SMiNY was designed not as a single promotion, but as a repeatable framework for urban cooperation—linking two city brand ecosystems so that creators and small businesses in both cities can expand visibility, test collaboration formats, and build longer-term pathways for mutual growth.
Seoul Made in New York (SMiNY) is a city-to-city collaboration model connecting Seoul’s “Seoul Made” and New York’s “Made in NYC.” It enables small brands, designers, and local businesses to collaborate across borders—especially when physical mobility is limited.
Created and led as a storytelling-driven execution by Project Creator & Storyteller Paul Joseph J. Kang, SMiNY translates city branding into a working system:
a shared narrative + institution-backed partnership + hybrid (XR/virtual) collaboration + digital commerce experimentation.
2) The Context: Collaboration in a Locked-Down World
During COVID-19, traditional international exchange—travel, fairs, pop-ups, and delegations—became difficult to execute. The result:
Reduced access to global exposure for small businesses
Delays in city-to-city collaboration programs
Fewer practical channels for cultural and economic exchange
SMiNY began with one operational question:
If cities cannot travel, how can they still collaborate?
Instead of waiting for borders to reopen, the project proposed a hybrid collaboration model built on virtual experience, digital commerce, and shared storytelling.
3) The Core Concept: Urban Storytelling as an Operating System
SMiNY treated storytelling as an operating system—not decoration.
“Seoul Made in New York” functioned as a shared structure that:
aligned institutions, communities, and creators under one narrative
made cross-border collaboration communicable and actionable
translated cultural exchange into executable formats (virtual + commerce)
In this sense, storytelling became structure—a way to organize partners, programs, and incentives into a working system.
4) The Model: Hybrid Collaboration by Design
SMiNY combined four layers into one system:
Virtual & XR-based collaboration
XR/VR moments were used to create “presence without travel,” enabling shared experiences and participation across distance.Digital commerce infrastructure
An eCommerce platform served as the core hub for storytelling, promotion, and product-based experimentation, supported by live online shopping formats.Institution-backed city partnership
The project was structured as an institution-to-institution collaboration, shifting it from a campaign into a civic-economic pilot.Local-to-local philosophy
Instead of global-to-local expansion, SMiNY connected local makers to local ecosystems—Seoul to New York, community to community.
5) Why This Matters: The bcdW Perspective
SMiNY demonstrates three bcdW-aligned insights:
City branding can become economic infrastructure
When brand identity connects to platforms and programs, it becomes a practical interface for opportunity and market access.Virtual collaboration is an additional layer, not a temporary substitute
XR and live commerce are not “pandemic-only solutions.” They introduce scalable collaboration formats that can coexist with physical exchange.Urban storytelling can be operational
Storytelling becomes execution when it organizes partners, formats, and incentives into a system that produces repeatable collaboration.
One-Line Summary (for bcdW)
Seoul Made in New York (SMiNY) is a city-to-city hybrid collaboration designed by Paul Joseph J. Kang that connects Seoul and New York through urban storytelling, virtual cooperation, and digital commerce—prototyping a new model for local-to-local, cross-border collaboration in a post-pandemic world.
