Conductive elastic fabrics are desirable in wearable electronics and related applications. Highly elastic conductive polyamide/lycra knitted fabric was prepared using intrinsically conductive polymer poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) blended with polyelectrolyte poly (styrene sulfonate) (PSS) using easily scalable coating and immersion methods. The effects of these two methods of treatments on uniformity, electromechanical property, stretchability, and durability were investigated. Different grades of waterborne polyurethanes (PU) were employed in different concentrations to improve the coating and adhesion of the PEDOT:PSS on the fabric. The immersion method gave better uniform treatment, high conductivity, and durability against stretching and cyclic tension than the coating process. The surface resistance increased from ~ 1.7 and ~ 6.4 Ω/square at 0% PU to ~ 3.7 and ~ 12.6 Ω/square at 50% PU for immersion and coating methods, respectively. The treatment methods as well as the acidic PEDOT:PSS did not affect the mechanical properties of the fabric and the fabric showed high strain at break of ~ 650% and remained conductive until break. Finally, to assess the practical applicability of the treated fabric for wearable e-textiles, the change in surface resistance was assessed by cyclically stretching 10 times at 100% strain and washing in a domestic laundry for 10 cycles. The resistance increased only by a small amount when samples were stretched cyclically at 100% strain, and the samples showed good durability against washing.

Sustainability is a widely recognized concern and priority for healthy growth of the society and for preservation of the planet. Concerning this, textile sector has seen an unprecedented demand for sustainable products from the consumers, responding to which organizations have undertaken different initiatives. One of the major concerns in the textile sector is its complex supply chain networks and the involvement of numerous actors dealing with diverse raw materials and operations. The effective implementation of sustainability at the industrial scale would require the participation of all supply chain actors, along with an efficient traceability system to monitor and analyze different sustainability aspects. Furthermore, traceability is an integral part of the recycling process which contributes towards the sustainability. Therefore, the present article focuses on the contribution of traceable information towards attaining the sustainability in the textile sector. The three pillars of sustainability, namely, ecological, societal, and economic, are discussed for their relation and dependency on the traceability followed by an overview of the challenges in successful implementation of the traceability system, which is anticipated to shape the future research questions.

Functional finishing brings an alteration on the mechanical and surface properties of textile materials and henceforth influences the tactile properties. In this work, Kawabata evaluation systems (KES) for fabrics were utilized to notice the changes in the tactile properties of fabrics resulting from different finishing types such as inkjet printing, screen printing, and coating. The effects of functional finishing on the fabric’s tactile property were inconsistent with reference to the course of decrease or increase being dependent on the types of finishes. The findings showed that KES can be employed as a promising tool to sort out the suitable functional finishing types in terms of tactile properties. Amongst the implemented finishing types, inkjet printing offered superior tactile properties with respect to tensile energy (softness), shear rigidity, compressional softness, bending stiffness (drapability), and surface properties. The KES results confirmed that low-stress mechanical properties are strongly associated with the tactile property and might assist as a quality profile data source for guaranteeing the production and development of a virtuous quality product. The result encourages further utilization of the KES for functional fabric tactile property evaluation.

As fashion mass customization has been developing rapidly in the recent decade, supply chain in apparel industry was required to be more flexible for meeting the need of quick response toward the dynamic changes in the fashion market. Forecast-based make-to-stock production strategy was not suitable anymore. Make-to-order strategy was employed by more and more apparel companies. However, there were still many defects in traditional make-to-order apparel supply chain, e.g., sustainability is still at a low level. In this study, we proposed a collaborative cloud service platform to develop a novel model of sustainable make-to-order apparel supply chain. A service provider selection heuristic was designed for this platform to optimally select suppliers corresponding to each received demand. Multi-agent-based simulation technology was utilized to build the proposed platform and to evaluate the new sustainable supply chain model. Experiment was conducted in the simulation to compare our new model to traditional apparel make-to-order model and model with outsourcing mechanism. Based on simulation results, the remarkable improvement in terms of sustainability of the proposed platform and corresponding supply chain model was demonstrated.

The present paper aims to explore the current clothes reuse business in order to develop a charity-driven model for the reuse-based clothing value chain. An exploratory study was carried out in Sweden to understand the business flow of clothes reuse. This study builds on the insights gained from the multiple charities involved in the reuse-based clothing value chain. Semi-structured interviews along with direct and participatory observation were used for data collection. In the current study of Swedish charities, the founders and senior managers of the organizations were interviewed. This paper provides several insights in the form of propositions and a model related to different drivers of the reuse-based clothing value chain. In this model, business factors (system, legislation, and awareness), product factors (design, quality, and price), and consumer attitude as donor/buyer are found to be key drivers. Product design, quality, and price depend upon clothes brand, construction, and material, which are collectively important for the sale of used products. In the future, researchers are encouraged to test the present set of propositions and the proposed model across different cultural settings. The model can serve as a framework for practitioners and will be helpful for designing business strategies based on the different factors identified in this study.

The scarcity of natural resources and the problem of pollution have initiated the need for extending the life and use of existing products. The concept of the reverse supply chain provides an opportunity to recover value from discarded products. The potential for recovery and the improvement of value in the reverse supply chain of apparel has been barely studied. In this research, a novel modularized redesign model is developed and applied to the garment redesign process. The concept of modularization is used to extract parts from the end-of-use or end-of-life of products. The extracted parts are reassembled or reconstructed with the help of a proposed group genetic algorithm by using domain and industry-specific knowledge. Design fitness is calculated to achieve the optimal redesign. Subsequently, the practical relevance of the model is investigated with the help of an industrial case in Sweden. The case study finding reveals that the proposed method and model to calculate the design fitness could simplify the redesign process. The design fitness calculation is illustrated with the example of a polo t-shirt. The redesigned system-based modularization is in accordance with the practical situations because of its flexibility and viability to formulate redesign decisions. The grouping genetic algorithm could enable fast redesign decisions for designers.