Thursday 21 March 2013

The Clothing Printer: a technological revolution in your closet?



Joshua Harris is all set to turn the fashion industry on its head. How? By allowing you to produce your own clothes in your own home at the touch of a button. No, we're not talking about some revolutionary new sewing machine, or perhaps we are. What we are talking about is The Clothing Printer, Harris' no mess, no fuss answer to clothing production in the urbanized chaos.

By 2050 three quarters of the Earth's population will be living in urban areas and as anyone who already living in such an environment knows, space is not a commodity easily taken for granted in a city. This is where The Clothing Printer comes into play. The concept has the potential to eliminate not only closets, but washing machines and tumble dryers too!

Wait... what? How is a printer going to wash my clothes? Well, obviously it can't do that, but what it could do is recycle the clothes it prints by enabling you to feed the clothes back into the machine where they are broken down, cleaned and the thread returned to the cartridges for reuse. So, not only is this 3D printer a great space saver, but also eco-friendly, eliminating all wastes associated with clothing production, transportation and disposal.


The obvious question is where does this shift in power put the fashion industry? Not one to destroy an industry, Harris says that the technology allows for fashion designers to create and sell digital versions of their designs to be uploaded and used by the customer. They could even go so far as developing and distributing cartridges of their materials. Hey, want a Pringle cardigan? Print it!

Click here for more info on this amazing idea.

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