Retailer Involvement in Sustainability and Demand for Sustainable Apparel and Textiles from South Africa

South Africa\u27s textile and apparel industries are struggling to rebuild after a period of weak investment during Apartheid and increasing competition from imports. One outcome was vertical disintegration where suppliers that had previously operated plants handling spinning through made-ups, dropped some operations. A recent investment of South Africa\u27s Clothing & Textile Competitiveness Programme was a Sustainable Cotton Cluster (SCC) that aims to reintegrate a supply chain that includes all nodes of the chain from cotton farmers through retail. The purpose of this research was to understand the extent of retailer involvement in sustainability and their demand for sustainable apparel and textile products from South Africa. Comparative case study research included four retailers that operate stores in South Africa. The Sustainable Apparel Coalition\u27s Higg 2.0 Brand Modules (environment and social/labor) were used as a foundational framework. These modules measure sustainability performance based on a company\u27s efforts on environmental and social/labor challenges

Mycelium Afoot: Fashioning Sustainable Footwear

Concept: Mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms, has been used to make composite materials for applications including packaging, construction bricks, and shoe soles (Holt et al., 2012; Boyer, 2014; Jiang, Walczyk, McIntyre, & Chan, 2016). Grown on agricultural byproducts, mycelium acts as a natural binder, digesting and bonding to the surface of damp substrates as it grows (Jiang et al., 2016). Since all of the raw materials are natural, the mycelium composite is fully biodegradable (Holt et al., 2012). The purpose of this research was to develop and evaluate mushroom mycelium composites that have a potential application for shoe soles. To offer a solution to problems of waste, pollution, human health concerns, and resource depletion, this research incorporated exclusively natural and non-toxic materials, and many of the inputs were locally sourced. As previous studies focused on conservative footwear for men (Nam & Lee, 2016, Cao et al., 2014). The design challenge was to develop feminine footwear based on our target market of a college-aged woman between 18 and 25. We chose the format of a strappy fashion sandal with a cork-like shoe sole

Fashion Prototypes Made from Environmentally Friendly Leather Substitute (Eco-Leather)

To provide apparel and footwear industry with environmentally friendly materials, new breathable composites, eco-leather, were developed from natural fiber textiles and renewable, plant-based fatty acids. Human subject survey, focus group and wear tests were designed to evaluate the user’s acceptance of eco-leather and fashion prototypes

Physical to Virtual: Optimizing the Apparel Product Development Process to Reduce Solid Waste in Apparel

The apparel giant Nike (2013) defines waste as any product or material purchased anywhere in the supply chain that does not ultimately end up in the consumer\u27s closet. This definition includes non-product waste (such as packaging), manufacturing waste (such as scrap material in contract factories) and product waste such as samples. In addition to textile waste from the cutting room and post-consumption, apparel sampling can also generate a huge amount of textile waste. A major apparel brand would easily have millions of product samples each year, which may become textile waste.The purpose of this project was to focus on using virtual prototyping as an alternative to waste generated in physical apparel sampling. Many types of materials are used in apparel products, and each material has different environmental impact. Sustainable Apparel Coalition has developed material sustainability index (MSI) that can help companies choose the most sustainable textile materials. We sought to mesh the possibilities of virtual prototyping with MSI data, using version 2 of the MSI tool

Sustainable Auto Worker Uniforms: Lessons Learned from Applying a Sustainable ProductDevelopment Tool

Sustainability in the apparel industry will be achieved by improving environmental and socially responsible practices and performance (Dickson, Loker, & Eckman, 2009). In 2011, a group of leading apparel companies (brands and retailers), suppliers, and non-profit organizations founded the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC, www.apparelcoalition.org), intending to reduce the environmental and social impacts of the apparel and footwear industry and make the industry sustainable

A Comparison between Consumer and Industry Perspectives on Sustainable Practices throughout the Apparel Product Lifecycle

The apparel and textile industry creates significant environmental impacts in product lifecycle. Companies use tools such as Higg Index to measure sustainable performance in different stages of product lifecycle. The purpose of this study was to investigate consumer preference of apparel industry's sustainable practices throughout product lifecycle and whether consumers were willing to pay a premium for these practices. The Brand Environmental Module of Higg Index was used as the benchmark of industry's perspective and an online survey was used to collect consumers' purchase preferences. It was found that apparel industry and consumers have different perspectives on the importance of sustainable practices in different stages of product lifecycle. Furthermore, consumers' willingness to pay a premium on industry's sustainable practices did not match with the industry's perspectives. The findings indicated that Higg Index's overall weight distribution may be reconsidered, and companies should reallocate their resources across different stages in product lifecycle.</p