Reforma Newpaper Article - Mexico City (text below)

This article came from a request from Sergio Zepeda de Alba, of Reforma Newspaper in Mexico City. We had a lovely telephone conversation and this article is the result.

Adiós a los kilos extras
Renta ropa a través de la red y recíbela en tu hotel para cargar con casi nada
Sergio Zepeda de Alba
Voló entre Canadá y Holanda na- da más con su equipaje de mano. Cuando Catharine MacIntosh se preparaba para abandonar Ho- landa, en el 2007, los elementos de seguridad del aeropuerto la re- tuvieron por 20 minutos: no po- dían creer que hubiera pasado 10 días sólo con una maletita.
En esa ocasión, una amiga holandesa le había prestado la mayoría de su ropa, y mientras estaba detenida Catharine pensó que sería perfecto si todos pudie- ran viajar con poco equipaje.
“Vi a todos esperar en la fila, registrar sus maletas y recogerlas después... Nadie estaba pensando en otra posibilidad”, relata la dise- ñadora residente de Toronto.
Luego de barajar ideas du- rante unos días, creó Zerobagga-
ge, un portal en internet que en noviembre de 2010 permitirá a los viajeros rentar y comprar ropa en distintas ciudades por sólo una fracción del costo original.
Los usuarios se registrarán gratis en el sitio y buscarán en una tienda virtual la ropa, nueva o usa- da, que se ajuste a sus necesidades.
Una vez que lleguen a la ciu- dad, podrán pasar por ella a la tienda o los encargados de la pá- gina la entregarán en el hotel.
Para quienes crean que su ar- mario no basta, zerobagge.com también será un clóset virtual.
“Si viajas frecuentemente a ciertas ciudades, guarda algunas cosas en nuestro casillero, avísa- nos cuándo arribarás y nos ase- guraremos de que tus artículos estén limpios y listos en tu habi- tación”, se lee en el portal.
Catharine compara su idea con aplicaciones como Zimride, que se usa para compartir autos, y con redes sociales como Facebook.
“Mi visión es que los viajeros y mochileros que están a gusto con este modelo de préstamo tam- bién puedan conectarse con otros perfiles de Zerobaggage. Si voy a Ámsterdam y ahí hay dos muje- res que son de mi tamaño y pe- so aproximado, podré compartir con ellas”, ejemplifica.
Además, dos personas en la misma ciudad podrían ponerse
d Lleva lo menos posible, y ahorra tiempo, dinero y esfuerzo.
de acuerdo para tener un vestua- rio mucho más completo.
Pero no se trata de vivir de pres- tado. Los viajeros también podrán estrenar guardarropa cada que vayan a un destino Zerobaggage.
Un vestido de 600 dólares, por ejemplo, podría adquirirse por sólo 150, con la ventaja de que no hay que regresar con el bul- to de regreso. Cuando los viaje- ros lleguen al hotel, la ropa esta- rá en su habitación y cuando par- tan, el personal de Zerobaggage la recogerá.
Al devolver las prendas recién estrenadas, otros podrán hacer uso de ellas por un costo mucho menor. Catharine argumenta que si el tiempo de vida de una pren- da es mayor, su costo disminuirá.
“Antes, o podías comprar un traje nuevo de mil 200 dólares o no podías. Con Zerobaggage pue- des pedir artículos ‘prestados’ por una tarifa mucho menor y no tie- nes que ser dueño de ellas: esto te permite ser más, con menos”, ex- plica en su portal.
Aunque Catharine ha plan- teado su página para funcionar en dos ciudades: Toronto (Canadá) y Gold Coast (Australia) la idea es sumar el mayor número de des- tinos posible, desde Dublín (Irlan- da) hasta Dubai (Emiratos Árabes).

TechVibes Inverview with Karim Kanji

Luggage-free travel with zerobaggage

Posted by Karim Kanji on Thu, November 26, 2009 2:41 PM · Filed under Denver-Boulder, Portland, Seattle, Calgary, Edmonton, Montréal, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, Kitchener-Waterloo, South-Florida, Atlantic-Canada , Web 2.0, Start-up, Social Media · 2 Comments

When I was first introduced to Catharine MacIntosh the first thing that came to me was how passionate she was about her business. Ms. MacIntosh is not a person who sees things as they are and complains. She takes action. And she took action. That action resulted in the idea for zerobaggage.

zerobaggage is not just another Web 2.0 company, but an idea that technology, innovation, and eco-consiousness can merge together to create a positive difference. zerobaggage offers travellers the opportunity to travel without the hassle of baggage. Imagine travelling with only your carry-on? This is the future that people like Ms. MacIntosh are working to make happen.

Here is my conversation with zerobaggage founder, Catharine MacIntosh.

Catharine, tell us a little bit about the reason you saw a need for an idea like zerobaggage?

Old business models are generally based on consumption with planned obsolescence ensuring the repurchase of items and continuation of the cycle. However, this is a closed cycle in which items are purchased, used and discarded. Currently the world is collectively coming to a point where the waste generated is becoming a monumental problem, resulting in a polluted environment and the depletion of essential resources.

Why specifically target the travel industry?

zerobaggage is an idea ignited by observing the waste and inefficiencies of travel as it is connected to checked passenger luggage. With the cost of fuel having decreased from its high a year ago the urgency of changing the way we travel has lessened in North America. In Europe and Australia environmental concerns have made the need for efficiency to remain in the foreground. Ryan Air (a British based airline) no longer allows passenger checked luggage on flights and in-cabin carry-on is limited to 8kg per passenger or charged at nine Euro per extra kilogram. In Australia many economy domestic flights do not allow checked passenger luggage. However, in both these cases there is no magic button you can press when ordering your ticket that presents a decent alternative. There are companies that will transport your luggage separately but this is costly and doubly inefficient as you fly two ways and your luggage also flys two ways on separate planes.

Where does technology and the idea for baggageless travel meet?

The idea of zerobaggage presumes that everything we have here, wherever we are, is also generally available where we are going in some like form. So why not simply be connected virtually to the local market to which you will be travelling so you can choose and select items, that are already there, for your own use upon arrival? This eliminates the need to buy new things and throw them away when you are done. The zerobaggage primary market allows you to hire items for a fee and once used, cleaned and returned to the system, others can rent them at lower cost.

Besides the need for less fuel, what other benefits do you see?

The benefits of this are multifold. The need for quality improves so that items can make it through a continued cycle of rental. Local economies are stimulated by the production and manufacture of items. Socially and culturally people travelling to the destination can take part in the artifacts produced in that place. And environmentally items gain from a cradle to cradle (not cradle to grave) cycle of production. Instead of making financial gains on the sale of an item smaller revenues are collected with each use and over time the financial gains have the potential to double what the initial sale price would have procured.

You propose to offer various services through zerobaggage that offers users the choice to be socially responsible. Can you expand on some of them?

So if it were possible to be connected to local items and simply order them online through your account, say through a company such as zerobaggage, then you could try out new things and play with the idea of who you are and what image you would like to project in the place you are travelling to. This is partly the idea of the Virtual Suitcase.

However, if you also wanted to do the same thing in the city in which you live you could try out the service of the City Wide Wardrobe which allows you to treat the items that are held with zerobaggage as an extension to the items in your own closet. We could say, "if it's not in your wardrobe it's probably in ours". So people could own a core set of clothing or items and then supplement as needed by using this zerobaggage service.

Let's explore this idea of zerobaggage and technology a little further.

zerobaggage presents a new business model. Technology has made it so that we do not have to own everything we use. Much of fashion is being shared through social networks online. Mainly twenty-something women are posting items they wear and are generating feedback from large numbers of people. One woman posted an outfit she wore during her trip to Madrid and 2000 people viewed it. A large number of those people clicked on the items to find out more about them and then ordered them, online, for themselves. It is the ways in which society is evolving via the internet that is creating the need for new business models that harness the power and knowledge that being connected via the web brings us.

I'm glad to have had this opportunity to listen to your ideas. Especially after U.S. Vice President Al Gore challenged Canada to explore how innovation could positivly impact the environment. Can you explain a litle more about how zerobaggage promotes sustainability?

zerobaggage is sustainable in that it promotes local products and services, demands quality from the items and services it provides and both reduces the energy required to travel while reducing the expenditure and waste incurred in the process of creating products. For example, comparing two items that appear to be the same but one has history of transport and waste generation from its manufacture and the other does not. Making this knowledge transparent will allow for a range of choices based on more than style and price alone. The zerobaggage environmental credit allows positive environmental choices to be accumulated and calculated so that a true measure of individual impact can be assessed.

In a zerobaggage world, how would your idea work?

In designated zerobaggage cities, members of zerobaggage would just log into their account, chose their destination and one of the services, and then start making choices. The zerobaggage service called the Virtual Suitcase would allow you to view and select available items in the destination you are travelling to. You define what you want to use while you are there and your request is sent to zerobaggage, fulfilled, and items are waiting for you in your hotel when you arrive. Further, imagine that packing for a family of four. What if four pre-packed virtual suitcase suggestions (based on your previous use of the system) predicted or suggested what you are most likely to want? You could just look it over, change what you desired and save yourself time and energy.

Wow. That's amazing. Thanks for this Catharine!

zerobaggage is currently generating funding, attracting suppliers and finalizing the first iterations of its new business model so that the first zerobaggage members can use the service beginning in November of 2010 in Toronto.

It is technology, a concern for the environment and timing that has birthed the nascent idea of zerobaggage.

Read more: http://www.techvibes.com/blog/luggage-free-travel-with-zerobaggage#comment6878#ixzz0YI2tl3FQ

Toronto Life Magazine idea # 19, zerobaggage

25 Ideas That Are Changing the World
Some have profound implications for our health and our social order. Others solve no-less-terrifying conundrums, such as where to find parking and how to kick the Facebook habit. The innovations and inventions that impressed us most this year.

Check out zb in Toronto Life magazine. It's here, idea #19.

October 2009 Globe and Mail Article by Bert Archer

Bert Archer

From Saturday's Globe and Mail Published on Tuesday, Oct. 06, 2009 5:05PM EDT Last updated on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2009 2:31AM EDT

Last week, Ritz-Carlton hotels parted the veil on one of the best-kept secrets of the high-end hotel business: If you stay at a hotel often enough, you don't have to bring your luggage.

This perk, available to VIP guests at various high-end and business hotels, has long been under wraps. But the newest Ritz, in Charlotte, N.C., is offering this service to anyone who stays at the hotel for four days a month or more: You can leave clothing and personal effects in your room; hotel staff will pick them up, clean them and store them for you until you return.

That's a valuable addition to a traveller's arsenal of money- and time-saving tips as it becomes more difficult and expensive to check your bags. Britain's Ryanair is considering eliminating checked baggage entirely, and airlines across the industry are already tightening baggage rules and charges. Frequent fliers need all the help they can get to reduce baggage and navigate the maze of rules at the desk.

The Ritz's offer parallels a service available at many hotels, including several in Canada. The Wedgewood Hotel in Vancouver will keep your clothes for you, as will Calgary's Fairmont Palliser, as long as you pack them up and leave your bag with the concierge on your way out. And the Great George in Charlottetown will hang your clothes for you while you're gone. But none advertises the fact; you have to know to ask. And, of course, you still have to, eventually, bring it back with you.

But what about something easier – not taking luggage at all? This is the idea behind Zerobaggage, a company founded by Toronto designer Catharine MacIntosh set to launch in Toronto next year (with Berlin and Dubai to follow). MacIntosh's idea is to connect travellers with local shops where they can borrow outfits rather than pack a wardrobe to bring with them.

Though MacIntosh's model is still being refined, renting new clothes for a week will cost about 25 per cent of their full value; previously lent pieces will be less expensive. She is also planning to offer customers the use of lockers, allowing travellers to store clothes with Zerobaggage and arrange to have them cleaned, pressed and delivered to their hotel rooms – just like the hotels do.

Those who do plan to bring clothes and check their baggage may be in for a surprise. All the major American airlines changed their baggage policies last year, and are in the process of overhauling them again –generally adding and increasing fees for the second checked bag.

And as of today, British Airways is changing all its rules and fees as well (every bag over 23 kilograms now costs an extra $51). North American travellers will get one free checked bag instead of two, and will pay $68 for the second on a long-haul flight and $153 for the third. Sports equipment, which you were allowed to take for free without counting it as part of the baggage allowance, will now cost extra.

It's no wonder that even the most seasoned travellers find themselves at a loss at the check-in counter.

Luke Dudley found himself in such an embarrassing situation when he and his girlfriend, both frequent travellers, tried to check two heavy bags each for a flight from Sydney to London a few years ago. They were told it would cost $600 to bring their bags with them. They had to run to catch up with the friends who had just dropped them off and red-facedly ask them to ship their bags. “We just couldn't afford it,” he says.

Dudley didn't think much of it until last year when, while working as a teacher at a boarding school, he watched his students pack up computers, lacrosse sticks, golf clubs and other prep school staples to fly home at the end of term. Remembering his own embarrassing moment, he decided to put together a website to keep all the ever-changing baggage policies of airlines straight and in one place. The result is luggagelimits.com, which launched in August. It includes data for 70 airlines, including Air Canada and Porter. You just type in the flight info, and up come the limits and rates.

With the airline industry in flux, it's a good idea to check the site before booking your next trip. But as rates climb and more ideas like MacIntosh's spring up to meet them, it may soon be beside the point for serious travellers: The suit bag's days are probably numbered.

Do you have feedback or business travel questions? E-mail roadwork@globeandmail.com. Follow Road Work on Twitter @BertArcher .

Special to The Globe and Mail

zerobaggage 5min talk at SproutUp Toronto

The Chief Baggage Handler for zerobaggage, Catharine MacIntosh, was invited by Erin Bury to speak at SproutUp in Toronto on September 9th, 2009.

To listen to the talk please click here.