The fashion industry is organized around mass production—but not Unspun, which has spent the past four years figuring out how to make garments on demand, reducing overproduction and leaving no unused scraps of fabric. In November, it unveiled the result: a machine that 3-D-weaves yarn into a one-of-a-kind pair of jeans ($200–$215) tailored to fit individual buyers. Each made-to-order pair starts with a body scan (which can be done on an iPhone) capturing 30,000 data points to create a design in the fabric and style the customer chooses. Unspun then uses its topographical weaving machine to produce the jeans in just 10 minutes. Now, the company is partnering with other labels (including the H&M Group and Pangaia) to bring its technology to wider use under co-branded operations, and has plans to add other items as well.

The fashion industry emits over 3 Gt of CO2 annually. It unnecessarily makes over 100 billion garments per year. Many brands assume off the bat that 30% of what they will produce will go to landfill or incinerator without being sold. Why? Because the industry is set up on a push model, where product is made and then people buy it [maybe]. What unspun is doing is flipping this model, so that product is made on-demand when someone purchases it.

The production system ensures that there is no excess inventory and no waste when producing clothing. The invention creates a clear pathway toward circularity, with the opportunity to reuse yarn at the end of a product’s life. Excess inventory, material waste, and achieving circularity are enormous problems in the fashion industry, and unspun VEGA addresses all three.