What 3-D Printing Means for the Fashion and Retail Industries

3-D printing and what it means for the fashion and retail industries was the focus of a discussion that took place during the FashionWare session at CEWeek in New York City yesterday.

3-D printing in the fashion and retail space involves enabling consumers to purchase and download a design online and print it off at home. At the moment, designers mostly use the technology for prototyping, but printing real product gets closer to reality every day.

Consider Duann Scott, the designer evangelist at New York City-based Shapeways, a 3-D printing marketplace and community, who discussed how his company enables users to upload 3-D designs and then sell them online. Customers can choose from a plastic, ceramic or metal material, and they also have the ability to customize or personalize the products. Shapeways then prints the object in one of its factories in Long Island City, N.Y., or Eindhoven, Netherlands, and mails it to the customer. Shapeways tells designers how much it will cost to make their products, and then they can mark them up as much as they want. Merchandise available on Shapeways’ site includes bags, belts, wallets, gadgets, games, jewelry, among other items.

Shapeways isn’t the only 3-D printer, but it’s the largest and most well-known. According to an April 23 All Things Digital article, more than 10,000 people have sold over 1 million designs to more than 150,000 customers using Shapeways.

"3-D printing is perfect for fast iterations and custom forms," Scott said. "You can do a weave and a stitch and a mesh at the same time. In a sense you can bury the textile and as a result change the whole way the structure of the garment will work and how it will fit the body. You can make an item exactly fit one person and there's no additional cost for that customization. There's so much potential that hasn't been tapped into yet."

3-D printing also allows everything to be fabricated on demand, Scott said. There's no minimum order run and supply exactly meets demand. If you have an order for six of an item, for example, you can print just six; if you have an order for 6,000, then you can print 6,000. "There's no need for inventory, no excess stock, none of last year's line you need to sell at a discount," he said.

Scott also said the technology can change the way apparel is manufactured. "Instead of a sweatshop worker sewing a garment together, someone can make personalized, customized items sitting in front of their own computer writing code," he said. "This will drive better design."

Sensor-based technology and how it can be incorporated into fashion was discussed on the panel. Jef Holove, for example, the CEO at San Francisco-based BASIS Science, discussed his company's well-designed and fashion-forward heart and fitness monitors, the body monitoring phenomena, and how the various monitors consumers wear can all become indicative of a personal style.

"The affordability of sensors and the accessibility of cloud computing now gives us the opportunity to make improved, more desirable wearable technologies," Holove said. ''Customization is making this happen as well. We can create wearable technologies that can change based on your style or where you're going via sensors."

High-tech fabrics were also discussed during the session. Omar Rada, the CEO of Proof NY, a New York City-based manufacturer and seller of casual menswear made from Schoeller dryskin, a quick-drying fabric, was on the panel. He demonstrated how the fabric is water repellent by pouring a glass of water on the pair of Proof NY Nomad pants he was wearing (made with Schoeller dryskin). The water simply rolled off of the fabric.