Custom vs. Mass Market: The Story of Jeans Production
While browsing various denim-related topics I came across this Discovery Channel video on how jeans are made. If you have 4 minutes of spare time I highly recommend checking out this video, it clearly shows the automated processes that go into creating mass production jeans. It really is amazing how many specialized machines there are simply for producing jeans.
However, what struck me the most about the process were the differences between their method and ours at indi. Since our jeans are custom patterns created from the fit measurements entered by each individual customer our jeans are cut one at a time. By contrast, at the company profiled in the video a whopping 350 jeans are cut at once. Another example of the custom process versus mass production is in the back pocket, whereas this company cuts 20 pockets at a time, with our various options on back pocket style and embroidery we obviously cut these individually.
That’s not to say at indi we don’t try to be efficient when possible. Orders with the same wash, (for example vintage tint) we batch together when it comes time for laundry so this step can be completed as quickly as possible for our customers. Also, similar to the denim company in the video, many of our steps are automated. On the other hand, since our jeans are custom and therefore have different measurements and stitches required, each one is hand sewn.
This video is a fascinating look at how modern factories operate and also goes a long way to explaining how off the rack jeans are truly one size fits all body types. Here at indi we know that your body is unique and sometimes mass production, while efficient, doesn’t always cut it.
posted by: Bonnie Coombs on March 8, 2011 at 12:54 pm
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