The textile supply chain is broken. Borre Akkersdijk inventor of a digital tool to reduce sampling and waste: «Going digital is about democracy»
Overproduction. The presence of exceeding material in the textile industry
One of the most polluting industries is textiles and clothing. Its detrimental ecological footprint has been calculated to be more impactive than the one caused by international aviation and shipping. Because of the massive usage of resources implied—high energy, water and synthetic chemicals for dyeing— and the consequential textile waste dump and microfibres shedding into the environment and waterways. The system has corroborated over the years lengthy and over-industrialized supply chains and energy-intensive production methods that have never been doubted or subjected to change.
The supply chains usually occurring are geographically long and complex: they include growers, processors and sellers of raw fibers, yarns and textiles, industries dealing with the weaving and knitting, the dyeing and finishing, and lastly the manufacturers and distributors.
The textile production is still relying on coal for the most part
With the majority of the textile production happening in China, Indonesia and Bangladesh —whose sector is still relying on coal for the most part— and the transportation from a production point to another usually in developing countries, the textile industry generates roughly 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent, or nearly 10% of world GHG emissions according to the UNCCC, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
At least 15% of the output from the textile manufacturers is overproduced in case something in the production chain goes wrong or the coloring isn’t coming out the way it was ordered. So at the cost of overproducing and overspending the resources available, the industry is making a profit out of that.
Working on digitalizing the sector to improve efficiency
For centuries the Netherlands has held a rich and thriving textile culture and rooted tradition. Due to financial efficiency and the globalization of the textile sector, most of the Danish manufacturers moved abroad, especially to Eastern countries.
Clothing is still manufactured today but on smaller scales. BYBORRE Amsterdam-based textile company is producing textiles and garments working with digital equipment to make better use of raw materials, to waste less in all the steps in the between the production chain, to make it in proximity, avoiding added costs of shipping, energy and time. «There’s nothing that we use more than textiles. We are born, always wrapped in textiles for the rest of our lives and we are engaged with it». We spoke to BYBORRE Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer Borre Akkersdijk.
«The industry already scaled into the industrial revolution and did not go into the digital revolution because it had already taken all over the world. Most manufacturers are digitalizing their work, but only regarding the design phase. The supply chain is still un-digitalized and not fully transparent. It’s still made of people and machines. By digitalizing the supply chain you are making it fully transparent».
Digitizing all the steps in between manufacturing
Akkersdijk recalled that when he was starting in the industry, nobody was giving him access to understand every step of the production because every manufacturer claimed their own supply chain. Only big corporations have access to more responsible materials, and this is where the industry is broken. After years of researching for passion and involvement in the field, he raised his hand in the industry and met business partner Arnoud Haverlag, successful young entrepreneur that came from the tech industry.
When they started to work together the two realized how much their interests and their fields have so much in common. «Going digital is all about the long deal, it’s about democracy: the smaller users can have access to those same responsible materials and not just the few. We started by digitizing all the steps in between manufacturing: first we made a “What you see is what you get” editor, to be able to see what you are designing, with all the knowledge of the knitting machines and the yarns. Basically, everybody who can use Photoshop is able to design textile».
Producing from the designer’s perspective and not the other way around
BYBORRE works with several different machine manufacturers, and on the different outcomes. From single jersey, to double jersey, to filled double jersey, the one obtaining 3D structure. All these finishes can be controlled and designed within the boundaries of the machines, so the user is immediately able to see what the outcome is going to be (the reliability is close to 96%) and samples won’t be required.
The same happens with coloring too. «It’s a digital process that enables you to get the final outcome already accessible. If it’s about a basic combination of colors, you already know what it is going to be like: if you’re using red and blue, you already know it’s going to be purple, and it’s easy. But what if you mix eight different colors together all in different shades? It usually happens that you have to overproduce due to coloring, and we are changing that by doing optimal coloring instead of doing a different color each, according to what everybody wants. The editor gets you an answer and you also get to choose between different categories. We wanted to process from the designer’s perspective. A designer knows what product they’re going to make so they know what direction they are going to take. A designer knows how aesthetically it will look so they know the way they are going to design it. designer knows what finishing they want so they approach the adequate functionality».
A reduced amount of waste and unused textiles
When launching a project, whoever is in charge of the creation has complete control and insights over the design and production process. By using this online tool, the amount of waste and unused textiles are significantly reduced, as only the required meters for a specific product are creating on output.
BYBORRE offerings enable a transition between the digital and the tactile world. They feature a variety of 16 and 20gg circular knitting machines, a worldwide integrated production network and an instant access to a library of responsible textiles suitable for furniture, apparel, automotive, high-end fashion and streetwear. Their textile compositions range from recycled and zero-microplastic synthetics to natural fibers such as merino wool or bio cotton whose weights range from 150 to 1000 GSM.
Limited resources facing a shortage crisis. A problem of transparency
Not all the designers are able to design for themselves. They come to manufacturers making sure to point out what they are more selective about. The ultimate goal of an efficient supply chain management is to meet customers’ demand at the most convenient price-quantity rate provided at the right time, at the right location, and in the right condition. A serious commitment taken by BYBORRE to tackle waste diffusion is a service providing pre designed textiles with a fully transparent supply chain.
The Ready-to-order textile collection called CreateTM expands the toolkit for creators with 17 different textiles available in over 50 colourways, on request within ten days. Akkersdijk explained that every textile listed in their website comes with a passport that goes into the details of every information related to the raw materials the textile was built in —each one being carefully selected—, where the yarn was produced, the place where the shipping took place and all the steps in between, the environmental impact that the product made while being manufactured and transported and finally the benefits of recycled polyester against virgin material.
Quality is primarily driven by choosing material blends that support longevity
«Resources are not unlimited and we need to start learning where we can get them in order not to exploit them. The big realization now is that we need to be responsible for energy and the materials from the start. The system that we created for us, we are open sourcing it to other companies so they can put their DNA into what they are making and build things for the long run». BYBORRE’s open source mentality also led to the creation of WoTOTM — acronym for Window of textiles opportunities—, showcasing all the partners they are working with. The intent was to feature all the yarn suppliers, the needle suppliers, the packaging suppliers, the overarching wool company and all their collaborators, to give them a stage and not simply use them without mentioning their efforts.
BYBORRE
Dutch textile company. They are the first to have digitized and integrated all the steps of the textile supply chain to achieve full transparency.
