{"id":5233,"date":"2019-09-06T17:38:20","date_gmt":"2019-09-06T17:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toddshelton.com\/blog\/?p=5233"},"modified":"2019-09-25T17:01:57","modified_gmt":"2019-09-25T17:01:57","slug":"fashions-unsustainable-clothing-manufacturers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toddshelton.com\/blog\/about-todd-shelton\/the-company\/fashions-unsustainable-clothing-manufacturers","title":{"rendered":"Fashion’s Unsustainable Clothing Manufacturers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"unsustainable<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Last year it was reported H&M, the Swedish fast fashion retailer, had a big problem. The clothing brand had $4.3 billion (that\u2019s billion with a B) in unsold inventory and the number was growing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

H&M manufactures hundreds of millions of garments every\nyear. It \u2018over-manufactures\u2019 so many garments that the company actually creates\nenergy in local Swedish incinerators by burning the unsold garments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clothing manufacturers like H&M, with insatiable appetites for growth, dominate fashion today. And each is over-manufacturing at epidemic levels \u2013 making more garments than the world\u2019s population could ever need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cost to manufacture clothing has become so cheap in developing countries that there\u2019s little risk for clothing manufacturers to overestimate purchase order quantities. It\u2019s just a numbers game. And brands know they have a safety hatch; once the price goes low enough, someone somewhere will buy it, and probably not for less than they paid for it. Or they can burn it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These corporations don\u2019t think about natural resources, pollution or labor abuses when writing purchase orders. Above all, they see numbers. Are they wrong? This is how business has been done for decades. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Unsustainable Way to Manufacture Clothing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The fashion industry uses inventory-based manufacturing. Fashion\nbrands forecast what customers will buy, it\u2019s rarely accurate and highly\nwasteful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Department stores, big stores, small stores \u2013 they all need to be packed with inventory to look attractive and healthy to shoppers. Imagine all the stores, all over the world, all packed with inventory. Meanwhile, only a fraction of what\u2019s in those stores is needed to serve a customer base or population. The rest is there to fill the store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As mentioned, clothing is so cheap to make, brands don\u2019t care about over-manufacturing. They know they can move the inventory through discounts and liquidation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This cavalier culture of over-manufacturing<\/a> has caused clothing production to double over the past 15 years. Subsequently, it\u2019s created the popularity of outlet malls, the success of third-party liquidators like TJ Maxx and Marshalls, and the need for more Goodwill shops. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inventory-based manufacturing, without regulation of supply\nand demand, is unsustainable. Every garment that is unnecessary manufactured has\na negative consequence on the environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clothing brands that use inventory-based manufacturing can take steps to be more sustainable by minimizing store size, focusing on selling products only within their core competency, and building quicker\/reactionary supply chains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sustainable Way to Manufacture Clothing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The most sustainable way to manufacture is also the most\nold-fashioned way; made-to-order. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Burke, chairman and chief executive of Louis Vuitton said this in a 2019 article<\/a>, \u201cThe ultimate destination of the luxury business is everything made-to-order. We\u2019ll never achieve it, but that\u2019s clearly where the market is headed.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On-demand manufacturing (a.k.a. made-to-order) is the\nopposite of inventory-based manufacturing. On-demand only makes a product when\na consumer requests it, there\u2019s no guessing. It maximizes efficiency and\nminimizes waste. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If clothing manufacturers shifted even a portion of production to on-demand, volume could be greatly reduced. This means the use of natural resources and pollution would be a fraction of what it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opponents of on-demand manufacturing would argue it\u2019s a pipe dream. Similar arguments were made and are still being made about electric cars and renewable energy. On-demand manufacturing is certainly a long way off. But it should be considered, as the current model is unsustainable.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some brands are already taking steps to slow waste. Brands\nare offering new items as \u2018pre-order\u2019 to gauge demand for products before committing\nto manufacturing. Other brands are looking to build faster supply-chains to react\nto replenish inventory more accurately and in smaller quantities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Todd Shelton operates a pure on-demand manufacturing\nmodel in its East Rutherford, New Jersey factory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have thoughts about this article or\nsustainable clothing manufacturing, we\u2019d love to hear from you. Please reach\nout to us at support@toddshelton.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year it was reported H&M, the Swedish fast fashion retailer, had a big problem. The clothing brand had $4.3 billion (that\u2019s billion with a B) in unsold inventory and the number was growing. H&M manufactures hundreds of millions of garments every year. It \u2018over-manufactures\u2019 so many garments that the company actually creates energy in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-about-todd-shelton","category-the-company"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFashion's Unsustainable Clothing Manufacturers - Todd Shelton Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The cost to manufacture clothing has become so cheap in developing countries that there\u2019s little risk for clothing manufacturers to over-produce garments.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/toddshelton.com\/blog\/about-todd-shelton\/the-company\/fashions-unsustainable-clothing-manufacturers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fashion's Unsustainable Clothing Manufacturers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The cost to manufacture clothing has become so cheap in developing countries that there\u2019s little risk for clothing manufacturers to over-produce garments.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/toddshelton.com\/blog\/about-todd-shelton\/the-company\/fashions-unsustainable-clothing-manufacturers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Todd Shelton Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/toddshelton\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-09-06T17:38:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-09-25T17:01:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/toddshelton.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2019_0919_unsustainable_feature.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"709\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"552\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Todd\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ToddSheltonUSA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ToddSheltonUSA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Todd\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/toddshelton.com\/blog\/about-todd-shelton\/the-company\/fashions-unsustainable-clothing-manufacturers\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/toddshelton.com\/blog\/about-todd-shelton\/the-company\/fashions-unsustainable-clothing-manufacturers\",\"name\":\"Fashion's Unsustainable Clothing Manufacturers - 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