Many ideas, visions, inspiration and opinions from different forward-minded disciplines characterized the “Injeanious” event organized by Isko in Düsseldorf on November 17. The occasion gathered 100 international insiders such as product managers, designers, retailers, experts and influencers discussing about what new challenges and paths the denim, sportswear and fashion industry will be taking to the light of influential aspects such as technology, sustainability, innovation, customer relationship and engagement.
The working session started hosting different key speakers from various trendsetting industries and was later followed by a round-table discussion and various networking activities.
From SMS to Internet of Things
Olaf Gerwig, co-founder and managing director, P3 Communications, a management consulting and engineering solutions company, summed up the enormous progress taken in telecommunications in the last 30 years: from GMS back in 1992 up to today´s Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard for high-speed wireless communication for smartphones and data terminals. He analyzed mobile data speed evolution from the 160kbits per second of 2004 to 30Mbits per second in 2014.
After analyzing how SMS were born (they informed cell phone users when no connection was available), he explained how new business opportunities were created. After Whatsapp, Facebook, Netflix and Spotify, unthinkable without high speed internet connection, by 2020 he expects the advent of 5G that will set communication standards and will boost the rollout of the Internet of Things (IoT) – driving industrial production from remote as well as adding further technology content and technology interface to clothing and other wearable products.
Augmented reality can change our lives
Luciano Pinna, conceptual artist and augmented reality expert, explained what augmented reality is and how it will shape our future. Starting from well-known examples such as Pokémon Go, he explained how augmented reality can be employed in most different fields such as, for instance, art, architecture, education and big data organization, creating some sort of parallel virtual 3D world. He also presented how fashion could profit from the introduction of augmented reality through a study carried ahead by Dutch fashion designer Marga Weijmans. For a past edition of Amsterdam Fashion Week, she developed a dress carrying prints from scans of human DNA. Thanks to a virtual lay-out, such prints could bring out many virtual 3D objects from that dress once worn by a model and observed from a video. In the future one could buy that dress and could later buy separate virtual layers to be added to that dress.
During the Isko Amsterdam showroom opening he also showed how 3D scans of normal models can wear jeans items in augmented reality, setting the way for e-shopping of tomorrow while buying through an e-commerce platform anyone could also have one’s own body virtually scanned for trying a pair of trousers on before purchasing them.
Isko’s vision of the future
Esin Kilickan, Isko R&D division, presented Isko’s newest product evolution and how they study new trends and product categories by finding inspirations from heritage, urban trends, relationships with their partners, street life and from cross-fertilizations as well as from the apparel, shoe and accessory segments but also taking ideas from technology, architecture, catwalks, media and...dreams. Among the newest denim developments Isko is now offering there are Isko Cottonized, denim made by employing cellulosic fibers obtained without damaging the environment; Isko Cozy, a new warm denim with an inner soft touch, but also Isko Scratch & Jean, a denim that can be easily aged and personalized; Isko Recalls, a high-performance fitting denim; Isko Blue Skin, the next generation of stretch jeans; Isko Pop, new touch cotton denim; Isko Future Face and Isko BlueJym, a new cross-over denims.
Fashion players won't succeed without a sustainable business approach
Michael Schragger, CEO of The Sustainable Fashion Academy and chair of the Global Leadership Award in Sustainable Apparel (GLASA) presented how the rise of life expectancy and the subsequent increase of global population have brought a surge in the levels of paper consumption, fisheries exploited and ozone depletion, among many other phenomena. He thinks that the global fashion industry and its processes represent 4% of the contribution to global warming. Whether the industry likes it or not, sustainability measures must be introduced at each step of the supply chain. Paying close attention to the water consumption, forecasts of brands in the long term will be always more important as water scarcity leads to more expensive cotton.
A fashion business model based on a circular economy as it involves creating a circular flow of resources that starts with raw materials and ends up with a residual waste that could be reused for other purposes. He also spoke about interesting innovations in this field naming Re:newcell, Bionic yarns and NRG’s first sneaker from repurposed CO2. The gas is captured in the sneaker’s foam, preventing it from being emitted into the atmosphere.
