Keith Hoover proposes a North Carolina consortium uniting yarn spinners, fabric makers, dyers, and brands to develop apparel innovations together, modeled after the 3D Robotics Consortium. A pilot plant would test ideas before scaling to factories worldwide, spreading risk across the supply chain instead of one company bearing it alone.
The University of North Carolina, NC State, is looking at the possibility of putting together a consortium of the entire apparel ecosystem, the yarn spinners, the fabric knitters, the dyers, as well as the brands. And the goal would be to do just that, where we'd put together proofs of concept and we would prove them out in a pilot plant in North Carolina, but then also identify bigger-scale factories around the world to scale it up, to see how it works, so that it's not on the shoulders of one factory or one brand alone to do this. We develop a pre-competitive approach to product development, much like 3DRC, and build the standards necessary to drive production. And I think that's what I would recommend any brand do, is look at ideas like that, but even if you're doing your own project, do it, close your eyes, pull the trigger.
