During a 36-hour hackathon, my team and I built VeriThread, an app that earned first place in the "Best Use of Blockchain" category. The platform uses blockchain-powered smart contracts to bring transparency and accountability to the fashion supply chain, tracking garments from their source to the end user.
How can we encourage fashion brands to reduce their environmental impact while inspiring users to lessen overconsumption?
We were determined to create something unprecedented that addressed sustainability while also being a viable business model.
Greenwashing: Misleading consumers by claiming products are eco-friendly without genuine efforts to reduce environmental impact.
Opting for high-quality, sustainable clothing often feels unjustifiable
I identified two main barriers preventing users from prioritizing quality over quantity: the lack of transparency in verifying sustainability claims and the perceived imbalance between cost and value, which leaves consumers questioning whether higher-priced garments are even worth the investment.
We know that fast fashion comes at an astonishing environmental and social cost. But how much do we really know…
Fashion production is responsible for anywhere between 4 - 8.6 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
93% of brands surveyed by Fashion Checker do not pay garment workers a living wage, keeping them in poverty cycles
20% of global wastewater is produced by the fashion industry, primarily through dyeing and textile treatment processes.
VeriThread is a platform that allows buyers to view the journey of a piece of garment from source to end-user using smart-contracts built on the blockchain.
Bridging the Gap from Source to Wardrobe.
Users feel more confident and assured in their purchases with a reliable and transparent garment tracking system.
Browse with Verified Brands
Partnering with passionate, sustainability-driven brands empowers users to trust the quality and value behind every purchase.
Collect Digital Artifacts of your Closet
Providing users with simple tools to organize their verified garments, inspiring people to create a capsule wardrobe.
Stay informed
Curated news resources, ensuring users stay informed about sustainable fashion trends and updates.
Why on the blockchain?
Smart contracts on the blockchain are inherently tamper-proof, which allows for complete transparency and tracebility.
How would fashion brands benefit from collaborating with VeriThread?
To demonstrate ethical practices, ensure authenticity, and validate sustainability claims, essentially enhancing their credibility to consumers.
Why would consumers use this?
Consumers would use VeriThread like a gamified experience, collecting clothing items with unique blockchain-assigned IDs, like NFTs.
As the only designer on the team, I was tasked with making the milestones and requirements of the app in order to meet the MVP of the product within the time constraint. The high-level information architecture included a home page, collection of scanned clothes followed by other modules that focused on the ethicality of each individual garment and garment journey.
Designing with significant time constraints.
Spending 36 hours with complete strangers, fuelled by caffeine and adrenaline, reminded me of the late nights in architecture school; where exhaustion and creativity coexists. I learned more than I could’ve imagined about the workflow of developers, how they think, and bring ideas to life. Watching my designs transform into a functioning MVP in real time was humbling, it forcing me to embrace practicality over perfection. It was exhausting, messy, and completely worth it.
Balancing Creativity and Viability.
My goal for this design sprint wasn’t just about coming up with a cool idea but also about finding solutions that might actually be feasible as a business model. I had to shift my focus from pure creativity to thinking about long-term sustainability. Like a mental balancing act: the idea had to be innovative, while also asking questions like, “Would this work in the real world? Could it generate revenue?” It was a new challenge for me, but one that forced me to see the bigger picture, and I’m glad it did.
If Verithread were to ship, I’d look at metrics like number of brands partnered, Monthly Active Users (MAU), the number of verified contracts, and how often users scan products to track engagement and transparency. Ultimately the key determining factor of the success of VeriThread would be to see how many brands have actually improved sustainability practices after partnering with Verithread.
With more time, I’d focus on building out a robust design system, refining features on the home page, and ensuring system feedback reinforces trust and usability across the platform.