PROGRAMS & INITIATIVES
San Francisco Fashion Week (SFFW) offers a variety of programs and initiatives aimed at fostering education, innovation, sustainability, and inclusion within the fashion industry. Through these comprehensive programs, San Francisco Fashion Week aims to advance the fashion industry by integrating education, future technology, sustainable practices, and inclusivity.
EDUCATION
Mentorship
Developing a mentorship program is one way of formalizing the relationship between individuals in a professional setting and to expand the local industry of creative, design and arts. Mentoring Program dedicated to supporting, nurturing and honoring the future of fashion. It is designed to help all students by connecting them with fashion industry professionals.
Job Placement
The industry is constantly changing. That leads to many work opportunities – if not much job security– in the world offashion. Whether you're looking to break into the industry for the first time or find a new gig, Careers in the Fashion Industry fashion career to help students find opportunities, explore careers/majors and make connections.
Conference
The Fashion Tech Conference serves as a platform for industry leaders, innovators, and designers to engage in thought-provoking discussions and hands-on demonstrations, offering insights into how technology is not only shaping the future but also solving some of fashion's most pressing challenges.
Product Demos / Showcase
The industry is constantly changing. That leads to many work opportunities – if not much job security– in the world offashion. Whether you're looking to break into the industry for the first time or find a new gig, Careers in the Fashion Industry fashion career to help students find opportunities, explore careers/majors and make connections.
Fashion Incubator
Participating startups will present their emerging fashion/tech startup or product. A professional panel will provide business critiques and the audience is also welcome to offer feedback to the presenting startups. The competition for international start-ups in the tech-fashion field has a unique challenge: powering the Fashion Chain forward.
Runway Shows
This years fashion showcase and reveal will leave attendees at the edge of their seats as fashion designers from across the Globe SFFW present some of their latest collections and accessories. to display and promote the brands and collections of fashion designers from all over the world
SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainability and Fair Trade
Sustainable manufacturing is the creation of manufactured products through economically-sound processes that minimize negative environmental impacts while conserving energy and natural resources. There is also a significant trend for retailers to offer ethical clothing ranges made from organic cotton or produced by Fair Trade manufacturers
Manufacturing
Silicon Valley entrepreneurs developing consumer electronics devices today have the luxury of building manufacturing prototypes with teams of designers and engineers who work directly with factories China; SF's deep root in manufacturing from China give us leverage for pricing and quality.
INCLUSION
Diversity
Women in Tech
Women in tech are still facing significant barriers in the workplace—from a shortage of women role models, to gender-based pay gap, to persistent gender bias that nearly 90% of them say they have experienced. There's a major gender gap when it comes to women in the technology field, but those numbers are changing in big ways.
The fashion industry has become more diverse, more inclusive. More open. It is less them-vs.-you. It is us. Yes, fashion still has its flaws. Designers often still have tunnel vision. The industry still makes head-smacking gaffes. There are far too many cases of profound insensitivity and cavalier cultural appropriation.
MANUFACTURING
MAKERS
The maker culture is a contemporary culture or subculture representing a technology-based extension of DIY culture that intersects with hacker culture and revels in the creation of new devices as well as tinkering with existing ones. The maker culture in general supports open-source hardware.
HARDWARE
The manufacturing sector in San Francisco has shown resilience and growth despite ongoing challenges. While the sector continues to recover from the impacts of COVID-19, profitability, sales, and the economy remain significant concerns for many businesses
TECHNOLOGY
Fashion Tech Eco System
To keep pace, luxury companies must open themselves up and develop and nurture an ecosystem of third parties who can build on and around their existing brand assets, much like the host of partners, from tech giants to small independent contractors, who have built apps for Apple's iOS devices.
Retail
The retail landscape in San Francisco is currently facing significant challenges. High-profile store closures, such as Bloomingdale's and Macy's, have highlighted the difficulties in the city's retail sector2. Factors contributing to these challenges include declining foot traffic due to the rise of remote work, reduced tourism, and concerns over crime.
3D Printing
Additive manufacturing/3D printing is a disruptive force in the manufacturing world. Increasingly, it is being used to make parts and products that cannot be manufactured with traditional machining or laser processing methods. A steady procession of new technologies and equipment continues to enter the marketplace.
Wearables
The role technology plays in our lives is rapidly growing, as we become increasingly dependent on it and less willing to separate ourselves from it. The rise of wearable technology, from fitness trackers and the Apple Watch to Google Glass and Microsoft’s HoloLens, has been fueled by technology’s tendency to get faster and smaller at the same time.
Blockchain / NFTs
Blockchain has emerged as an exciting new development across the retail industry,Opening the Doors to Blockchain. Retailers increasingly recognize blockchain's transformative ability to streamline operations, ensure product authenticity and enable tighter supply chain collaboration, our latest study reveals.
A.I. Automation + Immersive Technology
“Immersive Technologies” have the potential to change not only Gaming and Entertainment but much, much more. Immersive Technologies are already being implemented in the Medical, Oil & Gas, Marketing, Architecture, Aerospace, and Education fields with great success. These technologies are poised to change the face of entertainment over the past few years.
