SUSTAINABIL ITY

Can on-demand manufacturing solve

fashion’s waste problem? Companies specialising in the technology say they’re seeing rising demand after the pandemic as inventory problems became clear. But on-demand at scale has

proven elusive.

B Y R A C H E L C E R N A N S K Y

29 APRIL 2021

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This is the latest in our Earth Month series. Throughout the month of April, we are reporting on the quest for more sustainable alternatives and some of the other most pressing and overlooked problems within the industry.

Careste, which makes luxury women’s clothes on demand, launched in beta in 2018 with a pitch to solve the difficulty many women face in finding clothes that fit well. The brand offers micro half-sizes and has a sizing system that lets customers order according to their specific measurements.

READ MORE Solving fashion’s biggest issues: Overproduction and overconsumption B Y R A C H E L C E R N A N S K Y

The pandemic’s effects on retail, and the increased attention on the environmental costs of overproduction, have put more wind in the company’s sails, says founder Celeste Markey. The on-demand model solves two problems the pandemic created for fashion almost instantaneously: the unsold inventory that accumulated when customers couldn’t or didn’t want to shop, and the failure of the forecast model, in which retailers try to predict what customers are going to buy a year in advance.

Careste makes luxury clothing using an on-demand, “zero-inventory” model.

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“From a retailer standpoint, it was a hard sell in the beginning of 2020. Eight months into it, we were basically having retailers throw themselves at us,” she says. “Covid has been such a slap in the face. Who could have predicted that we’d all be buying sweatpants?”

Overproduction is fashion’s biggest environmental problem and on-demand manufacturing companies think they can help to solve it, while also offering better fit in the process. Careste is working with The Yes to bring its digital, zero-inventory model to the luxury market (orders placed on The Yes are sent

to the Careste factory and delivered to the customer within eight to 10 days) and plans to launch with other retailers in the near future. Nimbly and Ziel are helping brands such as Ministry of Supply, Misha Nonoo, Everlast and Krost to be more responsive to demand than typical supply chains have been. Unspun, a startup that makes jeans to order based on custom measurements both as a consumer-facing brand as well as through collaborations with larger brands and retailers, announced a partnership in April with H&M-owned brand Weekday to offer Body Scan Jeans in its Stockholm store.

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Brands offering on-demand or demand-driven manufacturing say they can eliminate unreliable forecasting models, a key driver of overproduction. Only producing a garment once a customer has purchased it eliminates guesswork around demand, they argue, helping to eliminate waste in fashion’s supply chain. But significant change to waste reduction doesn’t happen without a big overhaul of fashion’s conventional business model, analysts say, and its success as a sustainability solution rides on whether or not the industry adopts the technology at scale.

Unspun uses a body scanning tool to create customer avatars, which are then used to customise and create on-demand jeans.

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“When you partner with a larger company, you have the opportunity to influence the larger model. That is a good thing,” says Lynda Grose, chair of fashion design at California College of the Arts and co-founder of the Union of Concerned Researchers in Fashion. “Can we imagine a time where the approach of Unspun is the core of the business, rather than a peripheral business? That’s how change always happens, isn’t it: on the periphery, and you want to be rapidly bringing new ideas that are innately less wasteful to the centre.”

The on-demand model

As of this month, Weekday customers in Stockholm can make an appointment to have a body scan done (following Covid precautions) then choose a pair of jeans using an avatar that the scan produces. Customers can select their style, thread, fabric, rise height and hem; once the order is placed, it’s sent to Unspun to produce.

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Advocates say the made-to-order model “cuts through” problems arising from standard size offerings.

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Beth Esponnette helped to found Unspun after working at an apparel company that had inventory challenges typical in fashion. She saw a mismatch between what brands were making and what people were buying. “We were sitting in this meeting, thinking why did we get into this problem in the first

place? The reason is that we made the product before we knew anyone wanted it.”

Unspun, which has former Levi’s head of design Jonathan Cheung on its advisory board and collaborating with its design team, has been selling as a direct-to-consumer denim brand since November 2017, but Esponette says the real impact will come from partnerships with larger brands. In addition to Weekday, she says Unspun has lined up four other collaborations this year. Longer-term, she expects Unspun to expand to products beyond denim, to localise production in order to accelerate the turnaround time and to develop advanced recycling capabilities.

Grose says what’s also exciting about the Unspun model is how it can change sizing norms. Standard size offerings are not accommodating or flattering for many women, which can leave many feeling like there’s something wrong with their body, she says. “The model of Unspun cuts through all of that. There’s more than the volume of stuff — there’s the way that fashion is presented, and the way that women are presented as well.”

In practice with luxury brands

A key question that remains unclear is if or how Unspun’s model, and other on-demand technology providers, will impact all the other products that its retail partners sell, including details about how they’re produced, and the quantities they’re produced in.

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Careste’s Markey says her company has a blueprint that others can simulate, but to maximise impact, she says the model can also work inside an

established brand. While it could be a tougher transition for mass brands, luxury is in a better position, particularly given its closer proximity to the “buy less, buy better” philosophy. Plus, Careste already has the quality, says Markey: its fabrics come from the same mill that makes for Gucci, Hermès, Versace, and it uses a factory that produces for Chloe and Burberry. “We would love to be acquired by one of the big luxury conglomerates so that we can immediately impact the luxury supply chain.”

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As with Unspun, Careste relies on manufacturing new products, which means for now that it’s likely adding to fashion’s overproduction problem rather than solving it. But that could change as they scale and as more brands, retailers and customers take note.

Technology will play a key role in adopting on-demand models. One need, says Leslie Harwell, managing partner of Alante Capital, is the development of infrastructure that can accommodate smaller purchase orders and optimise batch sizes and production locations based on demand as it develops in real time. “That is extremely important to addressing the overproduction problem, and Careste is part of the bigger solution on this spectrum of customised on-demand to dynamic, demand-driven manufacturing.”

While on-demand manufacturing is not yet upending the fashion industry, Grose says these companies are putting together a foundation for the future. “When this bigger system eventually crumbles — and every once in a while we get a little glimpse that it might — these little seeds that have been planted

show there’ll be other ways of doing things. They’re hopeful shoots of new ways of being, of doing.”

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