The SYKY Collective, an incubator program created to help emerging digital designers grow their brands, has launched. The inaugural class of 10 designers includes fashion house Pet Liger, fashion artist Stephy Fung, photographer GlitchofMind, digital artist Calvyn Dylin Justus, spatial computing artist Taskin Goec, visual artist Fanrui Sun, fashion brand Nextberries, 3D artist Gustavo Toledo, footwear designer Felipe Fiallo and immersive creator Jacquelyn Assar.
The goal of the program is to “disrupt” the traditional fashion industry and help the cohort develop their individual brands. The designers will be mentored by SYKY founder and CEO Alice Delahunt as well as industry leaders including CMO of Calvin Klein Jonathan Bottomley, founding member of digital fashion platform Red DAO Megan Kaspar and non-profit the British Fashion Council. The first collections from the cohort will be released on SYKY later this year.
Delahunt said the company’s mission is to “decentralize creativity and bring new mediums into the traditional fashion world.” Taskin Goec, one of the designers selected to participate in the cohort, said he’s looking forward to expanding his design skills alongside a group of artists and mentors who are well-versed in digital fashion and Web3.
The SYKY Collective also aims to break down barriers to entry into the fashion world by empowering new artists. Adaku Emenike and Oluchi Nwachukwu, the Nigerian duo behind Nextberries, said the barriers to entry to digital design are particularly high in Nigeria due to a “traditional mindset” and lack of access to digital resources.
SYKY has spent the past year building out its community to help foster decentralized creativity ahead of its platform launch. In January, it announced a $9.5 million funding round led by Seven Seven Six, a VC firm founded in 2020 by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. In addition, it released its Keystone Pass, a collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that grants access to its private community of 987 fashion leaders, collectors, designers and enthusiasts. In June, the SYKY was awarded as one of the World Economic Forum’s “Technology Pioneers for 2023.