ECOSUM S.R.L.

What ECOSUM S.R.L. does

ECOSUM S.R.L. is an Italian innovative startup founded in 2020 and headquartered in Florence (Via Pierluigi da Palestrina 17, 50144) that designs, produces, and distributes customized eco-sustainable apparel and accessories to Italian secondary schools. Its core product range is built on certified sustainable inputs: organic cotton carrying OCS (Organic Content Standard) and GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) certifications, recycled cotton and recycled polyester carrying GRS (Global Recycled Standard) certification, plus recycled aluminum, recycled steel, and natural cork for accessories. The catalog is anchored by a themed "endangeredspecies" line (WHALE, KANGAROO, GRIZZLY, PANTHER, PENGUIN, SAHARA, NESSY, KONG) and extended with cork and steel items, and is supplemented by service modules including a custom in-house ArtLab design team, school yearbooks, and school-installed water dispensers.

Ecosum's go-to-market is community-led and school-by-school. The company onboards elected student class and institute representatives (rappresentanti di istituto e di classe) and equips them with a proprietary order management system and a free, dedicated e-commerce storefront per school; students and parents pay individually, and orders are fulfilled via direct school delivery (divided by class, individually packaged) or paid home shipping, with a 14-working-day standard lead time. Revenue is generated through unit-priced, quote-based custom merchandise with customization options including screen printing, DTF, digital printing, and embroidery. The company positions itself as the Italian market leader in eco-sustainable clothing for high schools and pairs every sale with environmental programming: tree-planting via Treedom in Kenya and Cameroon, the TREEPIC social photo-to-tree campaign, school assemblies with Giovani Wannabe, and urban volunteering with Angeli del Bello.

The business is privately held, founder-owned, and bootstrapped, with no disclosed institutional investors, no parent company, no M&A activity, and no public funding rounds. Headcount is reported at 1-10 employees, and operations are entirely domestic (Italy), supported by an active presence on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok plus an educational content blog (Ecomagazine). The company's pricing is not publicly disclosed, revenue is not reported, and there is no evidence of AI/ML capabilities in the product or operations stack.

Name

ECOSUM S.R.L.

Legal name

ECOSUM S.R.L.

Website

https://ecosum.it

Company type

Private

Founded year

2020

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

ECOSUM S.R.L. is a Florence-based Italian innovative startup, founded in 2020, that designs and supplies certified eco-sustainable apparel, accessories, and school yearbooks to Italian secondary schools through student representative networks and school-specific e-commerce stores.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Custom Eco-Friendly School Merchandise

NAICS

Apparel Manufacturing (315), Apparel Accessories and Other Apparel Manufacturing (3159)

SIC

Apparel & Other Finishd Prods Of Fabrics & Similar Matl (2300)

akta.pro primary industry

Sustainable & Certified Materials (Organic, Recycled, Traceable) (CRAAAMAK)

Keywords

• Sustainable school merchandise
• Eco-friendly apparel
• Custom promotional products
• Recycled textile manufacturing
• Organic cotton clothing

Headquarters

HQ city

Firenze

HQ country

Italy

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Operations, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. School Merchandise Sales: Ecosum generates revenue through the sale of customized eco-sustainable clothing and accessories to Italian schools. Schools place bulk orders coordinated through class representatives, with individual students purchasing through school-specific e-commerce stores. Payment is collected individually from students.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

ECOSUM S.R.L. designs, manufactures, and supplies customized eco-friendly apparel and accessories for Italian secondary schools, using OCS/GOTS-certified organic cotton and GRS-certified recycled cotton, recycled polyester, cork, and recycled aluminum/steel. The company provides a full-service offering that includes custom in-house design (ArtLab), screen printing, DTF, digital printing, and embroidery personalization, a proprietary order management system for student class representatives, and a free custom e-commerce storefront created for each school.

Product overview

ECOSUM S.R.L. is an Italian innovative startup founded in 2020 in Florence, operating in the slow fashion sector, providing eco-sustainable school merchandising to Italian high schools. The product portfolio centers on the endangered species clothing line (WHALE, KANGAROO, GRIZZLY, PANTHER, PENGUIN T-shirts, hoodies, and polo shirts) and a complementary accessories line (NIAGARA aluminum water bottles, SAHARA cotton tote bags, NESSY bucket hats, KONG fleece jackets, KANSAS backpacks, YELLOWSTONE sports bags, plus cork and steel accessories such as BERING keychains, IGUAZU pens, and AMAZONIA notebooks). Products are supplemented by service modules: a customized school e-commerce platform, a dedicated order management system for class and institute representatives, ArtLab creative/design services, water dispensers for schools, and custom school yearbooks. All clothing carries OCS (Organic Content Standard), GRS (Global Recycled Standard), or GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) certifications. Standard delivery is 14 working days with express delivery in 10 working days.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• endangeredspecies: A collection of clothing items named after endangered animal species (WHALE, KANGAROO, GRIZZLY) to raise awareness about extinction and environmental issues.
• ArtLab
• EcoFriendly

Products and services

• WHALE

Quantifiable outcome

• 250,000+ liters of water saved annually through organic t-shirt production
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• TreedomcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerTreedom is an Italian platform committed to planetary reforestation bringing environmental benefits and support to local communities. Ecosum partners with Treedom to plant trees in Kenya and Cameroon, contributing to forest creation projects. This partnership supports Ecosum's environmental mission and carbon offset initiatives.
• Giovani WannabecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGiovani Wannabe is a community of young people united by the goal of transmitting to Italian students the strength to pursue their dreams and achieve their goals. Ecosum and Giovani Wannabe created a program of school assemblies across Italy addressing youth entrepreneurship, social issues, and environmental topics.
• Angeli del BellominorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAngeli del Bello is a foundation that promotes urban volunteering actions aimed at improving the decorum and beauty of the city of Florence. Partnership supports local environmental initiatives in Florence where Ecosum is headquartered.
• TREEPICminorGTM or Marketing PartnerTREEPIC is Ecosum's social photo campaign where students take photos with Ecosum merchandise and post them online, receiving a tree planted in the Ecosum forest as a gift. The campaign aims to sensitize Italian students and involve them in tangible actions for planet preservation.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Spreadshirt: Spreadshirt is a European-headquartered custom apparel and merchandise platform with a strong DACH presence and customizable group stores. It is a direct competitor for school, club, and organization merchandise across Europe and could enter the Italian eco-school niche Ecosum currently owns.
• Custom Ink: Custom Ink operates a custom apparel platform serving groups, teams, schools, and businesses with screen printing, embroidery, and DTF — the exact customization stack Ecosum offers. It competes for the same group-order buyer and is the US benchmark for school and team merchandise customization.
• Bonfire: Bonfire is a custom apparel and merchandise platform built specifically for schools, nonprofits, teams, and community groups — the same use case as Ecosum. Its online store creation per campaign and group-ordering tooling overlap directly with Ecosum's school e-commerce and representative-driven ordering model.

Emerging players

• Printful: Printful is a print-on-demand fulfillment platform that powers thousands of small custom-merchandise brands. While it does not specialize in schools, it lowers the barrier for any competitor to spin up a sustainable-school-merch offering and compete with Ecosum's design-plus-fulfillment stack.
• TeePublic: TeePublic is a custom and artist-designed apparel marketplace. It competes for the same youth, sustainability-aware buyer that Ecosum targets through its endangered-species narrative and could be repurposed by Italian schools for branded merch if localized.
• Printify: Printify is a print-on-demand marketplace connecting merchants to production partners. Like Printful, it does not target schools directly but enables low-cost entrants to replicate Ecosum's customization + dropship model for the eco-conscious student segment.
• Tideline (eco-custom apparel): Tideline is an eco-focused custom apparel supplier producing recycled and organic apparel for schools, camps, and groups — the closest direct competitor in the 'eco-custom apparel for schools' segment. It validates that Ecosum's positioning has a clear analog in the US market.

Broad incumbents

• Cimpress (Vistaprint): Cimpress, parent of Vistaprint, is a global mass-customization platform for print and promotional products. Its scale in custom apparel, signage, and accessories makes it a broad incumbent that could credibly enter the school-merchandise vertical with sustainability-themed SKUs.
• Lands' End School Uniforms: Lands' End operates a large school uniforms and embroidered apparel business serving K-12 institutions in the US. It overlaps with Ecosum in supplying customized, branded apparel to schools and represents a credible adjacent incumbent in the educational merchandise category.

Regional players

• Sustainable School Shop (UK): Sustainable School Shop is a UK-based retailer curating eco-friendly school supplies and uniform alternatives. It is a regional peer addressing the same eco-conscious school community in a different geography and serves as a benchmark for vertical expansion of the eco-school proposition.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookm.facebook.com/ecosumschoolproject
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ecosum
• Instagraminstagram.com/ecosum_education
• TikToktiktok.com/@ecosumeducation?_t=8qmrBQbKkBF&_r=1

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about ECOSUM S.R.L.