5 ms·

As I understand it, a big part of produced clothing just goes straight to waste to begin with. If everything was created on-demand, it would minimize that kind

by _flux 7mo ago

As I understand it, a big part of produced clothing just goes straight to waste to begin with. If everything was created on-demand, it would minimize that kind of waste.

Cthulhu_ 7mo ago
That would be great, a lot of clothes are made at sizes that don't sell very well and which get discounted, then discarded if they don't sell. However, made on demand will likely cost more, plus you can't fit items first. Unless they make items for fitting which you can then order to have manufactured. But yeah the main thing is that on-demand can never compete with mass production even if a big part of the mass produced stuff is discarded.
- reverius42 7mo ago
  From 3d printed clothing, the obvious next step should be to have your phone take a 3d scan of you, and send it to the clothing designer to print it to your actual body size and shape. We could have truly unique sizing (none of this S/M/L/XL stuff)!
  - IAmBroom 7mo ago
    Yes, and people have been chasing that Grail for decades. It's always right around the corner. (Despite what another poster said, it IS being pursued commercially. And unobtainable so far.)
  - h2zizzle 7mo ago
    Edge case: people who are in the process of changing their body size/shape. Growing children, people losing weight, people gaining weight (they're out there), will all occasionally want to buy for where their body is going to be in the future, not where it is now. How to accommodate them?
    - _flux 7mo ago
      I'm sure models predicting how their body changes (based on various parameters and previous scans of the particular person and other people) could be built, allowing to optimize for longest time period of "decent fit" at the cost of "perfect fit now".
- Perseids 7mo ago
  > on-demand can never compete with mass production even if a big part of the mass produced stuff is discarded. This is definitely not universally true. E.g. photos are very cheaply printed on demand. Even on-demand books are printed at reasonable prices. Sure, mass production is cheaper (both for books and pictures), but the value difference of the individual product is high enough to bridge the price gap. For cloth this area has found little exploration. TFA covers production at niche scale. If you would mass produce the looms to reduce the capital expense and heavily lean into customer value, e.g. individual fittings via 3d scans, as my sister comment proposes, or even just letting me customize my sweater with motive, color choice, garment etc., this could radically change the cost to value ratio. The company that has published TFA sells extremely bland apparel in a shop that looks just like any mass produced clothing shop and leaves all of the customer value of custom production on the table. Last but not least: This "3d knitting" seems to need only a fraction of the labor of traditional sewed clothes. If textile production didn't default to underpaid labor under precarious working conditions in low income countries, it would probably already be cheaper.
IAmBroom 7mo ago
"If" is doing a lot of hold-your-breath, make-a-wish work in that sentence.
KineticLensman 7mo ago
> As I understand it, a big part of produced clothing just goes straight to waste to begin with. My niece runs a business that relies on the way we discard clothes. She buys clothes from suppliers in India who source them from the bales of discarded clothes sent to them from Europe. Her suppliers have in effect sorted through the mountain of discards to find the ones that have sufficient value to sell back to us. She specifically buys clothes that have 'vintage' appeal (think tailored jackets rather than hoodies) and sells them primarily to students in a northern English city. Her business has done well enough to move from market stalls to a dedicated high street store and she is just branching out into 'vintage' kids clothes.
- ninalanyon 7mo ago
  I'll be visiting some northern English cities in the summer any chance you could say where this shop is?
  - KineticLensman 7mo ago
    Here's a link with contact details: https://www.durhamvintage.co.uk/ https://www.durhamvintage.co.uk/ Most of their advertising / info is probably on Facebook. Their physical store is in Bishop Auckland, a small town a few miles south of Durham.
    - ninalanyon 7mo ago
      I was in Bishop Auckland last summer! But only long enough to have lunch at the delightful Fifteas teashop. If I'm passing that way again I'll make a point of staying longer and have a look around. Thanks.

by _flux 7mo ago

As I understand it, a big part of produced clothing just goes straight to waste to begin with. If everything was created on-demand, it would minimize that kind of waste.

Cthulhu_ 7mo ago

That would be great, a lot of clothes are made at sizes that don't sell very well and which get discounted, then discarded if they don't sell. However, made on demand will likely cost more, plus you can't fit items first. Unless they make items for fitting which you can then order to have manufactured. But yeah the main thing is that on-demand can never compete with mass production even if a big part of the mass produced stuff is discarded.

reverius42 7mo ago
From 3d printed clothing, the obvious next step should be to have your phone take a 3d scan of you, and send it to the clothing designer to print it to your actual body size and shape. We could have truly unique sizing (none of this S/M/L/XL stuff)!
- IAmBroom 7mo ago
  Yes, and people have been chasing that Grail for decades. It's always right around the corner. (Despite what another poster said, it IS being pursued commercially. And unobtainable so far.)
- h2zizzle 7mo ago
  Edge case: people who are in the process of changing their body size/shape. Growing children, people losing weight, people gaining weight (they're out there), will all occasionally want to buy for where their body is going to be in the future, not where it is now. How to accommodate them?
  - _flux 7mo ago
    I'm sure models predicting how their body changes (based on various parameters and previous scans of the particular person and other people) could be built, allowing to optimize for longest time period of "decent fit" at the cost of "perfect fit now".
Perseids 7mo ago
> on-demand can never compete with mass production even if a big part of the mass produced stuff is discarded. This is definitely not universally true. E.g. photos are very cheaply printed on demand. Even on-demand books are printed at reasonable prices. Sure, mass production is cheaper (both for books and pictures), but the value difference of the individual product is high enough to bridge the price gap. For cloth this area has found little exploration. TFA covers production at niche scale. If you would mass produce the looms to reduce the capital expense and heavily lean into customer value, e.g. individual fittings via 3d scans, as my sister comment proposes, or even just letting me customize my sweater with motive, color choice, garment etc., this could radically change the cost to value ratio. The company that has published TFA sells extremely bland apparel in a shop that looks just like any mass produced clothing shop and leaves all of the customer value of custom production on the table. Last but not least: This "3d knitting" seems to need only a fraction of the labor of traditional sewed clothes. If textile production didn't default to underpaid labor under precarious working conditions in low income countries, it would probably already be cheaper.

IAmBroom 7mo ago

"If" is doing a lot of hold-your-breath, make-a-wish work in that sentence.

KineticLensman 7mo ago

> As I understand it, a big part of produced clothing just goes straight to waste to begin with. My niece runs a business that relies on the way we discard clothes. She buys clothes from suppliers in India who source them from the bales of discarded clothes sent to them from Europe. Her suppliers have in effect sorted through the mountain of discards to find the ones that have sufficient value to sell back to us. She specifically buys clothes that have 'vintage' appeal (think tailored jackets rather than hoodies) and sells them primarily to students in a northern English city. Her business has done well enough to move from market stalls to a dedicated high street store and she is just branching out into 'vintage' kids clothes.

ninalanyon 7mo ago
I'll be visiting some northern English cities in the summer any chance you could say where this shop is?
- KineticLensman 7mo ago
  Here's a link with contact details: https://www.durhamvintage.co.uk/ https://www.durhamvintage.co.uk/ Most of their advertising / info is probably on Facebook. Their physical store is in Bishop Auckland, a small town a few miles south of Durham.
  - ninalanyon 7mo ago
    I was in Bishop Auckland last summer! But only long enough to have lunch at the delightful Fifteas teashop. If I'm passing that way again I'll make a point of staying longer and have a look around. Thanks.