Social Manufacturing in the Fashion sector: New value creation through alternative design strategies?

Abstract This paper proposes new perspectives and systemic changes to the linear fashion scheme, which is currently driven by fast, cheap and low quality production that fosters easy disposal or replacement, due to the low product value for the customer/user. The authors seek to open a discussion on new value creation through social manufacturing, specifically facilitated by do-it-yourself (DIY), do-it-together (DIT) and participatory design strategies. Social manufacturing can be seen as a more open and democratic approach to manufacturing, prompting different levels of user participation in the production process. The authors will illustrate how these alternative design strategies, build within the context of social manufacturing, can offer system-level changes by activating and empowering the end user to become value creators, while forming new, more sustainable innovations in design and manufacturing of fashion. The specific questions asked in this paper are: What types of value are created in social manufacturing through opening the design and manufacturing processes with alternative design strategies? Further, can social manufacturing enable sustainable solutions by transitioning the users to manufacturers of their own garments, prompting a new value system and range of business models in the fashion industry? An alternative value framework, developed within this paper, will enable the analysis of empirical data collected in Finland and the U.S. In the discussion, the authors demonstrate strategies to create wider change in the fashion system through social manufacturing, starting at a local level through empowered consumers.