In fashion, the clothes are just as good as the materials they’re made of. However, it’s not easy for smaller brands to get their hands on next-gen materials, which are often reserved for the major industry players that can afford them.

World Collective, a sourcing platform based in New York and Dublin, wants to make the process more accessible and inclusive. On Tuesday, it launched Sourcing Portal, a platform that features a highly curated list of suppliers that brands can directly engage with for samples, quotes and orders.

While the portal is open to companies of every size, it gives smaller brands a support system by allowing them to pool orders to meet minimums. This means access to mills and manufacturers in hubs including India and China. The portal currently features more than 700 materials, from certified cotton fabrics to next-gen textiles.

The portal is World Collective’s response to a cold, hard truth in the industry: that the best mills and most innovative materials usually go to brands that can pay for sourcing offices, agents and trade show budgets. Brands that are too small to afford that price of admission have to be creative given their limited options, leaving them to resort to cold emails and agreeing to minimums they could not meet.

“I spent years on the side of the table that had everything: sourcing teams, agents, mills that picked up the phone,” said Jeanine Ballone, co-founder and CEO of World Collective, in a statement.

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