“The future of fashion is about niches”, Philip Rooke stated at NEXT Berlin 2012. And his Leipzig-based company Spreadshirt has found its niche. The company enables anyone to become a designer – and to buy innovative products designed by other community members.

Part of the success is its API, with which Spreadshirt can be integrated into established platforms like Amazon and Facebook. Furthermore, third parties can use it in order to develop their own tools.
At the moment, there are 40,000 active Spreadshirt shops. One of them is the Hamburg-based label HASENFARM. It was founded because of a simple reasion: Their passion for bunnies and the lack of shirts with rabbit prints. Today, Henning Groß and his wife Melanie earn substantial money with it.

They used functionalities provided by Spreadshirt to create their own website with an online shop. Using the API allows HASENFARM’s customers to buy not only bunny products, but also T-shirts from other designers. In turn, the company gets a commission fee – an important element of their business model.

The example of HASENFARM confirms Rooke’s vision of the future of fashion. It’s about niches – which can be occupied by either ordinary people or even large companies. Niche products have one major advantage: People will identify with them easier and more quickly.