On-demand fashion provides much-needed clues on how to green a notoriously wasteful industry

The fashion industry is in crisis. It's hard to go a month without hearing about another fashion company issuing profit warnings, even as Sweden's H&M, long considered the industry's model of success, is suffering. In January he lost 12% in market value and abruptly changed CEO. The company has struggled for years with low sales and inventory, mainly due to inefficient supply chains.

Crisis talks and bankruptcy are also rattling other high street favorites, like Victoria's Secret, which closed its doors more than 100 stores in recent yearshas Very dryGap, TopShop, Cook And Scotch and soda.

Anything but green

Worse still, the sector is not sustainable. Accounting for an estimate 10% of global greenhouse gas emissionsglobal textile trade and production contribute more to climate change than all international flights (2%) and maritime transport (also 2%) combined. The industry is notoriously wasteful, leaving 92 million tonnes of waste in its wake each year, according to a 2022 study. It is estimated that more than half of fast fashion items are thrown away within a year of purchase.

Then there is the question of his working conditions. Eleven years after the Rana Plaza collapse, workers are still struggling to survive on extremely low wages, while working excessive hours in factories that often violate their human rights.

The big culprit of the sector's misfortunes? Many major fashion brands have actually developed on what we call the overstock principle: the company produces a large number of products to transport them through the distribution network, which extends from warehouses to logistics centers and physical stores. In most cases, companies rely on outsourced and remote manufacturing plants. As a result, when demand decreases, inventory swells and so does waste. In 2017, H&M was accused of burning 12 tons of clothing per year since 2013. In 2018, Burberry's annual report stated that the company destroyed 31 million products in a single year.

The promises of fashion on demand

Is the fashion world doomed to waste and overproduction? In the recent Plug and Play Conference, I argued that this was not inevitable and highlighted on-demand manufacturing as a promising new path for the sector. Unlike the traditional mass production model, in which goods are manufactured based on anticipated demand, on-demand manufacturing only makes goods when there is actual demand.

This means that the T-shirt you spotted online will only be produced at the time of your order. Supporters say supply chains should be redesigned to be tighter and more agile, favoring physically closer factories and production runs that produce smaller batches.

Fashion experiments

Several brands have tried the idea. Following in the footsteps of the electronics and automotive industries, Nike and Adidas have moved into on-demand manufacturing. In 2000, Adidas launched its customizable online platform, miAdidas, which allowed customers to customize the color, outsoles and laces of its best-selling sneakers. But in 2021, the service was mysteriously discontinued. Adidas presented this decision as a strategic decisionstating that they believe the future of personalization lies in co-creation.

In August 2019, Nike also selected 28 creatives and activists in New York to design the NYC by You project. This collection of made-to-order shoes was available until September, with the brand announcing plans to offer sneakers only available for a limited time, rather than limited quantities. Other brands like Shoes of Prey, NA or Tekyn have based their entire economic model on on-demand production.

But overall, these early experiences showed that customers were not willing to pay more and wait longer have their own unique design.

Something other than textbook success

That said, some brands have defied the odds to prove that on-demand models can be profitable. Among them are the sustainable producer Alohas, based in Barcelona, ​​or the French fashion brand Asphalte. Their success is based on small series manufactured as close as possible to the end consumer (for example in Portugal for European customers) good price. Alohas is adjusting its prices to reduce inventory and provide an advantage to its first-time buyers, disrupting the traditional concept of end-of-season discounts. Asphalt builds up first comments of its clients to help shape future designs.

So why are these innovators succeeding where Adidas and others have closed their customizable retail outlets? The fact is that Alohas and Asphalt do not implement customization or truly start manufacturing until consumers finally place an order. As computer manufacturer Dell has a few decades ago or in the automotive industry, they approached demand from a small batch perspective rather than a single-unit production perspective.

This makes sense: after all, supply chains and manufacturing processes are designed for batches and cannot cost-effectively handle large-scale unit production. Existing infrastructure is primarily dependent on emerging economies, hampering opportunities for massive transformation. Additionally, consumers are not prepared for the long wait times and higher prices associated with a radical shift toward personalization.

Do work on demand

To make on-demand production widespread, we must support initiatives that impact both supply and demand. On the supply side, several start-ups are reshaping the fundamentals of fashion production with disruptive models. Some of them presented interesting innovations during the Plug and Plays webinar:

• Unspun, which allows the production of micro-lots with a 3D weaving machine;

• Austrian startup Silana, which developed robotics to automate the clothing sewing process that currently relies on human labor;

• British start-up Pattern Project has developed software based on artificial intelligence technology to manufacture micro-batches, making production much more agile and responsive.

These companies rely on technology, itself driven by data and increasingly intelligent integration of the different links in the value chain. Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing on an industrial scale, offers us the possibility of producing clothing with the minimum amount of fabric required. Take your average T-shirt: To produce it, traditional manufacturing first requires the cotton fabric, then cuts its components according to predefined patterns. This process results in greater waste and longer delivery times due to its complexity. On the other hand, additive manufacturing makes it possible to produce a T-shirt in a single piece, which considerably reduces waste.

This technology paves the way for the development of more complex forms of on-demand manufacturing, without compromising economic profitability or customer satisfaction. Thanks to their flexibility, these tools can also be positioned closer to customers, reducing transport and storage costs as well as the associated environmental and social footprint.

Changing fashion culture

On the demand side, there is an urgent need to educate the end consumer on the real cost of fashion. We must reconnect with the original meaning of fashion (from the French fawn and the Latin facere), where value rests more on the way in which the product is manufactured and on its quality than on the rapid renewal of trends which lead to preconceived obsolescence .

Recent regulations such as Frances Anti-waste circular economy lawGermanys Supply Chain Law or that of Sweden Extended producer responsibilityare triggering these developments, but there is still a long way to go before we can achieve the deep cultural change and infrastructure we need.

Overall, implementing large-scale on-demand production in the short term is not realistic. But as our examples show, purposeful fashion is certainly within our reach.