Rainey insists this traditional manufacturing will not be entirely supplanted by made-on-demand fashion in the years to come, but rather made to order fashion will supplement traditional manufacturing
“Asian manufacturers know what they’re doing,” he says. “[They] are actually incorporating the new digital technology to supplement what they have from a legacy standpoint.”
International fashion brands, he believes, will add more regional production to their Asian manufacturing foundations. “Your output is already 40 per cent too high,” he says, comparing past output with consumption.
“If you perfectly predicted output, you’d call that a shift away from Asian manufacturing because you’re actually matching what the consumer wants.”
Fashion is a US$2 trillion industry, Rainey says, and he estimates that in partnership with Gooten’s manufacturing partners, digital printing technology – either short-run or single unit technology – should now replace about 35 per cent of the total global textile output.
“Digital print technologies can do small print runs or, in our case, a single order in a way that is economical and better matches the consumer’s taste,” he says.
Rainey points out that US department store chain Nordstrom, which operates more than 100 stores in the United States and Canada, offers customers more than 350,000 individual items that can be ordered online, and it now wants to increase that range to 1.5 million different items.
“The only way you can do that is by effectively extending the life of content by going to a minimal order of one on-demand production capability,” he says. “You’re not stocking 1.5 million units in inventory. As it’s ordered it can be produced.”
Fast fashion, which has roared in recent years with consumers buying pieces, wearing them once or twice and discarding them, is terrible for the environment but many consumers love it, he says. “Now it can be done in a way that’s much more sustainable,” he says.
Christina Dean, founder of the Hong Kong-based environmentally conscious fashion charity Redress, says the made-on-demand fashion economy is definitely growing – which is a boon for the world.
“Obviously excess inventory is a huge bane on businesses and on the planet,” she says. “It is estimated 100 billion new garments are made every year, which by the way has actually gone up. It’s estimated that 20 billion of those garments won’t be sold.”
Too much fast fashion is worn once or twice and discarded, and it often ends up in landfill, she adds. Made-on-demand minimises that risk
Dean says the major players in the fashion industry are wise to the ongoing benefits of made-on-demand fashion. “The big, big players have already been, for a long time, putting investment into made-on-demand initiatives,” she adds.
One of the drawbacks of made-to-order manufacturing is the absence of instant gratification. The delay between order and delivery can irritate the modern consumer, who want their choices to arrive within a couple of days, not weeks.
She sees this impatience as short-sighted, part of a pattern that has led to massive environmental damage. “It’s so last century that we can’t wait,” she says. “We’ve sat at home all year, we can wait three weeks for something we really want.”
South China Morning Post
The dark side of fashion is a ravaged landscape of waste and environmental damage, but a retailing revolution could change that picture. On-demand manufacturing will eliminate oversupply and waste, proponents say, ensuring only those items that have already been paid for will get made.