There’s a key issue that made to order apparel solves for the fashion industry. Overproduction is termed ‘retail’s little dirty secret’. Aside from costing countries billions (it costs the United States an estimated fifty billion dollars every year), it’s also ruining the planet and could end in lots of bad publicity for your brand. Though several businesses have tried to address overproduction via recycling initiatives that try to ‘make fashion circular’, the only real solution to the fashion industry’s waste issue is a shift in the fundamental business model and switch over to made-to-order production.
1. Wipeout dead apparel inventory
There is a concrete reason why dead apparel inventory is taken to be many retailers’ ‘silent killer’. Every penny spent on inventory that is not eventually sold is cash that would have been channeled towards enhanced back-end systems, a more productive inventory, or better talent. By switching over to made-to-order garment production, fashion companies and brands could alleviate the issue.
2. Re-emphasizing garment quality
One among the more obvious shortcomings of shifting to a mail-to-order production cycle is having to deal with longer TATs (turnaround times). With lengthier TATs, brands have to be much more mindful as regards what’s going into their own production cycle, and place great emphasis on creating quality, thoughtful items. There is a fashion outfit that has existed right from 1985, when it was popularized by a famous American designer, as a means for brand to transcend popular seasons and trends, and return functionality to the forefront. Many brands now label themselves as a made to order clothing manufacturerthus, dabbling into this kind of production cycle, some even with experimental capsule collections. Most of such brands use only recyclable items as their production materials. This makes it possible to have any dead apparel inventory recycled and used for lots of varying purposes.
3. Making mail-to-order fashion a lot more accessible
Even though lots of varying apparel brands would love to turn towards the clothing-production model that is being discussed in this article, it can turn out a bit challenging to do it if you lack in-house production. This is as so many firms would not even agree to produce their fashion designs on a small scale level. Nevertheless, if your brand is not able to afford the truly heavy upfront costs needed to acquire the technology and equipment that is required to manufacture your own goods, then third party clothing manufacturer lists and platforms can help you to find factories that would be willing to bid on a batch that is rather small, production runs that meet just their lowest minimums, and thus save your own brand significant sums of money by making a made-to-order cycle of production a lot more realistic for all those who are involved.
In conclusion, even though there are a few others, these are the three foremost ways in which made to order apparel and fashion helps in tackling the fashion industry’s biggest sustainability problem. If your brand happens to be committed to sustainability as well as quality, then you should effect the switch to this mode of production cycle now, and bring an end to unneeded overproduction.
