During her time at the University of Michigan, recent LSA graduate Taylor Lane founded the free mobile application Spivvy, an online market app exclusively for university students. The app aims to increase access to sustainable fashion for UMich students, and provide both security and convenience to student shoppers. Since its creation in March, Spivvy has expanded to Grand Valley State University, and the developers are aiming to expand to more college campuses.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Lane said her app differs from other online markets — like Depop — by avoiding shipping costs for consumers.
“It’s essentially a peer-to-peer secondhand marketplace for students,” Lane said. “Instead of having to ship your items out like on Depop, or having to pay a lot of fees for that as the customer or the seller, you just meet up on campus to exchange your items.”
Spivvy allows buyers to meet in-person to verify item quality before paying, and promotes circular fashion consumption within the campus community. Lane said she believes this is especially useful for students buying single-use clothing, or looking to avoid fast-fashion retailers.
“Students have a hard time finding clothing for one-time events like formals, game days or interviews, especially because a lot of Michiganre from out of state,” Lane said. “They don’t want to order from a fast-fashion brand like Shein, and can instead rent something or buy something secondhand.”
In an interview with The Daily, recent LSA graduate Leslie Cai said she played a role in creating the financial infrastructure of the startup.
“My overall role was more product and finance, so thinking about the actual student experience, how people interact with the app,” Cai said. “Because we’re building for college students, we have to think carefully about things like trust, simplicity and what actually makes students want to use a campus marketplace.”
However, launching an app does not come without difficulties. Cai said the team worked on and refined several iterations of Spivvy prior to its launch in order to address student needs.
“Because a startup is so new, you’re building the idea from just the absolute ground up,” Cai said. “There’s some things you don’t really think through as you’re making it. It’s really hard to understand, sometimes, exactly what students are looking for because the main issue is why you would use our product over other ones.”
In an interview with the Daily, GVSU student Emma Haigler said she marketed the app using student models, a Y2K aesthetic and collaborations with popular Ann Arbor businesses, such as The Chop House.
“I’ve been really excited to work with the models; all of them are college students, so it’s really cool to use actual people who are using the product firsthand,” Haigler said. “I obviously love photography; it’s my job, so I’ve just been really excited to have a lot of creative direction on photo shoots to really just dive into having fun and making something unique that’ll stand out.”
Haigler also said the app’s community aspect could foster new connections between students with similar styles.
“It definitely brings a different perspective into meeting people on college campuses,” Haigler said. “You could meet someone who has a similar fashion style to you, and you’re on the same campus, so who knows, you might become friends.”
Cai said Spivvy’s early success has inspired the app’s development team to improve the app further.
“What I’m most proud of seeing is an idea becoming something real that students can actually interact with and benefit from,” Cai said. “It has taught me how much thoughtful design and user experience matter when you’re building for a real community.”
Lane said the ultimate goal for Spivvy is not profit driven, but rather focussed on the app’s contribution to reducing waste from single-use clothing.
“My ultimate goal is just to reduce the amount of waste from college students at the end of each year and throughout the years,” Lane said. “I don’t think an app like this will be measured for its success by the amount of profit we’re making. I think that even if every school year I prevent 20 items from ending up in the landfill, that would be a success to me.”
Daily Staff Reporter Adelaide Ellis can be reached at arellis@umich.edu.
