Role: Project Manager
Summary
Our mission is to cultivate creative forms of collective action towards responsible and ethical manufacturing in fashion. With a fusion of ethnographic research, human-centered design, and community building, we create opportunities for supply chain stakeholders to connect and develop new ways of thinking about entrenched fashion industry challenges.
Research & Insights
We conducted ethnographic interviews with supply chain managers at large retailers (i.e. Patagonia, Levi’s, GAP), factory managers (Beximco, Western Textile), NGOs (SAC, Mekong Club), governmental entities (US State Department J/TIP), and international agencies (UN OHCHR) around the world.
Need in Industry: Framing shared issues as non-competitive areas for innovation, developing community-centered collaboration around mutual goals and incentives to produce lasting improvement.
Convergence Collective Strategy
Through our research, we identify areas where communication can be strengthened between supply chain stakeholders. We carefully curate balanced conversations, because we believe that the best, most lasting collaboration begins with trust and mutual respect. Convergence collective does what no design team currently touches; we seek out uncomfortable and confrontational moments within the competitive fashion industry and facilitate development of cooperative solutions for the most difficult challenges.
Results
We’ve put these insights into practice by designing and facilitating intimate, invite-only workshops centered around human needs within fashion production, a crucial yet often missing perspective in such a complex system. Our most recent initiative was an innovation workshop during Fashion Revolution Week that brought 20 local apparel stakeholders together in a safe, mutually respectful environment to build empathy, reframe challenges, and facilitate community and collaboration going forward. The industry was well-represented with farmers, mill owners, factory managers, brand CEOs, and NGO representatives who all left with new ways of thinking about solving industry challenges as well as potential partners to join in their efforts.
Attendees reported inspirational breakthrough moments, and all respondents would recommend our event to others.