Friendly Closet

Inspiration

My friends and I have always seen clothes on each other and had to ask where the other got it from, so I decided to turn this process into a user platform that allows friends to check on each other's buys!

What it does

My app gives you the ability to upload photos of clothing you bought, rank it, and post it to a map where you can see all of your previous shopping spots. You can also request and add friends so that they can see your feed and you can see theirs. Additionally, I added a ranking system so that a user can rank their current stores and see how they fare against one another!

How I built it

I utilized vercel to host the Next.js frontend, serve the UI, and handle routing. I utilized render to host the the FastAPI backend and production database. I utilized Cloudinary to store uploaded images rather than utilizing a backend upload. I utilized OpenStreetMap Nominatim to power my location search and reverse‑geocoding for the “Use my location” button. I utilized Leaflet to render the map and location pins on the frontend. Lastly, I used Tailwind CSS for styling. I largely used Gemini to help with ideation when I was stuck and also to utilize its immense ability to generate code. It was also super helpful for me to find an end-to-end flow since I wasn't used to setting out to build something end-to-end so quickly.

Challenges I ran into

I had a few difficulties in the location finder as I did not want to outsource to google for map payments. I instead utilized a free mapping tool which came with some backdraws, especially with some missing locations. Additionally, location searches often ran global which I had to fix utilizing a pop-up that asked for access to a user's location for better results.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I'm super proud of seeing myself create an end-to-end product that my friends and I had wanted to see on the market, and I'm really proud of signing up for this hackathon and giving myself a due date to get this done even during school, a job, and a sport.

What I learned

I learned that there are so many more tools at my fingerprints than I previously thought, especially in terms of app and web development.

What's next for Friendly Closet

Next steps involve looking deeper into the stylistic aspects of the app, and then integrating the map across friends so that you can not only see your stores on the map, but are able to see your friends' stores! I think that would be super exciting for people, especially if they travel and can try new clothing spots.

Built With

• cloudinary
• fastapi
• next.js
• openstreetmap
• render
• tailwind
• vercel