Washington, DC
The apparel giant
Nike (Nike Considered Design, 2010) defines waste as any product or material
purchased anywhere in the supply chain that does not ultimately end up in the
consumer's closet. This definition includes non-product waste (such as packaging),
manufacturing waste (such as scrap material in contract factories) and product
waste (such as samples), the research team focused on pre-consumer
product waste.
The purpose of this project was to focus on using virtual prototyping as an alternative
to waste generated in physical apparel sampling. Our project focuses on the
reduction of product waste at the initial development stage through the use of 3D
technology. Further impacts can be negated through the use of best practices in
fabric selection-offered by MSI (Material Sustainability Index) data.
With a lack of access to information regarding material sustainability,
developers and other decision makers cannot make informed, sustainable
decisions. In developing this system we can educate product creation
teams to use environmentally better materials and further improve
sustainability.
The amount of textile waste in U.S. landfills has grown at more than three
times
the rate of overall waste volumes for all materials. Between 2000 and 2011,
textile
waste increased 38% environmental impacts, the generation of significant amount
of solid waste. The production, use and disposal of over 19 billion garments
per
year causes significant environmental and human health problems. In 2012, 14.33
million tons of textile waste was generated in the United States, which
represented
5.7% of total municipal solid waste. Of these textile waste, 15.7% was
recovered
and 12.08 million tons were discarded. In addition to the textile waste generated
by
consumers, apparel industry also generates huge amount of waste in their
sampling
procedure. Every year, the fashion industry runs between 30 to 50 trend-driven
fashion seasons, which result in a high resource depletion (Siegle, 2012). A
season
in fashion is represented by a fashion collection comprised of 11 to 100
garments,
and each garment in the collection is physically prototyped. A major apparel
brand
may have millions of sample garments each year. Apparel product development
involves an arduous approval process. Apparel products are designed “in-house”
in
studios often located in corporate headquarter facilities in the United States.
Designs are physically prototyped in factories, often offshore, in the country
of
manufacture. Completed apparel prototypes are shipped back to the corporate
design house in the United States only to be rejected, edited and sent back to
the
factory offshore, with comments for improvements, whereupon the physical
apparel prototypes are improved and shipped back to the United States. This
cycle
continues until a physical apparel prototype is approved and in some cases
close to
approval. The innovative aspect of this project involves the use of computer
technology to develop virtual garment prototypes that can replace physical
garments in apparel sampling procedures. To reduce solid waste in apparel
industry, this project simultaneously benefits people, prosperity, and the
planet.
Who: Fashion and
Apparel Studies Assistant Professor Kelly Cobb, Professor Huantian Cao and
graduate student team: Elizabeth Davelaar, Cara Tortorice, Bai Li, Ahmed Sabab
Sharek.
What: Present Phase 1
EPA P3 (People,Planet, Profit) Student Design Project: From Physical To
Virtual: Optimizing the Apparel Product Development Process to Reduce Solid
Waste in Apparel Production. Development and testing of a hybrid MISi/3D
Prototyping system.
Where: TechConnect World Innovation Conference,
National Innovation Summit and National SBIR/STTR Conferences. The largest
global innovation program in physical and life sciences.
