04 Nov 4th November The Dopplle Idea
When we came up with the idea of Dopplle, the ethos of being sustainable and budget friendly for students like us was highly important. There are many options to buy cheap clothes on the highstreet and online, but many of these options are not sustainable. On the flip side, sites selling preloved or sustainable clothes have begun to wise up to the appeal of their services, making their prices shoot up and away beyond the bounds of the student budget. As my friend described it, ‘depop is great! I can charge really high prices as it’s probably being bought by a rich kid with access to their parents bank account’. Although this was brilliant for them to rake in the profits, it means sites like depop are becoming less accessible to those powered solely by the student loan company.
As a result, the idea for Dopplle was born! Once launched we aim to provide a service allowing university students to load pieces of clothing onto an app and then swap pieces with students in a similar area to them. This will allow students to have an ever-changing wardrobe filled with pieces that they want, when they want them, regardless of changing fashion trends and cost. This will mean that students can save money on clothes and feel less monetary strain when all the big events are coming up to keep producing outfit after outfit of shiny, never seen before clothes. Furthermore, as well as benefiting the students, this motive will also benefit the environment. The clothing industry is the second most damaging industry in the world – second to the oil industry. The average pair of jeans uses 11,000 litres of water to manufacture as well as genetically modified (and consequently unsustainable) cotton, and indigo dyes made from fossil fuels. Therefore, by supporting Dopplle and swapping rather than shopping you are seriously reducing your carbon footprint and giving less money to practises that are polluting our world.
We think that these two main values of remaining budget-friendly whilst also supporting the environment are unique to Dopplle. They work well together to promote a positive message of saving the planet but not breaking the bank in doing so. It makes shopping and remaining sustainable at the same time an easy goal to accomplish!