Industry Project 2024/2025: Tree x Tori.fi

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The IDBM Industry Project Course is a seven-month journey of collaboration, exploration, and innovation, where students addressing real-world challenges in collaboration with industry partners. This year, we’re inviting you to follow 10 different stories as our teams move through different stages of their project journeys.

As the secondhand market in Europe matures, digital solutions that enhance trust, usability, and emotional value become increasingly necessary. In our IDBM Capstone project, conducted in collaboration with Tori.fi and Tree®, our five-member multidisciplinary team explored how emerging technologies, particularly Digital Product Passports (DPPs) that could reshape the secondhand fashion experience for users across Finland and beyond.

Our team reflected the diversity and interdisciplinarity central to the IDBM program: with backgrounds spanning business, science, chemical engineering, and the arts, we were uniquely positioned to tackle a challenge that sits at the intersection of technology, culture, and behavior. Instead of designing a purely technical solution, we aimed to reimagine value in secondhand fashion and ask: how might people get more value from fewer purchases?

*First workshop session with partner companies.*

Our design process was grounded in extensive research. We conducted user interviews, policy reviews, and ethnographic observations in Finland, particularly focusing on Finnish mothers as “wardrobe managers.”

A pivotal phase of our journey unfolded in Bali, Indonesia, where we conducted fieldwork to better understand global clothing supply chains, observe textile industry practices, and explore contrasting cultural attitudes toward reuse and value. These immersive insights allowed us to approach our design vision with both global relevance and local specificity.

Our company visits at Bali and local secondhand stores and markets exploration

Also we explored local culture

Returning to Finland, we synthesized our findings into a conceptual design: the Wardrobe Value Tracker. This speculative tool envisions a future where users can scan garments’ DPPs to build a digital replica of their wardrobe, analyze usage patterns, evaluate resale value, and sell directly on Tori.fi. It’s not about buying more, it’s about buying smarter. Features such as calendar integration, personalized alerts, and "Top Collectors" for inspiration aim to support more mindful consumption and make selling secondhand as easy as clicking a button.

Our Wardrobe Value Tracker prototype

Our journey culminated at the IDBM Impact Gala, where we showcased the Wardrobe Value Tracker through an interactive booth that included a clickable prototype and storytelling visuals. The booth was designed to be both informative and speculative, inviting visitors to imagine a world where resale is seamless, data-driven, and emotionally engaging. We had rich conversations with industry guests, fellow students, and curious onlookers, which validated our vision and highlighted the growing appetite for more meaningful secondhand experiences.