When one thinks of excess in the fashion world, the mind may jump to overpaid models in haute couture on the runways of Paris and New York. However, the real excess of the industry happens away from the glare of the cameras, in the textile factories, shop floors and online stores where clothes are produced and consumed in their millions.
Outsourcing clothes production to China and South Asia has driven costs down dramatically, fuelling the rise of fast fashion and brands such as Boohoo and Shein. It’s a boom that has seen textile consumption rising 400 per cent over the past 20 years, accompanied by an enormous increase in the environmental damage associated with fashion.
While technology has been adopted incrementally, textile production has remained fundamentally unchanged since the invention of the power loom during the Industrial Revolution. Each year, the sector uses 215 trillion litres of water, accounting for around 20 per cent of industrial wastewater pollution worldwide. Between manufacture, dyeing, transport and waste, it’s estimated that the fashion industry is responsible for around 8 per cent of global emissions – more than aviation and shipping combined.
Having witnessed how the industry operated from the inside, tech founder Trine Young saw few signs of change, so set about driving that change herself. In contrast to the established model where waste is endemic, Young’s startup Rodinia Generation cuts and prints textiles to order, using zero water and minimising materials waste. It’s claimed the technology can reduce a garment’s carbon footprint by up to 40 per cent.
“I’m a fashion designer turned tech entrepreneur, which is, I guess, quite unusual,” Young told The Engineer.
“I spent a long time considering how we move forward in this industry. The changes that I wanted to see for the industry, I couldn’t make them happen from inside the hamster wheel, because I would be long gone and dead before we actually accomplished anything.”
Adapting lean processes for textiles
Having briefly worked as a designer, Young stepped away from the hamster wheel to search for an antidote to fashion’s environmental havoc. That search took her to Germany’s industrial heartland, where she explored how lean processes in automotive and manufacturing could be adapted for textiles. In particular, Young saw the potential in industrial cutting and dyeing machines, equipment that would form the backbone of Rodinia’s technology platform. Integrating the two core components was a key early challenge.
“We found a way to sort of bring the puzzle pieces together, as they were pretty incompatible in the beginning,” said Young. “These two major machines are a digital printer and a digital cutter, and they really hate each other…they really did not want to cooperate.
“We needed to sort of mould them into, fitting together… so we decided to build our own code… without this software, we wouldn’t be able to control and run the machines.”
As well as writing code to integrate the printer and cutter, Rodinia developed bespoke hardware to smooth operations between the equipment. Known as translators, they physically sit between the two machines and enable them to interact during the manufacturing process.
“One of the components that we are currently finalising right now, which is also a translator component, is a robotic sorting solution,” Young explained.
“So it’s a solution that ensures that once the cutter is finished with this process, then the textile modules are cut into pieces instead of on a roll, and they will be handed over to a robotic pick-and-sort system that, again, will need another translating system that will hand it over to the assembly line. That’s where we kind of stitch everything together to become finalised garments.”
Traditional garment factories need a footprint of around 2,000 sqm and use nearly 150 million litres of water to produce 700,000 garments. Rodinia’s microfactories can deliver that same output with a physical footprint of just 200 sqm. The fully dry manufacturing process uses no water or dyes, enhancing its environmental credentials.
“It’s 200 square meters and 15 tons of machine. So it’s very compact,” said Young. “Obviously, we use electricity. So it’s not a zero carbon footprint process.
“But if we take the entire garment, also considering the cotton fields and so on, using this technology compared to the conventional (methods) will reduce a garment’s footprint by 40 per cent.”
When Young travelled to Germany to first test the industrial cutters, she was surprised at their versatility and ability to handle a wide variety of textiles. The upshot is that Rodinia’s technology platform can be used on a broad range of materials, a departure from traditional clothes manufacturing where specialised equipment is needed for different fabrics.
“What really amazed me was the fact that you didn’t have to choose your application and your hardware,” said Young.
“Today you would need specific machines for, let’s say, silk, specific chemicals for silk. If you want to use something else, you need to change your equipment, need to change your chemicals and so on. In this case, we don’t have to.”
Inside Rodinia’s microfactory
Rodinia’s first microfactory was set up in Copenhagen in 2021, where individual garment patterns and sleeves are printed and cut. Currently, these various components are then shipped to Lithuania, where seamsters assemble them into finished articles of clothing. According to Young, a second microfactory will seek to collocate manufacture and stitching, making Lithuania a strong contender for hosting the facility.
“So that’s the next step, and that will be in 2025 that we will open up this full-scale production line, having all the seamstresses situated as well,” she said.
“We actually haven’t settled 100 per cent on the location yet, but it would obviously make sense to work with a partner that we know well, and we have been working with our Lithuanian partner for years now.”
Alongside the environmental impact of fashion, the industry has long been associated with poor working conditions, with sweatshops and child labour prevalent across its supply chain. Young says Rodinia’s technology can mitigate this to some degree, helping move clothes production closer to the point of consumption, while still retaining vital jobs in garment assembly.
“We need to make sure that the new technologies are sustaining the workplaces rather than replacing them,” she said. “So our idea…is that we’ll use technology to aid and enhance the quality of those jobs.”
The skilled labour of seamsters is still essential – stock.adobe.com
Due to the complexity of assembly, the skilled labour of seamsters is still essential, and Young doesn’t see that changing any time soon.
“It’s super, super difficult to automate (final assembly), especially garments,” she said. “Because textiles are so lively, they act very differently, especially when they’re not flat, when they’re hanging up in the air. And our body is not flat or linear. It’s very, you know, round and organic.”
Rodinia has enjoyed success as a startup, working with sportswear brand Hummel, fashion label Mads Nørgaard Copenhagen and children’s clothing brand Wheat. Environmentally conscious consumers are a growing cohort, but they’re dwarfed by the overall scale of the fashion industry and its runaway consumption. While Rodinia can’t address all of the sector’s excesses, it offers a ray of hope for a future where production is significantly less wasteful.
“I think right now, the industry is looking for solutions and they are looking for help,” said Young.
“We’re saying here’s an actual solution that you can use today, and you will see that this makes things better. It won’t save you completely. You need to do that yourself, but it will help you to get tangible results.”
