Detroit is the center of the world when it comes to trend spotting.

While a bit of an exaggeration, it’s safe to say that Sphere Trending in WaterfordDetroit is part of the discussion when it comes to dissecting and predicting trends in fashion, furniture, textiles and automobiles. is making sure metro

In an overly simplistic description of what the company does, Sphere provides counsel to companies across the country on the latest consumer trends, whether its colors, textures, shapes or finishes.

The company scours the globe to find what fashionistas, auto designers and textile manufacturers are showing off at top-line shows. It also heavily researches target consumers, then culls those observations into useable information for their clients.

“Our methodology is simple: we begin at the beginning,” said Mandi Mankvitz, director of social media – a title that doesn’t accurately describe what she does – at Sphere. “We begin with the consumer. We look at macro trend drivers…big picture drivers. We spend a lot of time looking at the consumer. It’s the big picture trend drivers that really help our clients understand their consumer.”

Sphere’s methodology may appear simple, but the 12-person company is anything but simple. The staff is an eclectic mix of people whose backgrounds range from the fashion design world to marketing minds to just really smart people with a good bit of flair.

“Our team is passionate observers of consumers, retail, lifestyles and the environments in which we live, and we bring this excitement to our clients via a menu of trend insights,” said Maxine Lauer, the company’s founder and CEO.

Lauer started Sphere in 2000 because she saw a gap in bringing together macro and micro trend information to provide key implications customized for each business. Prior to that, she’d worked for a variety of manufacturing companies in the design and marketing arenas, including a stint as Director of Trend & Product Development for Home Fashions at Kmart Corp.

Sphere’s clients are Fortune 500 companies ranging from home furnishings makers, such as cabinet and carpet manufacturers, to electronics companies to office supply companies.

The company finds its information from its inspiration. It travels to more than 45 fashion, textile, furnishing and auto shows in France, Italy, Germany, Spain and across America to look at what materials and finishes companies are using to predict what will find their ways into products for consumers around the country.

“We’ve got more frequent flier miles than Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt,” Mankvitz said laughing.

However, their sources aren’t limited to just those shows. Sphere employees often take road trips to various cities around the United States to scout for interesting houses, restaurants and other things they find fascinating, then blog about what they found. In fact, they pick 10 cities each year and take two or three days to immerse themselves in those cities to see what’s cutting edge about them.

Employees blog about what they find, but also incorporate what they find into a report that can be used to provide insight for clients, Mankvitz said. Some of the cities this year included Brooklyn, New Orleans and Austin, Texas.

“If we find something that is constant between all 10 cities we see it as a snapshot in time of what your consumer is living right now,” she said.

Sphere pulls from a variety of different sources to discover what trends are moving so it is difficult to narrow down what a “day in the life” of Mankvitz would be like; however, she noted they do have a process for the various shows and, in particular, the North American International Auto Show in Detroit is particularly helpful.

“We don’t go during media days. We go on your average Tuesday with the people. Our team walks the show. It takes the full day, if not two days. There are so many cars. We walk the show with cameras, information, equipment, everything we need. We photograph anything we feel is new. We’re looking at shapes of cars, colors, new finishes,” she said.

In addition to looking at those things, they look to see what vehicles attract the largest crowd. They wade in and listen to the comments being made by those people as well. Aside from that data, Mankvitz said there are thousands of pictures taken during the show aimed at making those insights crystal clear.

For example, Volkswagen etched a floral pattern on the center console of some of its vehicles last year. “We felt like they were trying to attract women to the brand,” Mankvitz said.

Ford’s uses LED lighting to allow drivers to control the color of the ambient lighting in some of its vehicles. Mankvitz and her colleagues saw that and knew almost immediately how to apply it to other consumer goods.

“For us, the lighting scheme…this is an interesting technology. It’s obviously manufacturing ready. What if you could do this in kitchen cabinets? You could put it in a china cabinet and have holiday lighting. We look for all of those things. We’re assembling that information. We take tens of thousands of photos every year from all these shows,” she said.

At the end of the review, the attendees sit down and create a “more-same-less” list. The list is used to compare what they saw in the current show to the previous year’s event. Are they seeing more of some things, the same amount of some things or less, thus “more-same-less.”  That list is circulated among the Sphere staff and to selected clients and then the real work begins.

Over the course of the next week, the show attendees amass all of the information and photos into an 80-page report chronicling what was seen and how it impacts Sphere clients going forward. The recipients use this information to finalize production details on its products and to begin design for products two years out.

Mankvitz said the types of woods being used in vehicles or finishes on metals often find their way into different high-end home furnishings, such as faucets, cabinets and furniture within a year of their appearance in auto shows. They then migrate to lower-priced home furnishings within two years.

“We bring them back, and along with all of the other (auto) shows we attend, we do write an auto show report. It includes trends, but it is a very specific report. What is very unique about the auto show, it affects our reporting for the entire year,” Mankvitz noted.

The resulting efforts have pushed Sphere into the position of “expert.” The company’s executives are frequently asked to speak at trade shows and corporate events.  Past speaking engagements include NeoCon, The International Housewares Show, Surfaces, Las Vegas Furniture Show, IDSA and others.