Spring is coming late this year — but with a bang. The new app, which is being backed by fashion heavy hitters from Bernard Arnault to Lew Frankfort to Silas Chou, will launch today to take mobile shopping head on and with a social element.
Spring cofounders Octavian Costache, chief technology officer; Ara Katz, chief marketing officer; David Tisch, chairman of the board and Alan Tisch, chief executive officer. Credit: Courtesy Photo.
Jennifer Fisher's page on Spring. Credit: Courtesy Photo
An example of a follow page on Spring. Credit: Courtesy Photo
Spring is a mobile-only marketplace that allows users to shop directly from a community of brands. It goes live on the Apple App Store and will carry products from a broad range of brands, from Everlane to Theory and Carolina Herrera. Consumers will be able to follow designers and brands and buy from their feeds with a swipe of their finger. For now, Spring is only available for iPhone users, with iPad and Android versions coming soon.
But Spring isn’t a typical startup: It’s well-funded and isn’t starting small.
So far, 450 brands have signed on to work with the app and 150 will have up-and-running stores on it upon launch. Alice + Olivia, Andrew Marc, Del Toro, Edie Parker, Helmut Lang, Jason Wu, Jennifer Fisher, Nicole Miller, Pierre Hardy, Rebecca Minkoff, Thakoon and Warby Parker are among those that will be open for business today, with Alexander Wang, Dannijo, Derek Lam, Levi’s, Marchesa, Prabal Gurung, Rag & Bone, Suno and Vince coming soon. The hush-hush project was referred to internally by the pseudonym Jello Labs for a few months.
Read more at WWD.