MasterCard and Parsons team up for the next generation of payments

By

Obi Anyanwu

Published
Feb 29, 2016

MasterCard and The New School’s Parsons School of Design announced Monday a partnership to hold a design competition to bring forward-thinking, design-led approach to payments technology.

The Fashion and Design Hack competition involves teams of three students each selected through a competitive submission process at Parsons. The teams will have seven hours on the day of challenge to create their prototypes before presenting it to a panel of judges, including Adam Selman, Barnett Zitron of Made, WME | IMG, Burak Cakmak of Parsons and Sherri Haymond of MasterCard. The winning team will be awarded $15,000 in prize money and an opportunity to showcase their creations at MasterCard events.
 
The partnership pushes forward MasterCard’s vision to bring consumers a new generation of connected commerce experiences. The credit card company introduced late last year a payment-enabled dress and other smart accessories for its Commerce for Every Device program. The program gives consumers the freedom to shop using the device or thing that is most convenient to them.

“As the world becomes more and more connected, the way consumers interact and transact is transforming,” said Sherri Haymond, senior vice president, Digital Payments and Labs, MasterCard. “What you buy and how you pay will soon blend seamlessly into your lifestyle as design, usability and technology merge together in new ways. The Fashion and Design Hack with Parsons is another way for us to integrate design-led thinking into payments innovation and tap into the creativity and ingenuity of the school’s design students.”
 
The day long competition will take place at The New School’s University Center in New York City on Saturday, March 5.