Feb 4, 2023

February 4, 2023 Madrid – Federico Sainz de Robles, CEO of the Spanish start-up Sepiia, describes himself as “a 33-year-old boy from Madrid who has always been passionate about clothes and experimenting with them”, a vocation that has taken shape in this fashion since 2016. project that, in addition to being a fashion brand, distinguishes itself within the sector as a company responsible for the manufacture of its own advanced fabrics. Although he wanted to study Fashion Design from the start, he eventually chose Industrial Design Engineering where he learned that the purpose of any type of design is to solve a problem. Little by little, he entered the world of national and international fashion and eventually coincided with the Institute of Technology AITEX, a national reference center for research, innovation and advanced technical services for companies in the textile, clothing and technical textiles sectors. Here he got to know all the advances that existed in the textile sector, but which at the time were only applied to very specific garments, but not to everyday clothes. After working with them for a few years, he started applying all the knowledge he had learned to everyday clothes, which is what Sepiia does today. Image: Sepia From FashionUnited, we wanted to know first-hand all the details of this brand’s success as it enters 2023 in a big way. In addition to closing the year with three active pop-ups (in Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona) during the Christmas campaign, a few weeks after winning the WeMed Award for 2022 at the end of November, the company was awarded the CirCoAx Startup Europe Award for sustainable and circular innovation for 2022. Together with El Ganso, they were also responsible for the design of the off-field clothing worn by the athletes and trainers of the Spanish national football team during the World Cup in Qatar. The company closed 2022 at just over 2.5 million euros, doubling compared to 2021 to around 1.2 million euros. “As an engineer, I’ve always been obsessed with creating garments that work better” Federico Sainz de Robles – “Following the example of brands such as the US Department of Supply, who started to integrate new materials into everyday products, I convinced the R&D director – at AITEX – to open a fashion innovation department, an area that they were forgotten and where I had contacts with designers, to whom we told about the many possibilities of our technological progress.” One of the first projects they participated in in this field was Pepa Bueno’s innovative collection, which won the Samsung EGO Innovation Project MBFW Madrid competition in 2014 and whose garments changed as they walked through waterfalls. “One day I was invited to a meeting at Lanzadera – a Valencian business accelerator that supports entrepreneurs to turn their projects into business reality – because they were calling for those who wanted to realize their idea. They provided me with mentors who helped me create the business model that allowed me to launch Sepiia.” How do you choose your suppliers? “At Sepiia there are three aspects that we consider essential. Reducing the care a garment needs, increasing comfort – light, breathable, leaving no sweat marks – and minimizing the impact on the planet.” “With this starting point, when developing new products or improving existing products, we look for suppliers with the most efficient solutions for the processes we want to improve or develop.” “The closer they are to us or our customers, the better, because that is how we ensure that the conditions of our customers and those who manufacture our products are the same, and therefore on an equal footing. And because we streamline many processes and reduce their ecological footprint.” “We are now focusing heavily on the dyeing process, as that is usually where the greatest water impact of a garment is, so we try to find suppliers who improve this while being consistent with our values.” How has the company grown along the way? “I started alone, for about a year and a half I was the one who took care of tasks like going to the yarn factory where they convert it into fabrics that I then take to the suppliers, a process that is completely different today.” “We currently consist of a team of 22 people and we have grown organically according to the needs that have arisen. We started by adding people to the team, focusing on the more operational side, then we expanded our suppliers and technologies to streamline processes, grow and reach more customers.” Which part of the company generates the most revenue? “We were born as a direct-to-consumer brand through our online channel, which currently remains our largest source of revenue, impacting 65 percent of total sales, compared to 10 percent represented by, for example, our brick-and-mortar store in Madrid – a profitable channel from the start – the rest consists of the turnover from marketplaces and projects for companies in the field of technology – as is the case with the collaboration with El Ganso – and making uniforms for companies – hotels and restaurants, among other things – this is today a division of the company itself.” “This year we will focus on wholesale, a channel with a very broad growth potential that allows us to reach a large number of customers.” “If customers have not touched our product, it is difficult for them to invest in our products online – this is part of the success of the three pop-ups that opened during the Christmas season – and it makes a lot of sense for us to bringing our product to multi-brand stores that bring it closer to customers.” “We have been receiving requests from wholesalers over the past few months, but we were unsure about how to change operations, as it is not the same to work on a product and launch it directly through our e-commerce as it is to working with companies that buy collections from you a year in advance, forcing you to renew yourself so that everything is right.” “Now we are presenting the autumn collection, which has been produced almost in parallel with the summer collection, because our business model has not forced us to anticipate more, one of the advantages of working with local suppliers.” “Now our pace has completely changed.” Which line works best? “We started with the men’s line, which is still the most important in terms of sales, although the women’s line is growing more and more. Although we are aware that our concept is a proposal that better suits the male segment.” “We are increasingly trying to understand women’s daily needs in order to offer them clothing that adapts to them in terms of technology, morphology and anatomy.” Image: Sepia “We try to make timeless, wardrobe products, so that they are not influenced by trends. We try to make every piece of clothing the best we can, so we focus on the materials and pattern to make it look good and last.” “Ecodesign is a fundamental pillar of our brand, so that the products retain their properties, but are fully circular and can be recycled at the end of their life. To this end, we manufacture single-material garments that do not contain any fiber mixture.” “This makes the development process very time-consuming, as it is difficult, for example, to achieve elastic results without using elastane.” Image: Sepia “We currently offer a service where customers return their discarded products to us in exchange for a discount on their next purchase, and we make sure to take them to the recycling facility to close the loop.” “While we cannot currently guarantee that every piece of clothing will return to us, one of our next objectives for the coming months is to introduce product leasing – customers do not buy but buy the service – to ensure that they come back to us.” This article was previously published on FashionUnited ES. Translation and editing into Dutch by Caitlyn Terra.