Made to Order

Imagine a world where items are only produced once they’ve been purchased. Instead of endlessly designing things with the hopes of sales, designers could be free to focus on what has already sold. Instead of wasting valuable energy, resources and materials on failed collections, small brands could be free to embrace their creativity without a hefty financial investment. Instead of creating more waste that will inevitably find its way to a landfill, creatives of all kinds could be free to test and iterate new products consciously.

“Made-to-order”, a production model where items are manufactured based on demand, may be the key to sustainable scaling for emerging designers. Instead of forcing themselves to operate within the existing retail model (that is built for and by fast fashion brands), sustainable brands who utilize the made-to-order model are empowered to do things on their terms, according to their values. They can play more and risk less.

The traditional retail model forces designers to invest in inventory that can be sold to retailers at a mark-up that is suitable for all parties. We’re all learning the hard way that this model doesn’t work for sustainable brands — the costs are too high, the sales are too unpredictable, and the margins are too tight. The model isn’t designed with sustainability in mind, and emerging brands are becoming the collateral damage of this never ending experiment.

Brands that are operating within this outdated eco-system fall into the trap of over-investing in order to meet their factories MOQs (aka minimum order quantities). Traditionally, factories require a minimum quantity of pieces per style, color and size. This forces emerging brands to 1) focus on specific designs very early on, without having had the opportunity to gauge consumer interest and 2) order a lot of it. That process is antithetical to the entire design process of any early-stage brand owner.

To invest in high-quality materials, fair wage labor, and ethical production is expensive (to say the least). It only works if and when sales are predictable and operations are seamless — both of which are a thing of the past. In today’s economy, brands big and small are swimming upstream, fighting against rising production costs and inconsistent sales. The attempt to operate within a system that has proven to be faulty is where designers and retailers alike are losing their footing.

The rising popularity of the made-to-order model is a direct outcome of these shortcomings. Emerging designers are leaning into the slowness of it all by emphasizing small-batch drops that are meticulously crafted and curated with a larger purpose beyond just sales. They’re embracing scarcity, not as a marketing tactic but as a design process.

This, of course, comes with its fair share of limitations. The largest of which is that it relies on a major mindset shift for consumers: shoppers have to be willing to wait. Overnight shipping and flexible return policies will be a thing of the past, and shoppers will be forced to adapt. This is no small feat thanks to the “convenience era” that has trained us all to demand more and more, faster and faster.

But, maybe that’s a compromise many are willing to make. Maybe consumers are ready to shop slower if it means they can take pride in what they’re wearing and buying. While it may not be mainstream quite yet, there’s certainly a growing audience of consumers who see immense value in placing an order for an item they know is being made specifically for them.

It’s almost as if we’re going backwards in time, reverting to an outdated form of shopping where items were custom fit, where tailors were just as important as the designers themselves, where pieces were made with a specific customer in mind. This archaic way of shopping had a magical component to it that fast fashion will never be able to replicate. What fast fashion may be able to offer in terms of unbeatable prices and never ending options, slow fashion makes up for in sentimentality and intrinsic value. It’s not just good for business and for the planet, it’s rooted in a somewhat intangible purpose that values creativity over consumption.