VF VENTURE FOUNDRY LAUNCHES FALL 2022 INNOVATION CHALLENGE POWERED BY VENTUREFUEL

VF Venture Foundry invites entrepreneurs to develop radical new startups focused on the outdoor and active wellness industry. 

DENVER, Sept. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- VF Venture Foundry, the venture studio of VF Corporation (Parent company of Vans ®, The North Face ®, Timberland ®, Dickies ®, Supreme ®, and more) alongside innovation advisory, VentureFuel, announced today that they are launching their Fall 2022 Innovation Challenge focused on outdoor and active wellness. VF Venture Foundry strives to identify, grow, and support the most promising startups and founders in the outdoors and active wellness spaces, with a special interest in digital products and new, impactful business models. The initial application and vetting process will be run by VentureFuel, a leading innovation consultancy specializing in bespoke programs for industry leading organizations across the private, public, and non-profit sectors.

The Innovation challenge is seeking entrepreneurs with innovative ideas for highly scalable products, services and experiences that help consumers understand, improve, and maintain physical and mental well-being and connection to the environments around them. "We are thrilled to launch this challenge in partnership with VF Venture Foundry" said Fred Schonenberg, Founder & CEO of VentureFuel. "Now, more than ever there is an opportunity to help consumers access the outdoors in innovative ways, and to improve mental and physical wellbeing. We can't wait to meet the startups transforming how we connect with the environments around us." Whether you are growing an early-stage business, a serial entrepreneur, a passionate mindfulness advocate or an outdoor enthusiast solving an industry problem, VF Venture Foundry wants to hear from you! The challenge focuses on the following opportunity areas across services, experiences, and products:

• Nature: helping individuals and communities find physical, mental, social, and communal wellness via connection to the outdoors and nature
• Body: helping individuals and communities nourish, move, and better understand their bodies
• Mind: helping individuals and communities understand, tend to, deepen, and express their complex inner worlds

Winners of the Challenge will participate in the VF Venture Foundry Fellowship Program to further shape and iterate upon their idea. At the end of the Fellowship, the top startup ideas and entrepreneurs will be considered for the Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) Program where they will collaborate with the VF Venture Foundry team to launch a minimum viable product and pursue funding. To learn more about the Entrepreneurship Innovation Challenge and apply, please visit: www.vfventurefoundrychallenge.com

As the venture studio of VF Corporation, VF Venture Foundry strives to identify, grow, and support the most promising startups and founders in the outdoors and active wellness spaces, with a special interest in digital products and new, impactful business models. We partner with a diverse set of passionate and thoughtful founders working relentlessly to connect individuals and communities more deeply to themselves and others via body, mind, and nature—with a focus on accessible and sustainable solutions.  Collaborative and human-led, we deploy resource and capital to create and accelerate future-facing ideas—all backed by VF's 120+ years of experience building the world's most iconic brands. Let's build the future of wellbeing, together. Learn more about VF Venture Foundry here or follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter to stay up to date.

Founded in 1899, VF Corporation is one of the world's largest apparel, footwear, and accessories companies. VF connects people to the lifestyles, activities, and experiences they cherish most through a family of iconic outdoor, active and workwear brands including Vans®, The North Face®, Timberland® and Dickies®. Our purpose is to power movements of sustainable and active lifestyles for the betterment of people and our planet. We connect this purpose with a relentless drive to succeed to create value for all stakeholders and use our company as a force for good. For more information, please visit www.vfc.com.

Founded in 2014, VentureFuel is an independent innovation advisory that helps the world's best organizations ignite change through startup collaborations. Its innovation programs include Diagnostics, Corporate Accelerators and Commercial Pilots; and focus on solving clients' biggest challenges by driving greater efficiencies across their supply chain; closing strategic capability gaps; and identifying emerging business models. VentureFuel provides organizations like VF Venture Foundry, Hershey's, Comcast, AARP Foundation and the States of California and New York the tools to drive transformative change with less risk, more speed, and greater proximity to the consumer than traditional innovation models. Learn more at: www.venturefuel.net, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. You can listen to The VentureFuel Visionaries podcast on Apple, Spotify or Simplecast.

Media Contact: 
Vanessa Ivette Rosado: [email protected] 

SOURCE VentureFuel