Levi's To Use Lasers To Ethically Create The Finishes On Its Jeans
The Levi Strauss & Co. laboratory has invented a laser-wielding robot to create sustainable jeans.
The large denim jeans company, founded in May 1853, has said that the clothing industry has been using both human labor and chemicals to create the worn and faded styles on denim.
"Our company alone offers over a thousand different finish looks per season, which is mind boggling," said Eureka Lab Head Bart Sights, told Fast Company. Eureka Lab is Levi's innovation center.
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"They're all produced with very labor-intensive, repetitive motion jobs, and a long list of chemical formulations. That's a pretty dark picture of how things have been," Sights added.
According to The Verge, the company has pledged to achieve zero emission of toxic chemicals by 2020. To achieve this, the company has to reduce the chemicals they use. With this, Levi's is introducing Project F.L.X., which stands for "Future-led execution."
F.L.X. will be using a robot that contains infrared layers that will mark off layers of indigo and cotton in jeans. The whole process will take only more or less 90 seconds. With this, the laser system does not only lessen the chemicals used in designing denim, but it also reduces the amount of labor required to be exerted by workers.
"It's definitely not an incremental change. It's radical," Sights said.
Levi's partnered with Jeanologia, a company with the goal of creating eco-efficient solutions for the development of sustainable fashion. Jeanologia has been used by several top fashion brands. According to its website, more than 35 percent of 5 million jeans are made with Jeanologia technologies.
Sustainable fashion, also known as eco fashion, has been a growing trend in the environmentally-aware community. The trend advocates for principles that are good, clean, and fair, for the betterment of the environment.
Many followers of sustainable fashion claim that it can be an alternative to fast fashion, which follows fast fashion trends. Fast fashion has severely increased the rate of textile wastes around the world.
