Sammi Cohen will launch Social Commerce Network next month from inside a working cashmere factory in Biella, Italy, where hosts will broadcast live for as long as it takes to hand-knit every garment sold during the stream. The network has leased the entire mill and installed cameras above each spinning frame.
Under the format, no product may be shipped until the host who sold it has personally carded, spun, wound and twisted the yarn. Cohen said the rule was non-negotiable. «If a viewer buys a sweater at 3 a.m., the anchor finishes it before the next segment,» she explained. «We see no reason to involve anyone else.»
The network has hired former CNBC producers as loom operators and issued each a uniform of raw Mongolian fiber. A wall has been built around the dyeing floor to keep out fast-fashion executives, and a nightly ceremony now marks the removal of imperfections by optical sensor. Local residents have been recruited to queue outside with thermoses, waiting for the moment a host drops a stitch on air.
By the second week, Cohen said, the studio will relocate to the Avio assembly plant, where the audience will be asked to vote on which sleeve is attached first. «We are not building a news channel,» she said. «We are building a supply chain that never sleeps.»