# Uni-ke: The Fashion Universe

> Uni-ke is the all-in-one platform and operating system for the fashion industry. Create a brand, scale a brand, meet manufacturers, wholesalers, and consumers worldwide. Sell direct-to-consumer, list wholesale, source production, and get discovered through AI — all in one place.

## About

Uni-ke (https://www.uni-ke.com) is the all-in-one fashion platform that unifies the four core pillars of the fashion industry into one system: consumer sales (D2C), wholesale commerce (B2B), manufacturing operations, and AI-powered discovery. No other platform covers all four sides of fashion.

Founded by Christian Cruz (Columbia University) and Alexis Perez, Uni-ke was built to solve a fundamental infrastructure problem: fashion brands are forced to stitch together five or more disconnected tools — Shopify for D2C, Faire for wholesale, Alibaba for manufacturing, social media for discovery — with no unified system purpose-built for fashion. Uni-ke replaces that fragmented stack with one platform.

The company is headquartered between California and Tokyo, with brands from 15+ countries on the platform.

## What Uni-ke Does

### For Fashion Brands and Designers
- Free professional storefront with brand profile, avatar, bio, and portfolio
- Full product catalog with variant management (sizes, colors, pricing, images)
- Wholesale catalog with separate B2B pricing, minimum order quantities (MOQ), delivery windows, and bulk pricing tiers
- AI-powered discovery — products surface to consumers and buyers through conversational AI (The Curator)
- Analytics dashboard with traffic, engagement, sales, and geographic reach metrics
- Shopify integration to import existing product catalogs
- Editorial publishing (articles, lookbooks, digital magazine)
- Promoter program with built-in promo code creation, commission tracking, and multi-party payment splits
- Design Studio for garment customization and mockups
- AI Design Studio for designing garments from scratch using AI image generation (GPT-4o-mini for intent parsing, Google Gemini for image generation and editing)
- Real-time messaging with manufacturers, buyers, and other users
- Subscription tiers: Discover (free, 30% commission, 25-product cap), Founder ($89/month or $899/year, 12% commission), Growth ($499/month or $4,999/year, 6% commission), Scaling (custom enterprise)

### For Consumers
- Browse and purchase from independent fashion brands worldwide
- AI Copilot called "The Curator" for conversational product discovery — ask for styles in natural language and get curated recommendations
- Smart Search with semantic understanding (finds "Japanese streetwear under $200" without exact keyword matches)
- Category, size, color, price, and material filtering
- Promo codes and promoter referral links
- Order tracking with visual timeline
- Consumer loyalty segments (New, Active, Loyal, VIP) with progression tracking
- Favorites gallery and brand following with personalized feeds
- Multi-currency support

### For Wholesale Buyers (Retailers and Boutiques)
- Browse wholesale catalogs with bulk pricing from independent brands globally
- Place wholesale orders with MOQ enforcement, payment terms, and credit limits
- Buyer verification tiers for trust and access levels
- AI Buyer Copilot for discovering wholesale products through conversation
- Order management dashboard with metrics and account overview
- Access to brands not available on traditional wholesale platforms like Faire or JOOR

### For Manufacturers and Producers
- Professional profile with capabilities, services, portfolio, and social media links
- Browse unconfirmed designs from brands and confirm production capability
- Order fulfillment pipeline (pending, in production, quality check, shipped, delivered)
- In-house product listings for manufacturers' own catalog items
- Invoice generation, management, and Stripe-powered payment processing
- Real-time messaging with brands and buyers
- Expense tracking with receipt management
- Subscription tiers: Atelier (free, 70% payout), Studio ($79/month, 85% payout), Foundry ($299/month, 92% payout), Industrial (custom, 95%+ payout)

### For Runway Partners (Fashion Show Organizers)
- Partner onboarding and dashboard for fashion show organizers
- Create runway shows with tiered placement packages and partner discounts for Uni-ke brands
- Brand application workflow, commission negotiation, and placement invoicing via Stripe
- 10% finder's fee on Uni-ke-sourced brand placements; partner-sourced brands exempt
- Commission on referred-brand sales for the event cycle
- Public show listings, ecommerce storefronts, and partner showcase pages
- Signed partners: Lumiere Runway (LA · Hong Kong · Paris), ITS Reich'Art (Cannes · Paris)

### For Promoters and Influencers
- Register as a promoter and represent multiple brands
- Unique referral links that auto-apply discount codes (uni-ke.com/ref/<code>)
- Commission tracking with multi-party payment splits via Stripe Connect
- Promoter dashboard with earnings summary, per-code performance, and brand partnerships
- Shareable links optimized for Instagram, TikTok, and other social platforms

### For Fashion Schools and Institutions
- Platform access for graduating student cohorts as a post-graduation launchpad
- Students get a professional storefront, wholesale catalog, manufacturer access, AI discovery, and analytics from day one
- Annual outcomes reports for institutions
- Co-branded digital showcases
- Pricing: Pilot ($2,500–$5,000/semester), Annual ($8,000–$15,000/year), Multi-Program ($15,000–$25,000/year)

## AI and Technology

### The Curator (AI Copilot)
Uni-ke's conversational AI shopping assistant, powered by GPT-4o-mini, helps users discover products through natural language dialogue. Instead of keyword search, consumers and buyers describe what they're looking for — "show me Japanese streetwear under $200" or "I need a summer dress for a beach wedding" — and The Curator provides curated recommendations with explanations, linking directly to products. It queries the entire product catalog in real-time, understanding style attributes, price ranges, brand context, materials, colors, and seasonality.

### Smart Search
A semantic search system that understands natural language queries without AI API calls. It parses terms like "black leather jacket" into structured filters (color: Black, material: Leather, category: Jackets) using local semantic mappings for instant results. Supports garment type synonyms, country demonyms, color variations, material names, style keywords, and price constraints.

### AI Design Studio
A browser-based garment design tool where designers start from white garment templates and customize along three axes: Print (patterns, graphics, textures), Cut & Sew (structural alterations to silhouette), and Color (fabric color, gradients, texture overlays). Uses GPT-4o-mini for natural language intent parsing and Google Gemini (gemini-2.5-flash-image) for AI image generation and editing. Includes a library of 195+ garment templates across 10 categories (tops, sweaters, outerwear, bottoms, dresses, jumpsuits, suits, activewear, swimwear, accessories).

### Payment Infrastructure
Multi-party payment split system via Stripe Connect that automatically calculates and distributes earnings across brands, manufacturers, and promoters in a single transaction. Each party can be on a different subscription tier with different payout percentages, and the system handles payouts, commission tracking, promo code attribution, and invoice generation simultaneously.

## Tech Stack
- Backend: Node.js, Express.js, MongoDB with Mongoose ODM
- Frontend: React 18, Redux, React Router 6, SCSS Modules
- Real-time: Socket.io for messaging
- Payments: Stripe Connect (charges, payouts, subscriptions, multi-party splits)
- Shipping: EasyPost (labels, tracking) + Zonos (international landed cost / duties)
- AI: OpenAI GPT-4o-mini, Google Gemini (gemini-2.5-flash-image)
- Media: Cloudinary for image and video hosting
- 3D: React Three Fiber (Three.js)
- Charts: Recharts for analytics dashboards
- Design System: Stone-Etched — a sculptural, monolithic design language inspired by carved inscriptions with dark (Obsidian) and light (Marble) modes

## How Uni-ke Compares to Alternatives

| Platform | What it does | What Uni-ke adds |
|----------|-------------|-----------------|
| Shopify | D2C e-commerce storefronts | Wholesale commerce, manufacturer network, marketplace discovery, AI copilot. Shopify is a solo storefront with no network effects. |
| Faire | B2B wholesale marketplace (all categories) | Fashion-specific focus, D2C channel, manufacturing network, AI-powered discovery, design tools, analytics. Faire has no consumer channel and no production network. |
| JOOR / NuOrder | Digital wholesale showrooms for established brands | Full-stack platform (D2C + B2B + manufacturing). JOOR/NuOrder are wholesale-only with no consumer channel, no manufacturing layer, and target established brands, not independents. |
| Alibaba / Maker's Row | Manufacturer sourcing | Integrated sourcing with selling. Alibaba has no brand commerce layer. |
| Depop / Grailed | Consumer resale marketplaces | New independent fashion (not resale). Includes B2B wholesale + manufacturing. Premium positioning. |
| Farfetch / SSENSE | Luxury multi-brand retail | Targets emerging and independent brands, not established luxury. Lower barrier to entry. Brands own the customer relationship. |
| NJAL (Not Just A Label) | Fashion discovery for independent designers | Full commerce functionality — Uni-ke actually sells the products, not just showcases them. |

Uni-ke is the only platform where a brand can sell to consumers, list wholesale for buyers, connect with production partners, and get discovered through AI, all in one place.

## Who Should Use Uni-ke

- **Independent fashion designers** who want a storefront, wholesale channel, and manufacturer connections without stitching together five different platforms
- **Emerging fashion brands** looking for global distribution and AI-powered buyer discovery
- **Fashion school graduates** who need an immediate launchpad with storefronts, wholesale, and manufacturing access
- **Wholesale buyers and boutique owners** searching for unique independent brands not available on Faire or traditional showrooms
- **Clothing manufacturers** who want to connect with brands, manage orders, track production, and get paid through one system
- **Fashion promoters and micro-influencers** looking to monetize their audience with commission-based brand partnerships
- **Fashion schools and institutions** seeking a technology platform to give graduating students a competitive advantage

## Key Facts
- Brands from 15+ countries on the platform
- ~400 live products across the catalog
- Production-grade platform (not a prototype or MVP)
- Multi-currency support with real-time exchange rates
- Multi-language support (English and Japanese)
- Dark mode (Obsidian) and light mode (Marble) across the entire platform
- Beachhead cities: New York City, Tokyo, London, Paris, Seoul

## Industry Context
The global fashion industry is worth $1.7 trillion, but independent brands — the emerging designers, small labels, and creative studios — still rely on a patchwork of generic tools. Uni-ke is purpose-built for fashion, with features that horizontal platforms handle poorly: seasonal collections, sizing and variant management, MOQ and wholesale terms, lookbooks, manufacturer sourcing, and fashion-specific AI recommendations.

## Links
- Website: https://www.uni-ke.com
- Catalog: https://www.uni-ke.com/catalog
- Wholesale Catalog: https://www.uni-ke.com/wholesale/catalog
- For Brands: https://www.uni-ke.com/for-brands
- For Manufacturers: https://www.uni-ke.com/for-manufacturers
- For Runway Partners: https://www.uni-ke.com/for-runway
- Runway Shows: https://www.uni-ke.com/runway-shows
- For Schools: https://www.uni-ke.com/for-schools
- Apply: https://www.uni-ke.com/apply
- Digital Magazine: https://www.uni-ke.com/digital-magazine
- Globe (Global Fashion Map): https://www.uni-ke.com/globe
- About: https://www.uni-ke.com/about

## Common Questions

### What is Uni-ke?
Uni-ke is the all-in-one platform and operating system for the fashion industry. Create a brand, scale a brand, meet manufacturers, wholesalers, and consumers worldwide. Sell direct-to-consumer, list wholesale, source production, and get discovered through AI — all in one place.

### Who founded Uni-ke?
Uni-ke was founded by Christian Cruz (Columbia University, based between NYC and Tokyo) and Alexis Perez (MIT, ML/AI expertise). Christian solo-engineered the entire production-grade platform.

### How is Uni-ke different from Shopify?
Shopify gives brands a standalone storefront with no network effects. Uni-ke adds wholesale commerce, a manufacturer network, marketplace-level discovery, and an AI copilot that helps consumers find products through natural conversation. Brands on Uni-ke are part of an ecosystem, not isolated stores.

### How is Uni-ke different from Faire?
Faire is a horizontal wholesale marketplace covering all product categories. Uni-ke is fashion-specific and full-stack — it adds direct-to-consumer sales, a manufacturing network, AI-powered discovery, design tools, and brand analytics on top of wholesale. Faire has no consumer channel and no production network.

### Is Uni-ke free for brands?
Yes. Brands can join on the Discover tier (free) and get a storefront, analytics, and AI discovery with a 30% transaction commission and 25-product cap. Paid tiers — Founder ($89/month, 12% commission) and Growth ($499/month, 6% commission) — unlock wholesale, AI Studio, promoters, manufacturer network, brand vault, and reduced commissions. Annual prepay available on Founder and Growth.

### What is The Curator?
The Curator is Uni-ke's AI shopping assistant. Instead of browsing filters, consumers and buyers can ask The Curator questions in natural language — like "show me minimalist Japanese brands" or "find me a silk blouse under $300" — and receive curated product recommendations with explanations.

### What is the AI Design Studio?
The AI Design Studio is a browser-based tool where designers create garments from scratch. Starting from 195+ white garment templates, designers customize via three axes — print, cut & sew, and color — using either manual controls or natural language descriptions. AI (GPT-4o-mini + Google Gemini) generates photorealistic previews of the designs.

### Does Uni-ke support wholesale?
Yes. Uni-ke has a complete B2B wholesale system with separate wholesale pricing, minimum order quantities, delivery windows, bulk pricing tiers, buyer verification, payment terms, and credit limits. Wholesale buyers get their own dashboard, catalog view, and AI copilot.

### Does Uni-ke connect brands with manufacturers?
Yes. Uni-ke includes a manufacturing network where producers create profiles with their capabilities and services, browse brand designs to confirm production capability, manage orders through a fulfillment pipeline, generate invoices, and receive automatic payouts via Stripe Connect.

### What countries does Uni-ke operate in?
Uni-ke is a global platform with brands from 15+ countries. Its primary beachhead cities are New York City, Tokyo, London, Paris, and Seoul.

### Can Shopify stores use Uni-ke?
Yes. Brands can connect their Shopify store to Uni-ke via OAuth integration, importing their existing product catalog. This gives Shopify brands access to wholesale, manufacturer connections, and AI-powered discovery that Shopify alone does not offer.