Retail 2.0: Text-to-Buy Technology

Impulse-driven online shoppers know the joys of want-click-get more than most. But Will Robison — New York-based creator of text-to-buy virtual marketplace Subports — had the hunch to take the process offline and directly into shoppers' hands — no matter where they happened to be.

Subports' clean-lined, vendor-curated model has two-fold retail appeal: Sellers (see: Brooklyn-based Karen O. stylist Christian Joy) have the opportunity to customize orders and drop-ship goods sans the burden of mass production and otherwise inevitable overstock. Meanwhile, shoppers can procure product-coded goods wherever they happen to find them — from pop-up style events to gallery openings and concerts — with just the click of a few phone keys.

(Last Fashion's Night Out, Robison and crew teamed with Partners and Spade and the Vena Cava design duo before kicking off a series of Brooklyn-based mobile pop-ups.)

We met with Robison at a Manhattan gallery and event space Fair Folks and a Goat to get the story. Look closely — most everything you see (Robison's clothing included) is up for sale on the site.

— Original video shot by Amanda Martinez/NBCNewYork.com

Related stories on The Feast:
Retail Report: E-Tail Innovators Talk Shop at FIT
E-Tailers: Moda Operandi Launches, Selling Alex Wang Fresh Off the Runway

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