THE OFFICIAL
ONLY FROM REDWOOD MEDIA
A RATING
Hover over a menu item to access other pages
Kimberly Carney
Imagine a world where brands and consumers seamlessly connect, where real-time data on shopping preferences and trends shape the future of fashion and beauty. This is precisely what Kimberly Carney envisioned—and then she brought it life. She is the passionate architect and visionary founder and CEO of The Wires, a game-changing collective of global B2B2C shopping platforms that have captured the hearts and minds of consumers across the globe—and transformed the digital retail landscape forever.
With nearly 1,000 brands and over 75,000 products across FashWire and GlossWire, “The Wires” mobile shopping apps rank among the top downloads for paid shopping apps. Affectionately known as "the Tinder of fashion and beauty,” the apps amass over 500,000 swipes per month from global consumers. Now that’s a lot of love. The Wires operates as a two-sided marketplace, empowering consumers to provide real-time feedback through swipes, likes, and shares that assists emerging and established designers and brands in reducing production costs and guides strategic decisions for future collections. “We are designer and brand advocates; we’re not product driven. It’s about building relationships with them, focusing on their purpose, giving them a voice, and helping them succeed,” Kimberly says. And she means it because she’s been in their shoes.
In 2018, Kimberly's background as a former boutique owner and over two decades of marketing experience in wireless and tech companies converged with the launch FashWire, a first-of-its-kind platform that connects fashion designers worldwide with consumers, while gathering real-time data on shopping preferences and trends. The new concept took off with FashWire catapulting over industry leaders to snag the Best Fashion Marketplace accolade at the 2022 Glossy Fashion Awards. In quick succession, GlossWire was born, making The Wires a global sensation that saw Kimberly honored with the prestigious 2023 Entrepreneur of the Year Award from Fashion Group International. Today The Wires is not just a company, it’s a vibrant global community of brands, influencers, and consumers in a movement that’s transforming the digital retail industry and changing lives—one swipe at a time.
We spoke with Kimberly to learn more about The Wires, her passion for philanthropy, and the limitless possibilities on the horizon.
Your inspiration for The Wires, and your passion for helping other brands, came from your own experience as a boutique owner. Will you tell us a bit about this ?
Having worked in the marketing and the tech industry for companies like AT&T and Microsoft, I opened a clothing boutique in Seattle in the early 2000s. As target marketing and behavioral data began to be used by companies to help project sales, this became a key factor in buying inventory. At the same time, smaller brands kept wanting to sell their products in my store. I thought there must be a way to connect consumers and brands and in a way that brands could benefit from knowing what consumers liked or didn’t like in real-time. This inspired FashWire, which we launched in 2018 with 25 brands, and now we have nearly 500 brands on the FashWire platform from around the world.
Consumers are gobbling up The Wire’s merchandise and new brands are joining every day. Why all the love?
It’s been so great to see consumers get behind the app and our brands. They’ve deemed us “the Tinder for fashion and beauty.” They swipe right if they like it, swipe left if they don't. We’re so passionate about helping emerging brands, supporting them, giving them exposure to help them grow and thrive, and this real-time feedback from likes, swipes, and purchases is invaluable for them to make better production, inventory, and design decisions. Consumers appreciate having a voice and being able to influence the brands they connect with and the products they produce. The interactive nature of The Wires creates a deeper level of engagement and connection between consumers and these amazing brands and designers from across the globe. It is truly a community thriving together.
From a business perspective, to what do you attribute the extraordinary success of The Wires?
Without a doubt, my team. They are awesome. I put the best of the best from the industry together, and they are just as passionate about this as I am. They are so amazing and brilliant, and I think that is a huge part of our success. I could not have done this without them.
You’re also passionate about philanthropy. In fact, the entire “Wires” community is involved. Tell us about this.
Philanthropy is an integral part of The Wires. Through our "dollar a download" initiative, we contribute to nonprofits every month. We have raised over a hundred thousand dollars for charitable organizations that support social causes. By partnering with Why Not You Foundation, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Gifting Brands, and other notable organizations, we make a tangible impact, and our consumers love this about us. Additionally, we host the quarterly FashPitch and GlossPitch competitions, providing emerging fashion designers and beauty brands with a chance to win $10,000 and gain industry support, exposure, mentorship, and funding.
What’s next for The Wires, Kimberly?
We have some exciting developments in the pipeline, including PawWire, which will be the same immersive platform catering to the $100B global pet market. Our focus will continue to be on enhancing our technology and leveraging AI and AR to provide a better user experience, greater personalization, and more valuable data for our brands. We are also aiming to reach 1 million downloads across all our mobile apps by the end of the year. Stay tuned!
Kimberly Carney
Founder & CEO — The Wires Platforms, Inc.: FashWire, GlossWire, CasaWire, PawWire
Website: www.fashwire.com, www.glosswire.com, www.casawire.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberly-carney-1b95152/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fashwire
https://www.facebook.com/glosswire/
https://www.facebook.com/pawwire/
Instagram: @fashwire
@glosswirebeauty
@pawwire
@kscworld