They pitch this as the panacea to fast fashion, but surely the solution to fast fashion is just to not buy and throw away so many clothes? I don't believe we buy cheap clothes because we can't find good quality clothes that last, but because we like owning lots of clothes and keeping up with trends. When my last laptop broke I was kind of happy. I thought "ooh now I can upgrade to a shiny new laptop guilt-free". I think that's the real problem.

▲

paulluuk 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I bought a 200 dollar jacket and it had holes in it within months, just from regular use. I have an old 3 dollar shirt I bought years ago and it's only now beginning to show wear.

One problem this shows, is that as a consumer I have no idea what the hell is quality clothing. Clearly, expensive does not always mean high quality. And I'm not buying "brand" clothing either.

	▲	kace91 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Another problem is the dive to the bottom that the industry has suffered. Your experience is very common, I have a fake nike sweatshirt I bought more than a decade ago from a random street seller (emergency on a trip) which still outlasts current brand clothes. Consumers' ignorance is not the problem, it used to be generally true that the more expensive item was better. Every brand has seemingly decided to burn their furniture to heat the house though, and what we experience is not as much consumer ignorance as it is a lack of names deserving trust.
	▲	IAmBroom 6 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I've been trying to buy winter coats at end of season (coincidentally; not chasing sales), and one thing is consistent: fabric content is only hinted at. "Full wool" but "slightly stretchy" - possible with a broadcloth woven wool, but more likely "full"!=100%. "Cashmere" at prices that can (at best) be 10% cashmere, but might be 2% just to avoid outright fraud. I bought a really good-looking dark blue fedora; I received a really good-looking black fedora a size-and-a-1/2 too big. I had to fight them at the credit card level, because they offered me half off at best for a hat I can't wear. What is inconsistent: only some of them are fraudulent fronts. I'd guess about 25-50% right now, based on my recent shopping experiences. But not all: I ordered some expensive gloves; their advertised fit was wrong; we settled on 50% off (I /can/ wear them, but it's not ideal, and their return policy clearly required me to ship back). That firm had shite measurement guides, but honest merchant fronting. I've ordered super-cool button-front shirts that ended up being tissue-like fabric. Grrr... Speaking of fabric... Amazon folded Fabric.com into their Borg cube, and you CANNOT buy fabric by weight online - for some goddamn reason. I want to buy 100% white cotton for a play costume, and need it thicker - between sheeting and terrycloth; closer to the latter; Nothing else really matters to me about it. But can I determine the cloth thickness/weight? Nope. So: 50% swindlers; 75% idiots; buy clothes in person or else expect to throw a certain amount away.

▲

_flux 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

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.

▲

IAmBroom 4 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

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

▲

Cthulhu_ 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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.

▲

Perseids an hour ago | parent | next [-]

> 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.

▲

reverius42 an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

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 5 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		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.)

▲

poszlem an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

If "the solution" depends on people changing their behaviour on their own (ideally by lowering their expectations/do the harder thing/etc), it is almost never "the solution". It is usually just wishful thinking.

▲

starvar2 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Honestly, even "good" brands seem to make a lot of low quality items these days. I honestly find it hard to find good, lasting, clothes.

▲

Zababa 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> surely the solution to fast fashion is just to not buy and throw away so many clothes?

"just don't do X" has basically never worked, it is not a serious solution to any problem.