Dive Brief:

• Another payment platform is supporting new designers. Made, a platform showcasing fashion designers and creators, is relaunching in collaboration with PayPal and IMG, the payment platform announced on Tuesday. To kick off the partnership, they will host a two-day experience between June 24–25 in Brooklyn, New York.
• The Made Marketplace will feature various fashion and streetwear designers as well as small businesses and offer limited-edition products. Among the designers showcased on the platform are Kingsley Gbadegesin of K.ngsley, Thermal and K$ace of Whensmokeclears and Shanel Campbell of Bed On Water, according to the press release. 
• Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne, founders of Public School and alumni of Made, will also feature limited-edition Public School x Made items and will donate the proceeds to Young New Yorkers, a charity that provides art-based programming for court-involved youth.

Dive Insight:

Made, founded in 2009 following the Great Recession of 2008 to support up-and-coming designers, has found a newfound purpose during the COVID-19 pandemic. PayPal's involvement in Made's relaunch is part of the payments company's efforts to close the racial wealth gap and combat economic inequality, per its press release.

"PayPal is proud to work with IMG to relaunch MADE – a powerful platform for fostering diverse and emerging talent in the fashion industry," Amanda Miller, vice president of corporate affairs at PayPal, said in a statement. "At this critical moment of recovery from the inequitable impacts of the pandemic, MADE x PayPal will contribute to empowering the next generation of diverse designers and building a more inclusive digital economy."

Besides supporting emerging designers, PayPal has also been focused on enhancing its services and hiring new leadership. In May 2021, the company bought Happy Returns for an undisclosed sum to influence shoppers' post-purchase experience. Last week, the payments behemoth announced that it had hired former Walmart Chief Financial Officer John Rainey to become its CFO starting in June.

PayPal isn't the only payments platform turning its attention to fashion as a market segment. In August 2021, Afterpay sponsored New York Fashion week and unveiled its own New York Fashion Week calendar, complete with live shopping and interactive events. In February, Klarna teamed up with Good On You, the platform for rating the sustainability of fashion brands, to highlight brands within its mobile app as part of its Sustainable Collections. The buy now, pay later app added 23 apparel brands to the collection, including Asket, Pangaia, Lucy & Yak, Mara Hoffman and Nudie Jeans, according to a press release.