HEAT - Is The Mystery Box Startup Cultivating a New Way of Experiencing Fashion?

Heat, founded by Joe Wilkinson and Mario Maher,  is a luxury fashion start up that collaborates with more than 80 of the world's leading luxury brands to create a personalised box that can be ordered straight to your door. Heat fits sustainable, personable, and luxurious streetwear pieces into one box, designed by people, for one person. The catch to the whole concept is, no one knows what is contained in the box until it is opened on delivery .  

Passionate about individuality, customised curation from the heat team ensures a personalised selection of the most sought after brand after the consumer completes a style profile which will determine what they will receive in their box.

Heat has sold more than 30,000 boxes - their majority consumer being Gen Z.

Some brand partners include Off White, Amiri, Casa Blanca, and Mugler. Heat is most recently pushing their sales with super brands : Givenchy, Balenziaga and Bottega Veneta, to name a few of the noticeable names that have been affiliated with the startup.

Founded by the creative collaborative duo Joe Wilkinson and Mario Maher in 2019, heat has been garnering attention and making a name for themselves in the fashion world, especially with that of Gen Z consumers, to who the brand aims most of its sales towards. Wilkinson and Maher sold over 1000 boxes after releasing their first batch on black friday in 2019. Hailing from 180 the Strand, a known forefront center of London’s hyper- creative scene, CEO of heat Wilkinson was selling shoes and clothes to sports players and musicians and worked with brand retailers before meeting Maher.

Maher, Co-founder and Chief Merchandising Officer for heat, found that after writing a dissertation about waste in the fashion industry as part of his Masters degree at UCL , decided he wanted to utilise his findings in the real world, aiming to solve fashion's frustrating product waste issue. 

The two joined forces and took their lightbulb idea and turned it into a tangible reality-  redefining  fashion for the next generation. 

Wilkinson says protecting brand value is important - at the end of a sale, a lot of products go on sale and disappear.   In an age where entrepreneurship and new ideas are emerging and being cultivated at a more rapid pace than ever - Heat wants to change Gen Z’s perspective on older items so that they are seen as archives rather than outdated pieces.

With what would've once been something brushed across beforehand, comes a one time chance to revive a piece. 

With its growing success, Heat is already reaching phenomenal heights and gaining praise and recognition across the fashion sector that is designed to attract Gen Z. As CEO Wilkinson says,  it’s essential to “believe in our vision” to buy a box. Heat is doing just that, teaching the younger generation who are thrown into an age of short attention spans and dissatisfaction, that lasting change can start with cultivating the opposite agenda  of what society insists is acceptable .