Supporting MAAP in crafting bike collection made fully of leftover fabric

In this collaborative project, LTP’s objectives have been to: 

·     Reduce the overall fabric waste from our production; 

·     Showcase the neglected value which lies in leftover fabric; 

·     Invite more brands to follow MAAP’s example.  

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This project falls under our sustainability commitment: “Embrace Durability & Circularity”. 

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For a garment manufacturer there are pros and cons to reuse leftover fabric for new collections. While the environmental benefit is clear, the business implications are diverse. The direct business benefit is to free up space in stocks and to reduce costs for waste handling. It however takes much more time to design and construct a garment made of roll ends from the brand side and the manufacturer side. In such projects the design of the garment must adapt to the leftover fabric which is available, which implies a reverse design process and less flexibility in style development.  

Making such a process efficient, requires practical experience from design and development teams, but also detailed digital traceability of stocks including colors and composition information, consumption history etc. 

A white paper published by Reverse Resources: ‘The Undiscovered Business Potential of Production Leftovers within Global Fashion Supply Chains: Creating a Digitally Enhanced Circular Economy’, addresses the issue of production fabric leftovers. As illustrated in the below figure, extracted from the white paper, garment production has different types of fabric waste. In this collaborative project with MAAP the amount of waste from roll ends has been reduced.  

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There is a hierarchy of circularity solutions when addressing the issue of production waste: remanufacturing solutions should always be prioritized over recycling solutions. Remanufacturing does not involve heavy investment in recycling technology or use of energy or water to produce materials ready for the next manufacturing.   

To design the OffCuts biking jersey, MAAP has redesigned a jersey made fully of virgin fabric into a jersey made fully of leftover fabric. By redesigning and remanufacturing the jersey, the project has reduced production waste and the volume of new fabrics needed in production. This process has not required any use of additional energy or water. 

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In the same white paper, Reverse Resources presents 3methods of remanufacturing which they have developed and that are applicable in mass production: 

·       Invisible remanufacturing: “Using production leftovers invisibly on internal sections of a garment (e.g. pocket, cuff and fly facings, collar stands, back yoke). The exterior of the garment remains completely standardised. By only using a small % of leftovers invisibly within a garment, the potential for reuse of fabrics within mass production is created.” 

·       Visible remanufacturing: “Using leftover fabrics for small details on the outside of a garment. This could be done in the same or contrast colour. The leftover fabric is visible, but does not significantly affect the design. (The product planning follows the usual design-buying-purchasing pattern).” 

·       Design-led remanufacturing: “Designing a garment with a specific waste stream in mind. It is similar to the concept of upcycling fashion design, except that it does not demand producing a full garment out of 100% leftovers. Mixing a small % of leftover fabrics with new fabrics increases the application of remanufacturing in mass production and reduces design limitations.” 

In this collaborative project between MAAP and LTP, we have followed a design-led remanufacturing approach with 100% of the fabric coming from leftover. The challenge is now to be able to scale the model to a larger variety of styles and reach mass production.  

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About LTP 

LTP is a Danish owned garment manufacturer for +60premium brands within active sportswear, cycling, outdoor, urban performance, performance running and organic & lifestyle apparel. LTP was established in1991 and now spans two continents - Europe and Asia with 6fully owned factories in 5 countries (Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, Romania and Vietnam). Our European Innovation Centre is located in Kaunas, Lithuania and our Asian Innovation Centre is located in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. We have a Bluesign partner factory in 4 countries where we operate (Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus and Vietnam). 

About MAAP
Premium cycling apparel designed in Melbourne, Australia. MAAP is committed to developing the art and progression of cycling through a considered approach to style, innovation and performance.

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