Sustainability and the Digitalization of the Textile Industry
Fast fashion is notorious for its negative impact on our planet, what’s being done to counter it?
Whether we love it, hate it, or love to hate it, shopping is a societal norm that connects us all as people. Pretty much everything we want or need must be bought at a store - either physical or virtual. Even in the early days of civilization when traditional stores didn’t exist, trade and barter was used to obtain goods and that’s really just a variation of shopping when you think about it.
Globalization has made it easier than ever to buy goods; so much so that it has brought us to an age of spendthrift consumerism. While shopping on its own isn’t too bad, mass consumption on a global scale comes with major costs to the environment. The “fast fashion” model we are used to seeing in the clothing industry is especially wasteful and damaging to the planet.
Don’t worry, we’re not here to bring you doom and gloom - just the opposite actually! We wrote previously about how the shift in consumer behavior and market trends in the last couple of years have led to a more rapid digitalization of the textile industry. Today we’ll be taking a look at how this digitalization is impacting sustainability for the better.
Millennials and Gen Z are one of the key driving forces of companies adopting more sustainable practices. The demand for secondhand products is seeing a global boom, sparked in part by the pandemic. As a result, new digital business models are emerging that focus on re-using and re-selling garments. It is expected that by 2025 used clothing sales will grow up to eleven times faster than the standard retail clothing market.
Digital marketplaces where users can sell clothes they no longer wish to keep, are growing in size. Facilitated by mobile broadband and smartphones, these digital landscapes are attracting exponential interest from sustainability-minded and money conscious consumers. These business models also have strong support from the venture capital community. Two such marketplaces in the U.S., Poshmark and ThreadUP, even completed IPOs in 2021 valued at $7 billion and $1.3 billion, respectively. You read that right. Billion. And this model isn’t only limited to the states, we also see similar marketplaces popping up in Latin America, with Enjoei in Brazil and GoTrendier in Mexico & Colombia.
Improving technology has allowed these digital marketplaces to gain several advantages over their brick-and-mortar counterparts. For example, artificial intelligence gives companies the ability to create a unique user experience customized according to their tastes and preferences. Additionally, these platforms don’t actually hold inventory so they don’t need to take on hefty storage fees. Thousands of feet of storage space are reduced to a single virtual space.
The digital resale model extends the average life cycle of clothes and helps promote a circular economy. According to findings from ThredUP, this sector has the potential to cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than 140 million tons by 2030!
Fast fashion retailers are also hopping onto the bandwagon. For instance, H&M invested in second-hand marketplace Sellpy and Benetton has partnered with fashion resale app Depop.
Technology’s impact on sustainability doesn’t stop with digital resale. It has implications in dyeing and drying which lead to more eco-friendly textile finishings.
Over the past few decades, water consumption in the textile industry has seen an enormous decline largely due to improvements in dyeing machine technology. In 1980, the finishing stages of pre-treatment, dyeing, and post-treatment used up around 105 liters of water per kilogram of cotton. This amount has dropped a whopping 73% to about 28 liters per kilogram. With increasing pressure to become more sustainable, companies are striving to improve technologies even further. Nylstar is one such example, using a waterless dyeing technology called Meryl ecodye to create high quality hues while protecting the environment.
Better drying optimization is also a direct result of improved finishing technologies.
Advanced high-performance dryers, heat recovery systems, energy saving motors, and more all contribute to more sustainable drying of fabric. On top of the obvious environmental boons, digitalization also helps curb previously common problems. For example, the clogging of lint screens is easily avoided by implementing automatic monitoring of machine maintenance status. While a lint screen clog might seem like a minor issue, the time saved with automation adds up and leads to a smoother, more efficiently run process.
Remember how we mentioned virtual sampling and 3D printing being pivotal in speeding up the design & product development phase of the supply chain? Textile companies can make better-informed decisions regarding design using 3D software to aid them. Additionally, with virtual sampling, the need for physical product prototypes and material swatches is reduced, thus minimizing the massive amount of sample yardage created by fabric suppliers every season.
Some brands are even taking the virtual sampling concept one step further and applying it directly to consumers. For example, the “Makers’ Experience” by Nike lets consumers try on different shoes and personalize them in 90 minutes or less. This virtual try-on strategy is refreshing and fun for consumers, but also lessens the number of returns and unworn clothing sitting at home or thrown away too soon.
Utilizing digital technologies to create high quality, unique, and sustainable materials not only gives customers a high level of satisfaction, but also keeps our planet safe. The increasing demand for sustainable solutions paired with constantly improving technologies means countless new innovations and we can’t see what’s to come!