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Before a shirt is sewn, a notable share of its material may already be gone — in many factories, as much as 15% of fabric gets thrown out during cutting.
A startup called SXD says AI can address that overlooked loss by reworking the design stage.
What's happening?
Fast Company reported that SXD is building software to alter garment patterns so manufacturers can fit more pieces onto the same fabric and leave behind fewer scraps.
Designer Shelly Xu says the method is meant to slot into factory operations as they already exist, rather than requiring manufacturers to rebuild their production process.
"It doesn't change how people actually sew cloth together," Xu said, per Fast Company. "You're just cutting them into different shapes so that they take up less space on the fabric."
Its early reach already extends across retail and apparel. SXD has partnerships with the H&M Foundation and the Harvard and MIT Coop bookstores, plus deals involving tour merchandise and an apparel group whose clients include brands such as Uniqlo and Ralph Lauren.
The company also recently raised an oversubscribed $4.5 million pre-seed round led by Initialized Capital.
Why does it matter?
The apparel industry commonly wastes about 10% to 15% of fabric while cutting garments, before assembly begins.
Because fabric can make up as much as 70% of the cost of producing clothes, waste at the cutting table directly drives up expenses. If factories can get more usable pieces from every roll, they may be able to lower costs while making more from the same inputs.
When an offcut is discarded, so are the water, energy, and pollution tied to growing, processing, dyeing, and transporting that textile. Using more of each fabric run could also mean less material ending up in landfills or incinerators, which could lead to cleaner air and water in communities affected by manufacturing and waste.
One attraction of this approach is that shoppers may not need to change their habits at all. If companies can reduce waste without altering fit, style, or price, lower-impact clothing could become easier to adopt in everyday life.
What's being done?
The concept has been years in the making for Xu, who brought together clothing design, coding, and sustainable development studies to build software that can quickly turn standard apparel patterns into low-waste or zero-waste alternatives.
SXD's tools can already cut waste to 1% or less in some cases, and the company is moving beyond simple geometric layouts into more complex garments with curves and multiple sizes.
One project for the Harvard Coop was a tote bag that uses 30% less material than a standard tote while incorporating fabric corners that would usually be discarded. The bags sold out, as did SXD's T-shirts and aprons for the Coop.
SXD is working with Indonesia's Busana Group, which makes close to 2 million men's shirts each month, and the company is also applying its technology to automotive fabrics.
"Really good designs can come from the idea that we live with limited resources on our planet," Xu says.
If the technology continues to expand, shoppers may end up with products that are "just as, if not more, desirable — using half the material."
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