Locally Inspired Manufacturing – Design Dash Contest 2022

Author: Shoshana Burgett, Colorkarma and Pink Elephant Productions

At Colorkarma, we are strong supporters of the local-to-local movement focused on producing apparel and textiles in smaller batches closer to where they are needed. While there are many benefits of a global supply chain, the pandemic has exposed some cracks in the system. In fact, many brands are now looking at bringing back regional and bespoke manufacturing.

Today’s design and production technologies make it incredibly easy to produce clothing, home goods, and other textile products on demand. Designers and brands can work with local micro-factories to bring their designs to life and get them in the hands of local consumers.

To showcase this, ColorKarma, in partnership with Gerber Technology, is pleased to announce the 2022 Design Dash Contest. Inspired by the local-to-local movement, this year’s design contest is all about the napkin, a staple at farm-to-table restaurants.

Local to Local vs. Global Supply Chain

To better understand how transformative on demand manufacturing can be, it’s important to look at how things are currently done.

Most apparel and footwear designs take anywhere from 1-2 years from inception to production to consumer. Just consider color –

A design team working on a new collection, specifies the product specs using a tech-pack or Product Lifecycle Management software (PLM) system. This goes to suppliers for manufacturing of the finished good. Orders are typically placed in large volumes manufactured by overseas suppliers. For a retail brand, the design to manufacturing process can take on average eighteen months or six months for fast fashion. However, it is a slow and, in many ways, archaic process.

Todays Design Manufacturing Workflow.

These brands collaborate with their global suppliers using PLM systems and daily calls across multiple time zones. It is common practice to send people on-site to these regions for weeks or months to be the eyes and ears to secure the brand’s quality and design aesthetics needed.

There are many problems with this process:

Slow – This process is slow and time consuming especially in a market that is looking for efficiency needs to improve time to market.
Inventory Planning – Trying to predict volumes and consumer demands 2-years in advance requires a Ouija board.
Quality – To keep costs down, brands find new ways to streamline, and quality is often sacrificed. For those that disagree, look at apparel or footwear from twenty years and compare today. I have a pair of Italian shoes made thirty years ago that are still in good condition.
Inventory Management – Global warming has created unpredictable chaos in many regions. A warm winter can mean massive excess in inventory that needs to be reduced. A whole industry of discount stores has grown as a direct result of this challenge.

Now consider what a local-to-local manufacturing process might look like for apparel/footwear brands.

The Future Design Manufacturing Workflow.

Raw materials like cloth, form factors for shoes, shoelaces, threads, zippers, etc. are ordered either overseas or from local suppliers. These items are distributed across regional micro-factories. A micro-factory is a small manufacturing system with automation. It can consist of a digital textile printer, a textile cutter, a high-speed assembly device, or other items. The facility can be less than 1,000 square feet depending on the products. These micro-factories reside in regions close to where demand is. They take the raw material and print, cut and sew to meet local demand. One example is Gerber Technology’s micro-factory in New York City.

This approach has several positive impacts to the supply chain.

Inventory Costs – Local to local manufacturing lowers inventory losses, as micro-factories produce only what is needed where it is needed.
Regional Variations – Brands can produce apparel and footwear products that support the color and aesthetics of the region.
Environmental Impact -Textile is one of the worst pollutants, with massive negative impacts to the environment. Newer technology uses less water to produce, less oil to ship, and less destructive to our
Streamlines the supply chain – Instead of relying on a few big manufactures of finished goods overseas, brands have a larger network of local suppliers and can be nimbler and more flexible, shifting demand to where it is needed.
Innovation – Fashion is creative but not necessarily innovative. There are materials that warm our bodies, move to music, emulate lenticular and create image shifting designs. Innovation comes from stepping out of the comfort of process and exploring new technology, materials, and tools.

Design Dash – Creativity in Action

Bringing technology closer to design and material teams allows people to explore, experiment and innovate. That is what inspired Design Dash.

Colorkarma, in partnership with Gerber Technology, launched its first Design Dash in 2020, providing a platform for creatives to explore designing a product and seeing it in production. In 2020, we focused on masks. One hundred designers saw their designs come to life at Gerber Technology’s micro-factory in New York. Products were sold for a limited time on Colorkarma and produced in New York. The minimum production volume was one. The discussions and ideas that came from that experiment planted seeds in many young designers’ minds.

For Design Dash 2022 we are focused on the table napkin. It seems simple, with its 16″ x 16″ shape, but a napkin is part of a set. It can be a set of two, four, even twelve. A table napkin can be a statement piece or tell a story. No matter what you decide, it will make for great dinner conversations.