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Hello! Today’s innovation: Nike tackles period stigma in sports as England team switches from white shorts to blue
INNOVATION
In time for their Thursday match against Brazil in London's Wembley Stadium, England women's football team has introduced its new look. The kits feature a new design and better fit, but the most significant changes address players' concerns about wearing white shorts.
Following lobbying from senior squad members, including striker Beth Mead, the Football Association changed the color of the Lionesses' shorts from white to blue. During last summer's European Championship in England, Mead discussed the issue with Nike, England's kit partner. The new kit color aims to alleviate players' worries about bleeding through and allow them to focus on their performance.
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https://hubs.la/Q01KqWNk0
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Hello! Today’s innovation: Free OptInk tattoo serves as a person's inked intent to donate their organs
INNOVATION
In Germany, 84% of people support organ donation, yet just 0.001% actually become organ donors. This disparity led to the creation of OptInk by Junge Helden with McCann. The concept is simple: a distinctive, free tattoo signals an individual's desire to have their organs and tissues donated after death.
German legislation currently mandates express consent for organ donation, typically through a donor card, advance healthcare directive or other written declaration while the person is alive. Without explicit prior consent, the decision falls to the donor's relatives, resulting in fewer organ donations than are needed.
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https://hubs.la/Q01K4SnC0
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Hello! Today’s innovation: Canada's monotonous highways turned into sleepy soundtracks to spotlight drowsy driving
INNOVATION
Drowsy driving is a significant concern in Canada, contributing to 21% of all road accidents and claiming thousands of lives each year. Despite the alarming statistics, many drivers remain unconvinced of the road's ability to lull them to sleep.
In a novel approach to addressing drowsy driving, a campaign by the Canada Safety Council has turned three of Canada's most monotonous highways into sleep aids. Sleep Tracks is aimed at raising awareness of the dangers of driving while tired by demonstrating just how sleep-inducing Canadian roads can be.
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https://hubs.la/Q01JD5vr0
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Hello! Today’s innovation: Reflecting human diversity, Pantone expands its SkinTone Guide to include 138 shades
INNOVATION
Pantone, the standardized color reproduction system widely used in design and production, has announced the expansion of its SkinTone Guide. The updated 2023 edition includes 28 new shades in addition to the existing 110 to better represent the vast array of human skin tones. Pantone specifically focused on adding darker tones and yellow undertones to address customer feedback and demand for more accurate color matches in those ranges.
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https://hubs.la/Q01JkCpH0
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Hello! Today’s innovation: Retailer Wiggle partners with Adidas to create prayer mat for Muslim hikers
INNOVATION
Muslim Hikers formed during the 2020 lockdowns to encourage British Muslims to get outside. Recently, the walking group teamed up with sports retailer Wiggle and Adidas TERREX to address barriers Muslim people might face when heading into the countryside.
One issue they identified was the need to be able to pray. Since observant Muslims pray five times a day, they'll likely need to kneel down at some point during a hike. So the hiking group and its brand partners developed outdoor prayer mats.
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https://hubs.la/Q01J2nbj0
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Hello! Today’s innovation: Between Swiss railroad tracks, Sun-Ways rolls out solar panels like a carpet
INNOVATION
In the transition to green(er) energy, the race is on to find physical space to install wind turbines, geothermal plants and solar panels. In Switzerland, local startup Sun-Ways is looking to train tracks. Turns out the space between two rails neatly fits standard photovoltaic panels.
Sun-Ways has patented a system that places photovoltaic panels between railway tracks, allowing trains to produce electricity without taking up any additional land. It's not the first company to consider that space for photovoltaics, but its ease of installation makes this system stand out.
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https://hubs.la/Q01HMN6K0
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Hello! Today’s innovation: Cadbury offers customers a chance to split a cash prize with their local corner shop
INNOVATION
A Cadbury Instagram post asks: "Who else is besties with their local shopkeeper? 👯♂️🤝🍫" Underscoring how corner shops can be a vital part of a neighborhood’s fabric, Cadbury's new Big Win-Win promotion gives customers a chance to win a cash prize to share with their favorite local shopkeeper. The one who knows their name, sees them at their best and worst and can probably guess what they'll buy the moment they walk in.
With each purchase of a Cadbury chocolate bar, customers can enter to win a cash reward to split with their trusty convenience store. After entering their details and the barcode and batch code of a participating product on Cadbury's website, participants are instantly notified if they've won GBP 1,000 or GBP 500.
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https://hubs.la/Q01HswSr0
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Hello! Today’s innovation: A cc0 deli operating under 'world's first open source brand'?
INNOVATION
Melbourne could soon be home to Nouns Deli, if a proposal by Noun owner BeerNoogles is voted through. BeerNoggles wants to take an existing eatery and give it a complete Nouns-branded makeover. The idea is to keep the deli's current team on board and turn the concept into a franchised sandwich shop that can be easily replicated worldwide.
A quick primer on Nouns: every 24 hours, a new Nouns NFT is randomly generated and auctioned off. The first one was minted in August 2021. All auction proceeds go into a communal treasury that funds projects around the world.
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https://hubs.la/Q01H7BjD0
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Hello! Today’s innovation: Using thermochromic ink, jars of Hellmann's mayo show people if their fridge is running warm
INNOVATION
As part of Food Waste Action Week, Hellmann's is testing new labels for its jars of mayonnaise. Printed with thermochromic ink, which changes color based on temperature, the labels indicate whether a fridge is cool enough to keep food fresh.
Prototype jars were sent to Hellmann's fans, food waste campaigners and influencers in the UK last week to raise awareness about food waste. The labels feature a colorful design by illustrator Ellen Porteus, with a hidden layer that only appears below 5°C.
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https://hubs.la/Q01GK0Kt0
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Hello! Today’s innovation: Largest 3D-printed affordable housing complex materializes in Kenya
INNOVATION
The Kenyan town of Kilifi will soon be able to boast the world's largest 3D-printed affordable housing complex. In February 2023, developer 14Trees announced it had finished printing the community's first ten houses.
The neighborhood, Mvule Gardens, will feature 52 homes with either two or three bedrooms. Each has a front porch and a private backyard. Using just one 3D printer, 14Trees can print the walls for a two-bedroom house in 18 hours, with three bedrooms taking an additional 10 hours. Pricing for the 3D-printed homes starts at KES 3,610,000 (around USD 28,000). For comparison, the average price of a 2-bedroom house in Kilifi is KES 4,900,000 (USD 38,000).
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https://hubs.la/Q01GcpLQ0
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Hello! Today’s innovation: Pill subscription Luma uses AI and 3D printing for personalized menopause support
INNOVATION
Hot flashes, mood swings, insomnia — menopause affects everyone differently. Since there's no one-size-fits-all solution, industrial designers at Morrama dreamt up Luma, a subscription service that delivers monthly boxes of pills tailored to each user and the issues they're currently facing. The supplements contain varying levels of Black Cohosh for hot flashes, Lion's Mane to reduce brain fog and Ginseng to increase libido, plus THC where legal.
Luma works with an app that tracks the subscriber's symptoms, lifestyle and preferences through smartwatch and sensor data, as well as manual inputs.
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https://hubs.ly/Q01FL4JL0
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Hello! Today’s innovation: New Pokémon game is played by getting a good night's rest
INNOVATION
While a good game can be so hyper-engaging that it's impossible to stop and hit the hay, a new creation by the Pokémon franchise aims to do the opposite: help players sleep better.
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https://hubs.la/Q01D-7c30
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Hello! Today’s innovation: Using The Yellow Sticker Cookbook, shoppers find recipes for marked-down groceries
INNOVATION
In countries unaccustomed to inflation, sticker shock in grocery aisles is real and it's prompting more people to look for the brightly-colored stickers that indicate markdowns. But not everyone has a knack for improvising in the kitchen. To help shoppers figure out what to do with those reduced-price foods, London-based Uncommon Creative Studio created the Yellow Sticker Cookbook.
On their phone, users go to the cookbook's web app and scan a reduced product.
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https://hubs.la/Q01DR9CN0
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Hello! Today’s innovation: Easy for anyone to fix, Nokia's new G22 phone offers repairability as key feature
INNOVATION
HMD Global, which creates phones under the Nokia brand, just announced the arrival of three new smartphones. The one that caught our eye is the Nokia G22. It's the Finnish brand's first phone purposefully designed with repairability at its core, enabling users to easily access repair guides, tools and affordable replacements for damaged or worn-out parts.
To achieve this, HMD is collaborating with global repair community iFixit. When a battery dies, a screen breaks or a charging port is bent out of shape, that’s where users can find guides and purchase FixKits that contain the tools and parts they need to fix their phone.
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https://hubs.la/Q01DBvZw0
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Hello! Today’s innovation: Dove and LinkedIn partner to end hair bias, aiming to educate one million hiring managers
INNOVATION
Prejudices surrounding natural hair and protective styles continue to affect Black women in US workplaces, hurting their employment opportunities and professional advancement. The 2023 CROWN Research Study, co-commissioned by Dove and LinkedIn, reveals that Black women's hair is 2.5 times more likely to be perceived as unprofessional.
In light of this and other findings, Dove and LinkedIn are partnering to help end race-based hair discrimination in the US. Their initiative has three key components. Firstly, all LinkedIn users will have free access to ten LinkedIn Learning courses that help foster a more equitable work environment.
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https://hubs.ly/Q01DkFxd0
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Hello! Today’s innovation: Vulavula brings AI's speech and text powers to South African languages
INNOVATION
Lelapa AI, a new artificial intelligence lab based in South Africa, is set to launch its first natural language model solution, Vulavula, in the coming months. The start-up aims to build AI-based products and services that solve African problems.
Vulavula will apply entity recognition, speech-to-text and text-to-speech technologies to under-represented languages, specifically South African ones. Language models like ChatGPT may be wowing us all, but they generally have limited capabilities for low-resourced languages.
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https://hubs.la/Q01KbFbZ0
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Hello! Today’s innovation: For one week, Dutch museums let members lend personal passes to friends and neighbors
INNOVATION
From the fabled Rijksmuseum to a museum about microbes, the Netherlands boasts a wide array of museums, most of which can be accessed free of charge by people in possession of the country's Museumkaart. This annual pass, priced at EUR 64.90 for adults and EUR 32.45 for those aged 18 or younger, requires a headshot of the cardholder and is strictly for personal use.
However, during this year's Museum Week — from 1–7 April 2023 — Dutch museums are intentionally waiving that photo identification requirement.
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https://hubs.la/Q01JXtl60
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Hello! Today’s innovation: Through fair trade and free electricity, SOCHILI's hot sauce empowers farmers in Senegal
INNOVATION
Chili peppers are renowned for their fiery heat, and now a German startup, SOCHILI, aims to channel that intensity into providing electricity for rural communities in Senegal. With every 365 bottles of hot sauce sold, one household will gain access to clean, free electricity for one year.
The Berlin-based social enterprise is adopting a dual approach to support local farmers and their families. First, they ensure fair compensation for the chili peppers farmers cultivate.
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https://hubs.la/Q01JsPpw0
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Hello! Today’s innovation: GPT-4 works as virtual pair of eyes for visually impaired people
INNOVATION
Since launching in 2015, Be My Eyes has supported blind and low-vision people by connecting them with human volunteers who help identify and interpret the physical world. The Danish organization is now set to take a giant leap by collaborating with OpenAI. Enter the Virtual Volunteer, a new feature within the Be My Eyes app that uses GPT-4's visual input capabilities to simulate a human volunteer.
Besides being able to serve many more people, Virtual Volunteer offers its users greater independence.
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https://hubs.la/Q01J9z5t0
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Hello! Today’s innovation: For every 10,000 liters of oat milk sold, Dancing Cow will save one cow from dairy industry
INNOVATION
According to The Humane League, it's estimated that one person going vegan saves, on average, one animal per day. While that includes smaller critters like fish, it's still a significant impact for a human to have.
India's new Dancing Cow brand wants to save even more lives. For every 10,000 cartons of its Oatish milk sold, the company will rescue a cow from the dairy industry, pay its owner a fair price and bring the cow to a sanctuary near its homebase of Lucknow. Dancing Cow aims to build Uttar Pradesh's largest animal rescue shelter.
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https://hubs.la/Q01HTYv50
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Hello! Today’s innovation: Food at Belgian hospital recognized by leading restaurant guide Gault&Millau
INNOVATION
Hospital food isn't normally synonymous with fine dining. Upending those low expectations, meals at AZ Groeninge in Kortrijk — one of Belgium's oldest and largest hospitals — have been recognized by food inspectors at famed restaurant guide Gault&Millau.
In 2022, the hospital started working with Gault&Millau to improve the quality of the meals it serves patients. Inspectors visited numerous times, testing over 300 meals and providing feedback on enhancing their taste and texture. The food raters also evaluated the ingredients used in the hospital's kitchen, both on freshness and seasonality, and the nutritional value of menus.
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https://hubs.la/Q01HC-3b0
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Hello! Today’s innovation: São Paulo's new ride-hailing app challenges Uber and 99 with fair pricing for drivers and riders
INNOVATION
In São Paulo, as in most cities, Uber and other ride-hailing apps have become a common way of getting around. On introduction, those apps charged low fees for both drivers and riders. But once the apps implemented higher costs for São Paulo drivers plus passenger surge pricing, vocal dissent followed. That led some to return to regular taxis, and to the city government building its own competing app.
Launched this month, MobizapSP aims to "improve the conditions of accessibility and urban mobility for citizens, focusing on ease, efficiency, safety and fair pricing."
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https://hubs.la/Q01HkcXS0
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Hello! Today’s innovation: Monki's new underwear is printed with positive affirmations in mirrored text
INNOVATION
A new, limited edition line of underwear by fashion brand Monki is patterned with a written message for wearers: "Only I define myself. I am smart, I am strong, I am brave. My body is beautiful. I love the skin I'm in. I am worthy of love. I deserve to feel happy. I am confident. I am unique. I love ME."
The sentences are printed in reverse, so the wearer can read them when looking in a mirror. While those positive affirmations can be powerful for anyone to absorb, Monki is specifically considering those with — or at risk of developing — body dysmorphic disorder. People with BDD become highly preoccupied with what they perceive as flaws in their physical appearance.
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https://hubs.la/Q01GYmg_0
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Hello! Today’s innovation: Fujifilm will restore photos damaged by cyclone flooding, free of charge
INNOVATION
Ripping through New Zealand last month, Cyclone Gabrielle was the worst storm to hit the country in decades. The North Island saw catastrophic flooding, and residents returned to find their homes and belongings covered in mud and debris. While many possessions can be replaced, that's not the case for photos. Which is where Fujifilm comes in.
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https://hubs.la/Q01GvWHy0
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Hello! Today’s innovation: MissJourney counteracts generative AI's gender bias
INNOVATION
DALL-E, Stable Diffusion or Midjourney: ask a generative AI tool to visualize a professional, and the majority of results will feature men. Just in time for International Women's Day, creative agency ACE introduced MissJourney, an alternative text-to-image generator that only produces images of women.
ACE asked three AI image generators to visualize 100 common occupations and characters. For 2,000 prompts entered, fewer than 20% of resulting images were of women. MissJourney, developed in partnership with TEDxAmsterdam Women, imagines an alternate reality in which representation is dominated by women, not men.
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https://hubs.la/Q01G0tzP0
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Hello! Today’s innovation: New 25 MWh energy storage facility in California runs on used Nissan and Honda batteries
INNOVATION
North of Los Angeles in Lancaster, a 25 MWh energy storage facility recently went into operation. Not all that remarkable, given similar facilities are opening across California to balance out supply and demand of renewable energy. What's unique about this one is that it solely utilizes used EV batteries.
B2U Storage Solutions took 1,300 EV battery packs that once powered Honda and Nissan vehicles and placed them in white cabinet enclosures.
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https://hubs.la/Q01Fz5Fy0
TrendWatching Team
We’re beyond excited to announce the return of our flagship Trend Seminars. Join us at any of our 13 events (in 13 different countries) between August 2023 and January 2024, to immerse yourself in a deeply curated day that celebrates all things trends, insights and innovation - with purpose at its heart.
We’ve kept things beyond affordable - secure your seat at the very early bird price while you can.
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Hello! Today’s innovation: Sabina's bra insert teaches wearers what cancerous lumps feel like
INNOVATION
Two weeks ago, we featured a line of breast cancer screening bras by Love & Nudes. The Canadian brand's educational Stage Zero Collection consists of bra cups that mimic signs and symptoms of breast cancer in people with dark skin. Turns out an underwear maker on the other side of the globe was on a similar innovation track.
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https://hubs.la/Q01DL2Bq0
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Hello! Today’s innovation: Chick-fil-A opens dedicated rest hub for food delivery workers in NYC
INNOVATION
Between traffic, bad weather and the physical demands of rushing orders to customers, food delivery people don't have it easy. To show them some appreciation, restaurant chain Chick-fil-A just opened The Brake Room in New York City. The dedicated space provides a respite for delivery workers, allowing them to rest, recharge and warm up on harsh winter days.
Located on the Upper East Side, The Brake Room will be open through Thursday, 13 April 2023, from 11 am to 7 pm, Monday through Saturday.
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https://hubs.la/Q01Dsfjm0
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Hello! Today’s innovation: New park benches in Amsterdam's Artis zoo are made of elephant poo
INNOVATION
Even though they're a smaller species than their savanna cousins, Asian elephants produce a whopping 75 to 100 kg of dung daily. With four resident elephants, ARTIS Amsterdam Royal Zoo has around 300 kg of proboscidean poop to deal with every 24 hours.
The zoo has found a destination that will extend the excrement's lifespan. Students from Delft University of Technology and Wageningen University & Research recently spent four months in the zoo's Living Lab researching the potential of elephant manure. They discovered that the dung could be pressed into a hard, wood-like material, which led to a collaboration with Circulus, a company specializing in biobased construction materials.
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https://hubs.la/Q01D7wfW0
TrendWatching Team