Step into a store like H&M and you’ll be greeted by a seemingly endless amount of clothing. It’s enough to make anyone wonder how it could all be purchased and used, and the short answer is that a lot isn’t.

Add that to the amount of clothing people throw away each year, and you end up with heaps of unwanted garments sitting in landfills. The EPA estimated that 11.3 million tons of municipal solid waste textiles, the main source of which is discarded clothing, ended up in landfills in 2018.

Additionally, the fashion industry accounts for 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and is on track to reach 25 percent by 2050. But several emerging technologies and models could help make clothing production more sustainable.

The challenge in predicting consumer demands

A majority of apparel companies follow a push supply chain model, meaning that they produce goods based on anticipated consumer demand. In a push supply system, companies predict what consumers will want well while accounting for differing sizes, weather forecasts and more.

“There’s no way we can anticipate who will buy what in what color, what design, what size,” Byoungho Ellie Jin said. “There’s no way to identify the demand accurately.”

Jin is the Albert Myers Distinguished Professor of Textile Economics and Management at North Carolina State University. She studies innovation within the textile and apparel industry. Jin said compared to other industries, it’s a challenge to forecast fashion demands.

“Think about other products, like an automobile or computer; the size doesn’t matter and there’s not much color variation, not much fabric variation,” Jin said. “But in apparel — fabric, design and color — those should be all different.”

The fickle nature of clothing demands has led to fast fashion practices in which manufacturers produce a surplus of lower quality clothing. Not only do many items go unsold, but those that actually make it into consumers’ hands aren’t made to last.

Improving the fashion forecast

To improve forecasting and decrease waste, researchers are exploring artificial intelligence that can recognize patterns in a large amount of data.

“With AI, we can develop more detailed, more accurate demand estimation that will result in huge impacts on the environment,” Jin said.

Companies can use AI to look at data, like buying trends or best-selling items, to give real-time estimations on demand. Companies can do AI in-house or outsource it to businesses like True Fit, whose clients include Levi’s, Macy’s and Ralph Lauren.

Retailers also can avoid overstocking items by using augmented reality. Through AR technology, users can try on clothing without actually putting anything on.

Virtual reality, too, can provide feedback to stores about consumers’ shopping experiences. Jin said this could be especially useful for smaller businesses because VR could allow potential customers visit a store without leaving home. If shoppers see a store virtually and find it pleasant, they might be more likely to visit the actual premises.

Changing the Way We Produce Textiles

Researchers are also reconsidering how different fabrics are made, both in the materials used and the resources that production require.

For instance, some scientists suggest making clothing from textiles such as regenerated protein fibers that can be made from food waste.

A non-profit company based in North Carolina, Cotton Incorporated focuses on the supply chain. The company promotes research for sustainable practices in cotton production and new technologies for textile manufacturing.

Another innovation, 3D printing, has the potential to enhance mass personalization. Companies could employ this technology to print pattern pieces as needed, instead of cutting from regular fabric pieces, which creates unused scrap fabric.

Though still in experimental stages, 3D printing could localize manufacturing, shifting production back to the U.S. from overseas. It could also limit excess inventory by responding to customer demand rather than anticipating it ahead of the selling season. 

The Business of Sharing

Another practice that has become popular in multiple industries, including fashion, is collaborative consumption. Rather than typical sharing among friends or family, this model involves the renting, swapping, trading and borrowing of goods between strangers.

Apparel businesses using this model take the form of online fashion rental services, like Rent the Runway, and peer-to-peer platforms, such as Poshmark.

The collaborative consumption model has seen a lot of success, and researchers project that the online fashion rental industry will grow annually at a rate of about 10 percent, making it worth $1.95 billion by 2026.

One study showed almost 44 percent of U.S. adults were familiar with the concept of collaborative consumption, and 72 percent were willing to try it.

But collaborative consumption has potential pitfalls. Researchers have speculated that increased transactions — and thus, increased need for transport or packaging —  could eventually outweigh the benefits of decreased production.

Changing Consumers Want Changing Brands

Jin pointed out that buyers, especially younger ones, are beginning to focus more on the sustainability of their wardrobes. That attitude is part of what has sparked growth in rental service models, buying second-hand clothing and looking for expensive yet durable garments.

“The incumbent traditional retailers or apparel manufacturers who relied on traditional push supply chains — they need to reconsider their business model,” Jin said, “because consumers are very into sustainability and very concerned about saving the planet.”