3 ms·
The economical collapse of small countries that rely on sweatshop labour is a genuine and serious problem here. I can only hope that whoever solves the technica
by austinjp 9y ago
The economical collapse of small countries that rely on sweatshop labour is a genuine and serious problem here. I can only hope that whoever solves the technical problems that are hindering automated clothing production are mindful of this, and work out a means of giving back to those affected. I won't hold my breath, though.
Edit:
It seems that softwearautomation.com is attempting to solve a "hard" problem here, namely a highly generalisable solution. Is there scope for a scrappy small-player to produce a cheaper technology that operates within a narrower scope? A single product, perhaps. How many variations on a button-up shirt does a specialist shirt tailor have to consider? It seems that shrinking the problem space might produce faster, cheaper results.
- smt88 9y agoI think that even if you could automate some of these things, you'd have an inventory problem. Clothing has higher rates of returns (as in sending the item back) than many other categories of products. If everything coming off your assembly line is unique, it's going to be expensive to take apart and rebuild those products, and you're going to be in for a logistical nightmare. Other than that, I honestly think human labor is so cheap, it's not worth it for these companies to innovate that way. Margins on clothes are astronomical, and people seem to happily pay those margins. There isn't much incentive to shave your $1/shirt cost down to $0.30/shirt when you're attacking a market that will pay $70/shirt.