The brand focuses on sustainability
A clothing company from New York that wants to become active in Europe has chosen Groningen as its base of operations. Ziel uses technology to produce clothes as sustainably as possible. As a result, the company can exactly meet the wishes of its clients, so that there will never be overproduction. That the operations centre will be based in Groningen is also because one of the clients of the company comes from Groningen, reports GIC.nl
Ziel Wear thinks that thanks to smart technology it has the solution for making the clothing industry more sustainable: it has developed a global tech platform that makes on demand and local production of clothing accessible and affordable.
Ziel has been experimenting with this technique for the American market since 2017, having been based in New York. Thanks to an investment from the GROEIfonds of the Economic Board Groningen, Borski Fund and Purpose, Ziel can now also serve Europe. And luckily they want to start in the province of Groningen.
According to Marleen Vogelaar, owner of Ziel, the clothing industry must become more sustainable quickly. The Ziel company has the solution for this. “By making smart use of artificial intelligence, our platform will allow us to seamlessly connect the demand for and supply of clothing to each other. This means that exactly what is needed is produced locally, so less transport is required and we provide local employment. Currently, an average of 40% is purchased too much per collection by shops. Much of it is ends up being destroyed. While producing clothes is very damaging to the environment. Nothing will have to be thrown away any more. Every factory will soon be able to work with our platform. ”
The choice to bring Ziel to the Netherlands and Groningen in particular, is due to the excellent ecosystem for tech companies in Groningen and the involvement of entrepreneur and co-founder Jeroen Zanen who lives in Groningen. According to Sytze Hellinga, lead investor of the GROEIfonds of the Economic Board Groningen, Groningen is a good location for Ziel: “We are very well equipped in Groningen for the rapid development of new concepts and companies and we have highly trained developers walking around.”
Simone Brummelhuis of Borski Fund: “We are investing in the transition of the clothing industry to a more sustainable variant. We are very confident in the excellent leadership of Marleen Vogelaar, who previously founded the worldwide operating 3D printing platform Shapeways. We look forward to working with Ziel as game changers in the clothing industry. ”
Image via Wikimedia user UNIFORM Studio. License here.
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