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| Image from Spree |
DGG: Tell us about yourselves.
Mihai: There are 3 co-founders: Irene, Ryan, and I. We all grew up in the metro-Detroit area, graduated from the University of Michigan, and moved to San Francisco around the same time. Ryan and I are both software engineers and we met during out first weeks at Google. Irene and I met all the way back in highschool, about 12 years ago.
Ryan and I have been doing the coding for Spree. Irene has been a key part of the interface design, has come up with lots of features, and was instrumental in coming up with the original idea. I met DeJanea when I was visiting friends back in Michigan. A mutual friend introduced us and I told her about Spree. She was really excited about it and we’ve been happy to have her input since then.
DeJanea: I met Mihai at a mutual friend's birthday party earlier this year. He introduced the two of us because he knew that I had just finished my internship with The Detroit Garment Group and was finishing up my fashion merchandising degree at Wayne State. Mihai admitted that while he and the other developers were creating a fashion app, they didn't know anything about the fashion industry so I was brought on to utilize my fashion industry expertise.
DGG: Tell us about Spree.
Irene: Spree is about bringing a community of fashion lovers together. You snap a selfie of your outfit, other people using the app can give you advice and help you pick out what to wear.
Mihai: Spree is for anyone that wants a second opinion when getting ready to go out or buying clothes. Post a full-body photo and we’ll start giving you advice from other people in just 1 minute.
We use emojis to capture the overall feeling of your outfit- the best outfits get a 🦄 and the worst get a 💩! Of course you can get detailed comments, too, and we created an awesome feature called a Thumb: just swipe up or down anywhere on an outfit when giving advice and we’ll add a thumb up or down on that part of the outfit. It’s so much faster than typing “cute shirt”!
DGG: How long have you all been developing apps, and why did you want to develop an app for fashion?
Ryan: I've been making apps for about six years. We became interested in building Spree because we saw a need for a feedback-focused fashion experience for ourselves and our friends.
Mihai: I started working on apps when I was a software engineer at Google. I wanted to leave the big corporate life behind and build something people found useful. One day after work, Irene, Ryan, and I were hanging out in the kitchen talking about how now that we’ve finished college and have real jobs, we’re not broke, but I still didn’t know what to wear besides baggy t-shirts and jeans. That’s when Irene brought up the movie Clueless- Cher, the main character, had a computer that helped her pick out outfits in the morning. We realized that trying to do it like that would be really hard and, realistically, wouldn’t work well. To us, asking other people was the key, because giving quick and accurate opinions on something as subjective as clothes is where people blow computers out of the water!
DeJanea: I've never developed an app before and don't know a thing about coding. My tech background is just basically making Sailor Moon and anime websites on Geocities in the late 90's/early 2000's, but when Mihai told me about the app, I felt it was a genius idea that I needed to be a part of. With all the fashion geared apps out in the market right now, there was nothing like this one. I believe that this app could revolutionize the fashion industry in some way.
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| Image from Spree |
DGG: Why did you feel this kind of app was needed?
Irene: A lot of people get advice from their friends on what to wear out or buy, but what if your style differs from your friends, or you're just getting interested in finding your style. Who can you ask?
We all see so many pictures of clothes that are highly edited and specific for a certain body type everywhere, but we come in all shapes and sizes - something that looks great on the model in the ad might not look great in real life. We wanted to build a community of real people posting photos of themselves and can share tips or ideas with one another.
Mihai: I don’t like ads, not by a long shot. I understand they’re necessary for businesses, but in so many industries, including fashion, everywhere you look, all you see are ads. If they were realistic it’d be fine, but they’re not. There are teams of people involved in just taking a single photo for Instagram or a magazine: photographers, editors, make-up artists, stylists, models, designers. Even if we buy the exact same outfit we see see on Instagram or in a magazine, what hope do we have of looking even half as good as the model did?
Of course we can’t blame whoever made the ad or whoever published it, they’re just trying to make money, but in pursuit of profit and sales, they forget about the people buying the clothes. We just want well-made clothes that fit and look great. That’s why I think Spree is important. It’s real people, not some unrealistic fantasy that you see in an ad.
DeJanea: Spree is perfect for those times when you're just not sure about what to wear that day. Or for people who need a little help with fashion in general. Everyone has these situations and needs a little advice to help them out.
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| Image from Spree |
DGG: What do you have planned, long term for Spree? Anything you can share?
Ryan: One of the first things we noticed after launching Spree is that users love reviewing each other's posts. Many have rated hundreds, even thousands of outfits. We will eventually allow users to tag where they bought the outfit, so others can easily find outfits they like. We’re also working on a variety of features to allow designers, stylists, and bloggers to build up their name with Spree.
Irene: We're focusing on building a strong community and would love to see bloggers, designers, and trendsetters use this as a tool to connect with their fan base. We'd love to have this eventually be a tool that people can use to shop for clothes as well. As we were saying before, models and clothes in ads just aren't an accurate representation of reality. With this, you can see people with similar body types to you and you can shop for things similar to what they wear and get an actual idea of the quality of the clothes.
Mihai: There are a ton of features that have been swirling around in my head. Right now we’re focused on making sure we can make the core experience useful and easy to use. Down the road we’d love to let people tag clothes in their photos so others can see where they bought them. I think that’d be so useful: you’ll be able to go into a store and look up all the photos posted to Spree with clothes from that store.
DeJanea: I see so many great things coming out of Spree in the future. Like I said before, I truly believe that this app could revolutionize the fashion industry in new and exciting ways. My hope for the future is to somehow get designers, retailers and stylists integrated in the app.
DGG: If you could have anyone in the world use Spree, who would it be and why?
Ryan: This question is tough because Spree is designed for everyday people looking for unbiased opinions.
Irene: Just normal people! We want to make feeling great about what you put on an attainable goal for everyone, not just celebrities or models with teams of stylists.
Mihai: I would love to have designers and fashion bloggers use it because that’s traditionally been more of a 1-way dialog. If we can foster a reddit-esque AMA (Ask Me Anything) where there can create a hashtag and tell their fans “tomorrow from 1-2pm, I’ll be giving advice to anyone that posts on Spree under #whatever”. I think that would be so cool, to start a conversation between the designers and bloggers of the world, and everyone else.
DeJanea: While I agree with everyone else and say that Spree is for everyone... I have to admit, however, that I would DIE if Rachel Zoe used our app! She is my idol and whose career I aspire to emulate.
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| Image from Spree |
DGG: Describe your style.
Irene: Probably like a baby alien? I like pieces with interesting colors or shapes that stick out and make people whisper about it when I walk by.
Mihai: Being techy means I’ve always loved hoodies and t-shirts, but nowadays I pay a lot more attention to fit; gone are the days of unfitted t-shirts and baggy jeans. I’m still not quite a fashion guru, so I try to stick the simple things: a solid colored tailored dress shirt and well-fitted jeans with some fashion sneakers are tried and true favorites of mine.
DeJanea: I always feel my style is trendy with an edge. I love color blocking and mixing patterns. I'm also very girly... pink is my favorite color!
DGG: How do you take your coffee?
Irene: I'm more of a tea fan. Straight tea, no nonsense.
Mihai: I always have a long list of things to do for the day, that always keeps me going, so no coffee for me! If I am feeling really tired though, I’ll reach for a caffeine pill--I’m all about efficiency.
DeJanea: I'm not a coffee person. I love green tea!
DGG: Polypore or Mallzee?
Irene: Neither! Get spree :p
Mihai: Neither. I’m a guy that’s 5’ 6” and 125 lbs., so finding things that fit me can be tough. I like to go straight to Amazon, filter for things that are Prime and available in my size, then go from there. Their selection is huge and prices are reasonable. I load up my cart with more than I’ll ever need and return anything I don’t like!
DeJanea: I think Polyvore is a lot of fun and very useful for making inspiration boards.
DGG: Classic or minimalist?
Irene: Minimalist.
Mihai: I love tailored suits, so definitely classic!
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