The 2023 Hult Prize Challenge on redesigning fashion is now open for applications to create a for-profit social venture in the fashion/clothing industry. Every year, one team receives $1M USD in funding to make their idea a reality. The application deadline is October 31, 2022.
About The 2023 Hult Prize Challenge on Redesigning Fashion
Today’s fashion industry is huge. It’s the world’s third-largest manufacturing sector, contributing $2.4 trillion to the global economy. Over 150 billion articles of clothing are produced each year. Fashion employs 300 million people across its value chain*—a sixth of the world’s workforce.
The fashion industry is responsible for up to 8% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions—more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined. It consumes 215 trillion litres of water a year and accounts for 9% of the microplastics found in our oceans. For the majority of workers, conditions are dangerous and exploitative. Compensation is often below a livable wage, especially for women who comprise 80% of the workforce.
The industry must change. If not, the United Nations has little hope of meeting its Sustainable Development Goals by the 2030 deadline. It’s time to rethink every stage of the fashion industry’s ecosystem, from how we source textiles and manufacture garments to how we buy them and dispose of them.
Therefore, this year-long, global competition challenges young people to solve the world’s most pressing issues by creating innovative social ventures.
Application Procedure
Below are the steps you need to take to participate in the 2023 Hult Prize Challenge on Redesigning Fashion
- Align with one or more of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development. Goals
- Choose an area of impact in the fashion industry’s value chain that you feel passionate about.
- Build your team.
- Explore your idea with Design Thinking.
- Develop your Step 6: Create your pitch. business plan.
- Create your pitch.
- Compete!
Competition Stages
You will need to make it through three qualifying rounds to compete at the Finals in Paris for the $1million prize.
Below are the details of each stage in the competition
OnCampus Program
The OnCampus program serves as the first phase of the Hult Prize competition. Student volunteers, known as Campus Directors, organize training programs and community events at their universities focused on that year’s Call to Action. The goal of every OnCampus program is to select one winning team, who represents that university in the Regional Summits. To participate in the OnCampus program, you need tosubmit your application.
Regional Summits
The Regional Summits are hosted by the Hult Prize team in cities around the world. Thousands of competitors pitch their social venture ideas to panels of experts in an immersive digital format. The winning teams from each of these summits earn a spot at the Global Accelerator and are one step closer to winning US $1,000,000.
Global Accelerator
Teams who make it to the Global Accelerator are immersed in an intensive, 6-week program which aims to refine and build upon their social venture. Student entrepreneurs are introduced to crucial business concepts and work hand in hand with Hult Prize staff and experts to take their social venture to the next level. At the conclusion of this stage of the competition, six teams will move on to the Global Finals.
Global Finals
At the Global Finals, six teams pitch their social ventures to a panel of distinguished judges with the hopes of being selected as the next winner of the US $1,000,000 Hult Prize. The 2022 Global Finals will be held at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting, with President Bill Clinton presenting the award and delivering a keynote speech. Also, Hult Prize will be showcasing the winners of the 2020 and 2021 Hult Prize.
For more information about the competition, visit the 2023 Hult Prize Challenge website.
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