In an alley outside the Financial District’s Corgi Cafe, a 24-hour coffee shop operated by an AI insurance startup, around 50 people lined up Thursday evening to admire the latest tech company swag.
It was the Founder Fashion Show, an event hosted by three local startups. Haute couture on display included variations of branded T-shirts and black sweatshirts with startup logos on the chest. The asphalt runway was painted orange with a logo on top. The models: 20-something CEOs and AI startup workers.
Young AI companies dripping with capital and trying to cut through the noise of San Francisco’s latest boom are spending heavily on marketing. Founders are shelling out thousands of dollars for social-media hype videos and billboards along Highway 101. They’re also giving increasing attention to a Silicon Valley staple: branded clothing.
These days, wearing swag for a startup makes you “like a walking billboard,” said 22-year-old Laura Dang, who organized the event.
The catwalk was quick, taking about 10 minutes for roughly 20 people to strut. It opened with three men walking shoulder-to-shoulder in jeans, sneakers, and black T-shirts with a tiny company name at the center. Another group did a live painting of a logo and company tagline on the model’s black sweatshirt.
One male model rocked a bold twist on a Silicon Valley staple: a black fleece vest with a logo on the chest, but sans shirt. At the end of the walk he pulled out aviator sunglasses and flexed his bare arms. With each new model, the crowd clapped and cheered over the sounds of the electronic pop beats coming from a tiny speaker.
The event took place the same day Vogue’s Ana Wintour was spotted near San Francisco City Hall, though it was probably for the best that she wasn’t in attendance.
“Fashion obviously looks really different here than in New York,” said Dang, clad in flats, shorts, and a black athletic jersey emblazoned with a logo for cryptocurrency exchange OKX. “Everyone is interested in AI and tech, so even their fashion revolves around that.”
Dang, who works at the AI insurance company, also called Corgi, said people working in San Francisco’s tech scene don’t tend to care about fashion. “People care about being trendy, but I think SF’s fashion ‘trendy’ is, like, having good merch,” she said.
The tech scene’s obsession with repping a company is nothing new. The city is famous for puffer vests, and its thrift stores are filled with shirts from long-dead startups. Earlier this week, Ryan McEntush, an investor at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz posted on X (opens in new tab)about a website he made called “I Love Capitalism,” where people can find vintage corporate merch from Apple to Enron.
Not everyone in tech is a stranger to fashion. Elena Lenena, 34, CEO and founder of Growee, a startup that sells AI software to businesses, was also on the runway. She wore relaxed, light-washed jeans, pointy black stilettos, and a black sweatshirt with a peak-a-boo shoulder dripping bedazzled fringe. The tiny white lettering at the center of her hoodie said “build. ship. repeat.” (The grind culture equivalent of “live, laugh, love.”)
Lenena said she’s “accidentally” created a side hustle consulting with other startups to up their fashion game. She’s helped friends and fellow founders come up with catchy slogans and subtle designs for their wares. She wants to elevate the basic tech tees so they’re used for more than a laundry day.
“In San Francisco the bar is really kind of low by default,” she said.
After the show, she asked the organizer where she could go to change out of her black silver-studded heels. One thing fashionistas and tech bros can agree on: stiletto heels were not made for San Francisco’s hills.
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