Startup Series: unspun

unspun is a robotics and digital apparel company building custom jeans for each consumer, on demand. Their mission is to reduce global carbon emissions by 1% through automated, localized, and intentional apparel manufacturing. By using the iPhone FaceID sensor to create a digital avatar, unspun can instantly tailor and build each garment to the actual customer, and deliver a completely custom product (style, fabric, stitching color, etc) at off-the-rack prices. The company can do this all while eliminating unsold inventory waste,which represents a $150B/yr. loss in the industry as a whole. Recently included in Time's “Best Inventions” and PopSci's “Best of What's New,” unspun is leading an industry, notoriously plagued by waste, towards a more sustainable and profitable future.

unspun co-founder and CTO Kevin Martin walks me through what motivated him and his co-founders to tackle this massive challenge within the fashion industry. We also discuss the future of apparel in a COVID world, how unspun's core robotics technology fits with their consumer-facing brand, and Kevin's vision for the future of automated and localized manufacturing. Kevin was a great guest, and I learned a lot about the climate impact of the apparel industry. 

Enjoy the show!

You can find me on Twitter @jjacobs22 (me), @mcjpod (podcast) or @mcjcollective (company). You can reach us via email at info@mcjcollective.com, where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.


In today's episode, we cover:

  • Climate challenges in the fashion industry and how unspun addresses them

  • An overview of unspun and how Kevin started the company

  • The company’s core robotics technology

  • How unspun approaches the consumer market

  • Kevin's vision for the future of automated and localized manufacturing


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Episode 137: Josh Felser, Freestyle VC

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Episode 136: Nili Gilbert, The David Rockefeller Fund and Synergos