Apparel Technology is scientific art involving fashion techniques and designing for specific purposes. The garment industry is a significant contributor to the economies of many countries. The garment sector has been a crucial influencer for Pakistan. Countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Pakistan have continued to focus on producing low-cost garments primarily. This has proven to be a successful garmeny567t4t exporting strategy indicated in terms of the value of exports. The profit margins are higher in exporting ready-made garments instead of raw materials. According to the report of Statista, the global garment sector value was worth 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars in 2020 and is expected to reach about 2.25 trillion dollars by 2025. The net worth of the market highlights the importance of the apparel sector. The Apparel Industry consists of companies that design and sell clothing, footwear, and accessories. Product categories include everything from basics, such as underwear, to luxury items, for example, cashmere sweaters and alligator-skin handbags.
With the advancements in technology, the textile sector is getting maximum benefits. Similarly, the apparel sector has also equipped itself with cutting-edge tools to minimize wastage, source sustainable materials, and promote awareness among consumers to buy green. The advancements in the apparel sector have been driven by the big brands themselves like H&M, Adidas, Nike, Louis Vuitton, Mango, etc. These brands are constantly developing new concepts to increase their brand’s image and sales by offering new innovative products in the market. Significant advancements have been made to promote sustainability. For example, TRANZEND brand has introduced Ultra Shirt. Ultra Shirt, available from 17 Aug 2021, is a T-shirt made of grounded coffee. A thermal-regulated, motion-adaptive all-day shirt brings ultimate comfort and efficiency with advanced tech and design.
The importance of technology adoption in garment manufacturing has been highlighted as a critical element for garment producers to increase their efficiency and value addition. No doubt, the automation in the garment section could improve productivity and quality. However, according to International Labor Organization’s (ILO) latest report, the Asian garment industry has been slow in adopting new technology and innovation, partly due to low wages causing fewer incentives to do so, but also due to technical impediments financing gaps.
Talking about some recent innovative works, researchers have successfully created a shirt with conductive fibers as wearable sensors, one of the latest developments. The developed shirt was designed by the Brown School of Engineering lab of Matteo Pasquali at Rice University. They use the conductive nanotube threads stitched into regular apparel to add heart rate monitoring and continuous electrocardiogram (EKG) readings. According to the researchers, the threads are as conductive as metal wires but washable, comfortable, and far less likely to break when a body is in motion. A shirt enhanced with them has proved better at gathering data than a standard chest-strap monitor taking live measurements during experiments. When matched with commercial medical electrode monitors, the carbon nanotube shirt gave slightly better EKGs.
One of the highly appreciated advancements in the apparel section is the virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR) and AI-powered virtual fitting room solutions. The use of such technologies saves time, effort, fabrics and provides proper fit with body measurements. Otero Menswear is a men’s fashion lifestyle apparel brand that has conducted research and found that 93% of men have two different body types, each requiring a unique fit. Incorporating this with the ability to create a personalized avatar, Perfitly enables a user to “try on” a shirt and see a 360-degree rendering of their perfect fit before purchase, removing the guesswork and risk of purchasing online.
Internet of things (IoT) is one of the most exciting, emerging technological trends in the fashion market. The IoT describes a network of objects, the ‘things,’ embedded with technology to allow data exchange and connection over the internet. The Internet of Things (IoT) enables data sharing, inventory management, security, and increased efficiency and productivity. Many businesses consider IoT in improving their customer experience by allowing customers to take the internet and data sharing with them day-to-day literally. One of the exciting examples of the internet of things being incorporated in apparel is LOOMIA. The San Francisco-based textile company creates soft, flexible circuits embedded into textiles for heating, lighting, sensing, or data-tracking applications.
Smart clothing is driving the apparel sector. For example, the Hexoskin Smart Garments include textile sensors embedded into comfortable garments for precise and continuous cardiac, respiratory, and activity monitoring.
Hexoskin users can visualize, report, and analyze their data with the leading Hexoskin Connected Health Platform. The Hexoskin Smart Garments have been used in over 100 scientific publications, more than all the smart clothing competition combined.
3D printing is also advancing the apparel sector. Instead of 3D printing full items of clothing, 3D printers in fashion are used to supplement parts of a whole design, like embellishments, accessories, and buttons. The digitalization of the textile industry and further development of 3D/4D technology are leading to a significant change in the industry. Shortly, tailor-made products will become realistic for consumers, flexible production facilities will replace production at the point of sale, and innovative applications for functional and smart textiles will be developed. The environment also benefits from the elimination of transport routes and textile waste generated during production.
Highlights
• Use of the Artificial intelligence and IoT is on the rise
• Virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR) is changing the apparel sector
• Hexoskin smart garments could record vitals for 100+ days
