Global and Local Manufacturing

Throughout the twentieth century, most of what Americans wore was made in the U.S. (Novellino, 2015). Legislation - such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) - erased import duties, and by the 1990s, less than 3 percent of the clothing worn in the United States was American-made (Clifford, 2013; Novellino, 2015). To remain competitive, U.S. retailers relocated their manufacturing overseas where labor was less expensive and environmental protection and human rights laws were lax. Retailers were then able to offer cheaper clothing, resulting in higher sales volumes and accelerated manufacturing that met inflated demand (Kunz & Garner, 2011).

After the shift to overseas manufacturing, access to extensive fashion imagery on Inter-net search engines worldwide has permanently sped up the rate of visual consumption. This imagery, accessible around the world, creates a heightened awareness and subsequent demand for fashion from viewers. This has led to unprecedented rates of consumption that retailers respond to with great zeal. Fast-fashion retailers, including Zara, Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), and Forever 21, use “just-in-time” or “postponement manufacturing” practices (Christopher, 2000), as well as “on-the-floor” and social-media sales intelligence that mitigates the impact of the shifting balance of price-versus-style demands (Chaudhry Hodge, 2012; Christopher, 2000). Additionally, these retailers stimulate consumption by using short runs to engender a sense of scarcity and “grab it while you can” consumer psychology. For example, Zara delivers a new shipment of merchandise every two weeks, thus increasing sell rates, decreasing overstocks, and forcing sale prices (Christopher, 2000).

Many industry researchers and analysts predict the acceleration of the fashion cycle will only increase, and that customers will expect increased customization (Amed, Berg, Brantberg, Hedrich, Leon, & Young, 2016). Simultaneously, as these fast-fashion retailers and manufacturers compete to be faster in style turnover, they must also lower prices to stay competitive. Consumers now pay less for more clothing (Kunz & Garner, 2011). This fact alone suggests a finite time period before costs outweigh financial returns (Joy, Sherry, Venkatesh, Wang, & Chan, 2012; Jung & Jin, 2014) and, indeed, in 2016 the fashion industry suffered another year of slight sales growth, slowing to a mere 2 to 3 percent (Amed et al., 2016).

Unmitigated consumption, driven by style websites, blogs, and the very nature of fast-fashion apparel itself, increasingly calls into question what we have traditionally seen as trends. Trends have always marked time in fashion (e.g. flappers in the 1920s and the miniskirt in the 1960s), yet as the Internet catalogues an infinite simulacrum of fashion images, time is rendered irrelevant. Similarly, place -or time as it relates to place- is no longer meaningful since international fashion brands are required to concurrently create items for diverse international marketplaces. Design houses routinely feature a range of fabrics to service all seasons in all parts of the globe, within one collection or seasonal delivery. All fashion companies -from those in the high luxury markets to the most inexpensive fast-fashion retailers- have unmitigated expectations of constant, fast-paced aesthetic changes. This “break-neck” pace of the global fashion industry promotes subjective obsolescence and decreases the probability of true innovation beyond its most basic form. Several initiatives and trends fomenting within the cultural zeitgeist point to new opportunities for change (Soper, 2008; Shah, 2013). Traditional paradigms -such as those of the automobile industry- have shifted, allowing specific innovations or workload allocation to diffuse to local sites rather than a single manufacturing center (Florida, 2002). Food retail shops or restaurants selling produce from international, national, and local sources satisfy local tastes, and offset overhead costs and supply needs while lessening their carbon footprint. Local products inspiring deep loyalty and pride within the U.S. can be seen in the ascendance of craft beer within the American market. Nielsen, the global measurement and data analytics company, states the “dollar sales growth in the craft realm ranged between just over 15% to just over 18% from 2013 through early 2016, well above the 1.3% - 3.5% posted by the overall beer category (excluding flavored malt beverages, ciders and seltzers)” (Nielsen, n.p.).

The slogan “Buy Local” initially may have referred to locally produced food or handmade products, but is now used for clothing and fashion products as well. Web directories and services, such as Maker’s Row, connect local manufacturing or production services with entrepreneurial designers. Several incubation and accelerator programs promote new approaches to retail, start-ups, and artisanal product manufacturing. Many easily accessed documentaries and books also highlight the environmental and social concerns associated with the fashion industry. Consumers, therefore, are increasingly being asked to consider the ethics of purchasing, and the implications of unmitigated consumerism of fast-fashion apparel made in environmentally and/or socially harmful conditions (Soper, 2008; Fletcher, 2008).

Need for Change

The global fashion industry is ever changing, due to increasing environmental and social issues. These issues are, in turn, coupled with decreasing profitability. This combination creates opportunities for a reimagined set of best practices. Advances in communication, information, and manufacturing technologies have facilitated a change in the geography of production (Labrianidis, Kalantaridis, & Dunford 2011) from the U.S. outward. Centralized manufacturing and trade from one, singular urban center -as was the case of New York City’s Garment District- is no longer useful due to its relative unprofitability.

Global fashion capitals, such as New York, Milan, or Paris, are no longer the monoliths of design. Traditionally, creative resources -such as visual imagery- have been found almost exclusively in physical locations, such as museums, galleries, and shops. Now, online resources such as Google, Pinterest, and YouTube are free and accessible to anyone, located virtually anywhere on Earth. These Internet-based fashion hubs offer audiences tremendous opportunities to find inspiration. They enable creative individuals around the world to inspire others and instigate new trends. There are now viable opportunities to offer a wider spectrum of choice, both to those working in the fashion industry and to the consumers who buy from it.

The need for greater efficiency and agility is a compelling argument (Hagerty & Magnier, 2015) for the development of more efficient systems of design, production, distribution, and disposal. A company’s economic longevity is intricately tied to its ability to facilitate consistent change in products and processes, and generate new opportunities based on constant communications with their customers (Florida 2002). These demands of efficiency dictate a revaluation of traditional practices in the fashion industry that increasingly strain the environment.

One example of the inefficient practices that concurrently result in environmental damage is that of cotton production in Texas. The U.S. state is the leading cotton-producing state in the nation and the global market, having produced 16 million bales of cotton in 2014 (Novellino, 2015). Despite this rich, local resource, the U.S. ships most of its cotton over-seas to be made into textiles, apparel, and other products. The goods are shipped back to the U.S. for Americans to purchase. Once these products are discarded, most of goods that are not discarded as trash are shipped to developing countries as second-hand clothing (Fletcher, 2008). Throughout the current set of supply chain practices, efficiency and agility are increasingly harder to achieve, due in part to the mammoth scale of the industry and its hyper-accelerated speed that prioritizes output and delivery over best sustainable practices and waste reduction. This realization has inspired many to consider alternative ways of doing business.

Product Service Systems

Product Service Systems (PSS) are an extension of service and potential contact beyond a product’s point of sale. PSS as a business concept has been around since the 1990s. Since then, PSS has had increasing applications within the fashion industry (Cheschin, 2013; Vezzoli, Chechin, Diehl & Kohtala, 2015). PSS is closely connected to increased attention to the user experience and creative narrative of a brand in support of differentiation within the competitive product market (Jacob & Ulaga, 2008). It has been pointed out that PSS does not guarantee sustainable practice and, in fact, has the potential to exacerbate the very issues around sustainability (Rexfelt & Hiort af Ornäs, 2009; Ceschin, 2013).

The Sustainable Product Service Systems (SPSS) that have thus far been proposed have focused on renting, redesign or alterations, co-design, and wardrobe consultation as well as “take back” disposal (Armstrong et al., 2014; Gelbmann & Hammerl, 2015). However, initial consumer perceptions and receptivity investigations into SPSS suggest that many consumers are hesitant to adopt SPSS due to perceived decreases in usability, or an increase of costs, and a sense of unfamiliarity with how any of these services might work within the supply chain (Armstrong, Niinimäki, Kujala, Karell, & Lang, 2014; Vezzoli et al., 2015). As SPSS becomes a greater part of the market, and with a significant increase in its available advantages, this hesitation is expected to lessen. There is also strong evidence that there are many internal barriers within existing companies to SPSS, since it means financial investment in major reorganizations of production, distribution, and disposal systems, as well as requiring a shift in mindset among market participants (Martinez, Bastl, Kingston, & Evans, 2009; Vezzoli et al., 2015). The authors believe the proposed SPSS offers a distinct advantage to the next generation of designers, retailers, and the fashion industry.

Sustainable Product Service System Proposal

A primary objective of SPSS would be to reduce the extent of carbon footprint produced through the manufacturing and distribution of products. To achieve this, an SPSS would require several geographically dispersed hubs, or outposts, most likely in larger cities for ideal operation. These hubs would feature design departments, production rooms, manufacturing, retail, and “take-back centers” that would enable a closed-loop system within the market. Through SPSS, market participants would have a greater sense of connection between consumer, designer, and manufacturer (Vezzoli et al., 2015). Further, an SPSS that is specific to the community or region would encourage trust due to the greater sense of transparency, access, and collaboration it provides consumers. The local SPSS will also be an essential part of sustainable consumption behavior since tangible environmental damage or social malfeasance is harder to ignore, as was recently shown through a study conducted in New Zealand (Lee, Levy, Fen & Yap, 2015). It is essential however that the cost associated with any SPSS would not be prohibitive and would rely on alternative or different modes of production.

Mudambi (2008) notes that vertical integration of manufacturing processes within one locality is a crucial attribute for market participants to gain future competitive advantages. Currently, local small businesses, which usually have a slower rate of fashion production, cannot take advantage of the larger resource savings resulting from the economies of scale inherent in SPSS (Jung & Jin, 2014). This concept can be illustrated with the example of a proposed SPSS structure that spans several U.S. states, supports the macro-acquisition of goods related to scale, and additionally enables interaction on a micro-level with consumers and communities. In such an SPSS structure, greige (undyed) fabric, equipment, machines, and other overhead costs would be consolidated to achieve greater savings and efficiencies due to economies of scale. Each hub would interact as links in the web of a national brand, yet serve as local, individualized places.

The SPSS focus on dispersing apparel production would also benefit external and sup-porting businesses within each included community. Evidence suggests that the advancement and economic sustainability of any community is predicated on new businesses or high-tech industry fostering industrial linkages with both business markets and government, and alternative business structures within a larger infrastructure (Glasmeier, 1988). As an example of these types of linkages, McRobbie (2013) cites government initiatives in Berlin which provide training and education around product creation to underrepresented and migrant populations. As a result, these workers became productive members of society while also supporting burgeoning fashion enterprises which contribute to Berlin’s overall economy. A strong, viable community and economy demands environmentally and socially sustainable best practices that must be fundamentally inherent in any new fashion business (Fiksel, 2003). The essential factor in a future sustainable fashion system is that those very same populations that have traditionally worked in low-wage or dangerous conditions would be able to take on greater responsibilities, with a wider set of creative contributions, and with increased wages.

Educational Needs in Support of SPSS

As the fashion industry is being forced to meet the new construct of declining natural resources, increasing environmental pollution and climate change, as well as an increased interest in accountability by customers, so too must higher education in fashion programs consider how best to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century (Wolf & Rhee, 2009). Traditional design programs rooted in Bauhaus ideologies must give way to advanced curricula that promotes a greater understanding of the interconnectivity design plays in the world. Lydia Matthews, Professor of Visual Culture at Parsons School of Design, describes this new direction by stating:

[Designers] recognize that they need to have an understanding of world systems, whether they’re economic, social, ethnographic, or cultural. At the same time, social scientists (…) are beginning to understand that the systems they work with are in fact designed and that there’s a fundamental need to communicate visually and materially across cultures and in a globalized condition (Agid, 2008, p. 13).

To support this need -particularly in context of SPSSs- new initiatives in design education must increasingly prioritize curricula that prepare students for their new role -from one who is a “style dictator” to one that works collaboratively in cross-disciplinary teams. Disciplinary overlaps and adjacencies will allow students to better understand how their practice and skillsets situate themselves within a broader context. Simultaneously, the approach will also allow the designer to interface with new methodologies that may then be synthesized with their own specific approaches. A more porous relationship with other fields must occur in order for students to look beyond the traditional “silo” of fashion design. As Zimmerman (2003) notes:

While design research comes in many forms, ranging from quantitative market research to personal interviews, experimental design analysis and qualitative research, it also represents a willingness to look beyond the immediate concern of crafting a project, as well as an openness to integrating new insights into the design process itself (p. 25).

Thus, the design and business students who have traditionally worked in different spaces -the literal and the figural- must coalesce if the fashion industry is to develop and implement successful SPSSs. The design students will come to understand marketing, consumer relations, and business systems. The business students will gain insights into fashion-specific design processes, sustainability in the garment-making context, and required resources. This shared understanding of the other’s discipline, and attendant problems that need solutions, will generate more thoughtful proposals for increasingly successful outcomes.

The authors believe a key principle in this educational model that supports SPSSs will be curricula that teaches students the vital, participatory role consumers can play. In our over-abundant and hyper-accelerated world, consumer behaviors have changed exponentially. The over-abundance of the marketplace requires designers to discover the emotional needs of their audience, rather than solely the material needs that have been met, and even over-met (Pink, 2005). Given the increasingly active role the consumer plays -and the decreased role the designer plays as “design dictator”- it is essential for students to be taught how to actively listen and absorb information from their audience while also providing leadership around design problems.

Design education must therefore instill a new series of attributes in students that move well beyond technical acumen and aesthetics. These traits include a consistent openness to design thinking and strategy, and the ability to rely on fundamentally shifting constraints, opportunities, and solutions due to developments in technology and sustainable practices (Wolf & Rhee, 2009). Students and professionals will have to “comprehend both the problem and the context of the problem and how to design or create solutions that are efficiently and aesthetically desirable for the community” (Van Zandt, 2011, n.p.). There will be a new generation of graduates who possess broader interdisciplinary knowledge with which they can “understand the socio-cultural, political and commercial implications that design can have in the society, and not only the immediate aesthetic, functional and/or structural applications of design” (Muratovski, 2010, p. 385).

Conclusion

The prescient vision of the fashion industry is shaped by the duality of clear social and environmental harm with the capacity of innovation, change, and motivation to design a better world. This paper considers ways that could engage communities to consider clothing production much like food consumption. The slow food movement encourages local organic farming, thoughtful consumption, and methods of creating more closed loop systems (such as composting). These farmers and farmers’ markets encourage community participation and transparency. So too can the consumable product of clothing become locally based with greater concern for the environment and the people it serves.

The proposed Sustainable Product Service System would create a locally considered space that promotes sitespecific design, manufacturing, and retail in conjunction with a global perspective, presence, and digital distribution of ideas. The capability of creating such a system is possible; the technology is present and the business systems currently employed are successful. As such, the authors’ proposal is an amalgamation of existing concepts and practices that are brought together for a more efficient and beneficial purpose. Supply chain resources would be consolidated for more efficient distribution using the same postponement policies used by Zara. Digital and technological applications within the supply chain would allow a considered approach to individual sales as well as a continued connection to any specific consumer. This proposal seeks to be a part of the community, generating local economies and tailored products that better target and meet consumers’ needs. Transparency, education, and interaction would enable designers, manufacturers, and retailers to not only encourage consumers to be more thoughtful consumers, but to also have a better idea of what consumers truly want. Thus, the authors’ proposal is part of a widespread desire to ameliorate the destructive practices of the fashion industry while continuing a profitable and thriving industry.