Samantha Alberts Places Among Top 10 in Global Fashion Competition

Samantha Alberts ('22) was one of four SUNY Oneonta Fashion and Textiles students who placed among the top 10 finalists in the 2022 Educators for Socially Responsible Apparel Production (ESRAP) Student Merchandising Competition. The global competition challenges undergraduate students to develop fashion retail business plans that are sustainable and socially responsible. Competitors are judged by a panel of industry professionals and faculty in the sustainable fashion field.

Samantha finished among the top 10 finalists after developing business plans in Dr. Sarah Portway's Spring 2022 Fashion Entrepreneurship course using the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals and triple-bottom-line frameworks.

"Learning how to create a business from the very beginning and all the troubles along the way has taught me what it may be really like to be an entrepreneur in the fashion industry," said Samantha. "I think a lot of the information I learned showed me what to look out for in a failing or thriving business, from the budgets, the pricing, the business concept, the target market, and everything else. I loved how this class took me out of my comfort zone and showed me another side to the industry."

Samantha's business plan for Fungi Chic focused on a virtual wholesale store that sells leather-alternative products made from Mycelium. "Mycelium is the root-like structure from mushrooms that grows underground and covers our entire planet," said Samantha. "We have discovered that this structure can be grown in sheets to resemble the look, feel and durability of leather. This is a very new and innovative material making its way into the fashion industry." The Sustainable Development Goals that her project incorporated were Life Below Water and Life on Land.

"Kudos to all the Red Dragons who faced the intimidation of a global jury formed by industry leaders and did it anyway," said Dr. Portway.

In addition to participating in the ESRAP competition, Samantha worked alongside Dr. Portway to give a presentation at the SUNY Digital Learning Conference held earlier this fall on campus. The project topic was "Faculty and Student Perspectives on Cultivating Career Readiness with Online Experiential Project-Based learning." This presentation discussed the semester-long project Samantha and Dr. Portway worked on in the Fashion Promotion class during the Fall 2021 semester, based on creating a promotional event for a fashion brand.

Both she and Dr. Portway worked with SUNY Oneonta alumnus and PUMA Select Brand Manager Scott Saltzman ('86) during this project's duration.

"Who better to have helped us with this project than an alumnus who works for PUMA," said Samantha. "This project would not have been possible without having Scott as the main contact and joining us most weeks via Microsoft Teams for our classes."

To view these students click here: https://oneonta.meritpages.com/achievements/Samantha-Alberts-Places-Among-Top-10-in-Global-Fashion-Competition/157391