Finnish startup SonofTailor received more than US$100,000 in funding through the fundraising platform Kickstarter. The funds were used to produce a “ZeroWaste” pullover sweater that uses 3D Weaving technology to prevent overproduction and eliminate textile scrap waste.
The company reached its fundraising goal of $14,800 on the Kickstarter platform within 40 minutes, and subsequently raised $104,573 before the fundraising deadline on November 22.
Jess Fleischer and Sten Martin Jonsson founded Sonofa Tailor in 2014, mainly providing customized production of men’s jackets. In addition to T-shirts of various designs, “zero waste” sweaters will also be customized this year.
Clothes are custom-woven and produced one-piece according to order. Customers must provide their weight, height, age and shoe size when placing an order. Based on various data collected from 30,000 men around the world, four standard algorithms for “perfect fit” are created. Sonsofa Tailor said this tailor-made fit ensures lower product return rates for customers.
SonofTailor, whose products are all manufactured in the EU, added that in 2018 alone, the garment industry is expected to generate 92 million tons of textile waste in terms of garment production and transportation. Carbon dioxide emissions account for about 10% of global emissions.
The report pointed out that traditional clothing production wastes up to about 21% of scraps in the cutting process. The SonofTailor method can reduce this waste to less than 1%. In addition, since each garment is made to order, the company does not keep inventory.
Fleischer added: The fashion industry must eventually rethink. The success of our Kickstarter campaign shows that consumers are ready for this: in the first 24 hours, over 400 people backed our jumper ‘zero waste’ initiative, making us the most popular Kickstarter in the fashion industry right now Plan scheme.
Sustainability is not an option. We need to change the negative impact of our consumption on the environment as quickly as possible, but this can only happen if all manufacturers rethink and operate their production lines in a more environmentally friendly way.
