We live in a consumer society with an exponential growing population, what will we do when we run out of recourses? This is a big problem for the future. Not only our resources will run out because of the mass production, but also the production of so much unnecessary products isn’t going to help us solving the global warming. Roland Berger, a German entrepreneur and advisor, says that over the next 20 years, the world grow with 1.4 billion people more to an expected population of 8.3 billion people in 2030. With those numbers, we need to realise, that we surely need to change in our consumer behaviour if we want our kids to live in a liveable world.
June 2035, it is a beautiful spring day, Marie is very excited, today she is going to buy her new jeans. Her favourite old one is a bit worn out and she just loves the new 2035 designs. By handing in her old jeans, the number of Ecofeet that will increase the balance on her card,stays within reasonable limits. The ecocard keeps people aware of their impact on the environment. It is a kind of tax on consumption and Marie find this a pleasant way to stay aware of her ecological behaviour.
It’s clear that change is needed, when it comes to our consumption. Nowadays people buy things, just to buy them. Shopping has become daytime activity.
When we buy new clothes, we buy them for a season to wear. When the clothes are damaged, we don’t fix them like the people back then did, the clothes get thrown away. And when that happens, that will be the end of the lifecycle of the clothes. With the beginning of the industrialization, the growing mass production came. In Europe in 2013, 370 milliard euros are being spent on clothes a year. (Fashion united, 2013)
Not only we run out of recourses, but we also pollute the world with all of our unnecessary waste. David Carlson, a design entrepreneur, writes on David Report that we need to downshift to less consumption. He says that we have been lured into a new experience-based economy, where things are custom made. We need to stop buying just to buy, but buy because we really need the product and start re-using things more, to longer the lifecycle. The products need to have a story, or a deeper meaning so we get attached to them. It has to suit our wishes perfectly.
The Jeans store is nearby, Dirk the franchisee is very proud of his shop, it isn’t very large but he offers the most popular designs and fits in the market. His state of the art laser scanner takes the measures of the customer and a new piece of clothing is projected on her body through augmented reality. When this is desired, the customer has the opportunity to correct her body shapes. The 3D loom has the possibility to weave in elastomers and reinforcements so that each fit is possible. The weaving machine weaves is no longer a large sheet, but weaves a pattern, so that the garment can be produced without waste. The seams and warp threads of a biodegradable yarn, similar to a spider web. These yarns can be easily dissolved in a special solvent at a temperature of 100°C.
So instead of the fast fashion we see in every shopping centre, the focus is on slow fashion. The mass production products are over and the fashion market is focussing on individualized products.
Every store should focus on the costumers wishes, the will keep a database with every clothing related detail about their costumers, so they can provide a fitting service and product.
The fabrics made of raw materials, to avoid unnecessary pollution while making the fabric. Durable becomes the most important thing for the fabrics; cause the need to last a ‘life time’.
The orders will be very small, So they can be locally made, to increase the pollution with the logistic part of the production.
In the future scenario written by Katrin Nikolas for the magazine Pictures of the future, he also describes a tailor made garment future where local production is central.
Marie is very happy with the chosen pants, Dirk takes her old pants and confirms that Marie gets her jeans delivered within 2 days. After Marie left, Dirk walks to the back of the store, he passes the office where two employees are busy on the computer of the Online Store. When people want to have repeat orders all the data to create a new garment can be retrieved from the database of the store. The leads are generated by the central website of the brand. Dirk is happy that he is affiliated with this brand, they have the best design and fit's the best technology and marketing support is sublime. He puts the old pants in the recycle machine; the warp yarns and seams dissolve in the solvent. The weft threads remain. The machine cleans them and gives the thread a new dye bath. At the back of the machine the yarn is winded on a bobbin. At the bottom in the machine, the solvent is separated from the organic substance and the extruder spins it into a new thread.
To create a production process with less waste, we need to change the production process radically.
For the first step, the orders won’t take place until the costumer actually orders it instead the mass production what is taking place now. With this method there won’t be any products made that won’t be sold, so that means less waste.
Companies also should focus on streamlining their production cycle, and eliminating every step that isn’t necessary. With this improvement the companies will win some time on the production process, and will provide small stocks and delivery times.
The garment industry should focus on the production strategy Toyota, the Japanese car company, has started with, Lean Manufacturing system. This system is based on maximizing the value of the product for the costumer, and making/producing only what’s really needed. In the production line the eliminate waste, inconsistencies and unreasonable requirements. Kiichoro Toyoda, who invented this theory, created this system with the idea of “the ideal conditions for making things are created when machines, facilities and people work together to add value without generating any waste.” (Toyota, 2015)
According to Accenture, who did research about sustainability in 2014, only 27% of the people in Europa say that the consider sustainability when they are selecting products and services. With those numbers there is a lot of space for improvement. The future of fashion is in changing the consumerism of the people, to turn the 27% in 100% with a fully sustainable production chain to fur fill these wishes.
June 2035, it is a beautiful spring day, Marie is very excited, today she is going to buy her new jeans. Her favourite old one is a bit worn out and she just loves the new 2035 designs. By handing in her old jeans, the number of Ecofeet that will increase the balance on her card,stays within reasonable limits. The ecocard keeps people aware of their impact on the environment. It is a kind of tax on consumption and Marie find this a pleasant way to stay aware of her ecological behaviour.
It’s clear that change is needed, when it comes to our consumption. Nowadays people buy things, just to buy them. Shopping has become daytime activity.
When we buy new clothes, we buy them for a season to wear. When the clothes are damaged, we don’t fix them like the people back then did, the clothes get thrown away. And when that happens, that will be the end of the lifecycle of the clothes. With the beginning of the industrialization, the growing mass production came. In Europe in 2013, 370 milliard euros are being spent on clothes a year. (Fashion united, 2013)
Not only we run out of recourses, but we also pollute the world with all of our unnecessary waste. David Carlson, a design entrepreneur, writes on David Report that we need to downshift to less consumption. He says that we have been lured into a new experience-based economy, where things are custom made. We need to stop buying just to buy, but buy because we really need the product and start re-using things more, to longer the lifecycle. The products need to have a story, or a deeper meaning so we get attached to them. It has to suit our wishes perfectly.
The Jeans store is nearby, Dirk the franchisee is very proud of his shop, it isn’t very large but he offers the most popular designs and fits in the market. His state of the art laser scanner takes the measures of the customer and a new piece of clothing is projected on her body through augmented reality. When this is desired, the customer has the opportunity to correct her body shapes. The 3D loom has the possibility to weave in elastomers and reinforcements so that each fit is possible. The weaving machine weaves is no longer a large sheet, but weaves a pattern, so that the garment can be produced without waste. The seams and warp threads of a biodegradable yarn, similar to a spider web. These yarns can be easily dissolved in a special solvent at a temperature of 100°C.
So instead of the fast fashion we see in every shopping centre, the focus is on slow fashion. The mass production products are over and the fashion market is focussing on individualized products.
Every store should focus on the costumers wishes, the will keep a database with every clothing related detail about their costumers, so they can provide a fitting service and product.
The fabrics made of raw materials, to avoid unnecessary pollution while making the fabric. Durable becomes the most important thing for the fabrics; cause the need to last a ‘life time’.
The orders will be very small, So they can be locally made, to increase the pollution with the logistic part of the production.
In the future scenario written by Katrin Nikolas for the magazine Pictures of the future, he also describes a tailor made garment future where local production is central.
Marie is very happy with the chosen pants, Dirk takes her old pants and confirms that Marie gets her jeans delivered within 2 days. After Marie left, Dirk walks to the back of the store, he passes the office where two employees are busy on the computer of the Online Store. When people want to have repeat orders all the data to create a new garment can be retrieved from the database of the store. The leads are generated by the central website of the brand. Dirk is happy that he is affiliated with this brand, they have the best design and fit's the best technology and marketing support is sublime. He puts the old pants in the recycle machine; the warp yarns and seams dissolve in the solvent. The weft threads remain. The machine cleans them and gives the thread a new dye bath. At the back of the machine the yarn is winded on a bobbin. At the bottom in the machine, the solvent is separated from the organic substance and the extruder spins it into a new thread.
To create a production process with less waste, we need to change the production process radically.
For the first step, the orders won’t take place until the costumer actually orders it instead the mass production what is taking place now. With this method there won’t be any products made that won’t be sold, so that means less waste.
Companies also should focus on streamlining their production cycle, and eliminating every step that isn’t necessary. With this improvement the companies will win some time on the production process, and will provide small stocks and delivery times.
The garment industry should focus on the production strategy Toyota, the Japanese car company, has started with, Lean Manufacturing system. This system is based on maximizing the value of the product for the costumer, and making/producing only what’s really needed. In the production line the eliminate waste, inconsistencies and unreasonable requirements. Kiichoro Toyoda, who invented this theory, created this system with the idea of “the ideal conditions for making things are created when machines, facilities and people work together to add value without generating any waste.” (Toyota, 2015)
According to Accenture, who did research about sustainability in 2014, only 27% of the people in Europa say that the consider sustainability when they are selecting products and services. With those numbers there is a lot of space for improvement. The future of fashion is in changing the consumerism of the people, to turn the 27% in 100% with a fully sustainable production chain to fur fill these wishes.