycoTEX (Netherlands)
An innovation to make custom-made clothes using a sustainable fabric made from mycelium, a substance found in mushroom roots.

Post Carbon Fashion: Photosynthetic Coating (United Kingdom)
Zero-waste and regenerative dyeing and coating services for textile applications through microbiological processes.

resortecs® (Belgium)
Dissolvable stitching thread and heat-dismountable rivets that help make the reuse and recycling textile products easier.

ROND - CO2 reduced soles from discarded fabric (Denmark)
Sweat and shock absorbent insoles made from fibers upcycled from discarded textiles.

SENSTILE - DIGITIZING TEXTILES (Spain)
A search engine that identifies, matches, and compares textiles digitally and at scale.

Snake (Croatia)
A digital commerce platform which applies augmented reality and enables development of digital fashion by changing the way fashion is consumed.

The first Lyocell hemp fibre: Hempcell™ (Germany)
A start-up that promotes premium European Hemp Lyocell fibres as a viable and sustainable textile alternative.

 WhyWeCraft: Cultural Sustainability in Fashion (Romania)
Artisan-designer collaborations focused on reviving heritage European textile crafts.

The Finalists were selected by an expert jury panel from a group of 30 Semi-Finalists who, in turn, had been chosen from a total of 766 applicants from across Europe. All Semi-Finalists participated in the European Social Innovation Competition Digital Academy - an intensive training and coaching programme designed to develop their initiatives remotely-over the summer.

What happens next in the competition?

The three winners of this year’s competition will be announced at a virtual Awards Ceremony being organised around the frame of the digital European Social Economy Exchange Event on November 26th, which leads up to the European Social Economy Summit in 2021. Each winner will receive 50,000€ in prize money to further develop their idea. All Semi-Finalists will be added to the Competition’s growing Alumni Community and, next year, will be invited to enter the Impact Prize, which recognises the innovation that has had the most social impact across the previous12 months with a 50,000€ prize.

The Judging Panel

The European Social Innovation Competition selects a new Judging Panel every year. As a group, these Judges offer a wealth of experience and insights, covering social innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as technical expertise addressing the year’s theme. Through their collective voice they review applications and determine which entrants are taken forward to later stages of the Competition, firstly as Semi-Finalists, then as Finalists, and ultimately as Winners. Each year’s Judging Panel returns the following year to review applications for the Impact Prize. Please see the full list below:

Anita Hrast, IRDO - Inštitut za razvoj družbene odgovornosti (Slovenia), Anna Fiscale, Progetto Quid (Italy), Bert Van Son, MUD Jeans (Netherlands), Carrie Ann Moran, NCBI (Ireland), Federica Massa Saluzzo, EADA Business School (Spain), Fredrik Timour, Swedish Fashion Council (Sweden), Jaan Aps, Stories for Impact (Estonia), John Pitsakis, 3QUARTERS (Greece), Jonas Eder-Hansen, Global Fashion Agenda (Denmark), Pavlína Louženská, Consultant (Czech Republic), Pirjo Kääriäinen, Aalto University (Finland), Sebastian Thies, NAT-2 (Germany).

The European Social Innovation Competition was launched in memory of the social innovation pioneer Diogo Vasconcelos. It is a challenge prize run by the European Commission across all EU Member States and Horizon 2020 associated countries. Now in its 8th year, the Competition acts as a beacon for social innovators in Europe, employing a proven methodology for supporting early-stage ideas and facilitating a network of radical innovators shaping society for the better. Each year the Competition addresses a different issue facing Europe. This year the focus is: Reimagine Fashion.

The Competition is organised by the European Commission with support from Nesta, Kennisland, Ashoka Spain, the European Network of Living Labs, and Scholz & Friends.