Unspun

Unspun body scanner / Source: Unspun

AsiaCottonEuropeHempNorth AmericaTextiles

5 MINUTE READ

Sophie Benson

WHAT WE SAY:

Every season, about 30% of clothes produced are never sold, and brands have a habit of burning and destroying what they don’t sell. That’s a lot of fabric, mostly synthetic, being produced for nothing.

Unspun produces made-to-order jeans from customers’ 3D body scans. And while they might not be fully plastic-free, we love the brand’s zero-waste vision. Only making what people want might seem like the most obvious idea ever, but it is revolutionary in an industry that thrives on overproduction.

KEY FACTS:

Unspun uses 3D body scanning technology to make on-demand, custom-fit jeans.
Customers can choose the style, fabric, thread colour, rise height and hem length – Unspun then manufactures them to fit.
Unspun claims that by making products to order, it reduces waste by approximately 30% compared to the traditional fashion manufacturing model, while reducing the waste and emissions associated with returns.
A pair of custom jeans costs USD 200-215, and takes three to four weeks to ship.

A digital weave created using the metrics of a body scan / Source: Unspun

Unspun x Pangaia jeans / Source: Unspun

DIVE DEEPER:

Inconsistent sizing is the primary reason consumers make in-store and online returns, with the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis driving up return rates even further.
In the US, five billion pounds worth of returned goods end up in landfill each year, creating 15 million tonnes of carbon emissions. While the total volume of unsold stock which is burned, destroyed or landfilled is not known, multiple big brands including H&M, Burberry and Richemont have been exposed for destroying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of unsold items.
Unspun customers can either choose to use the brand’s iPhone app to scan themselves, or book an in-person fitting at its flagship San Francisco store.
The company uses the FaceID scanning technology to map a user’s body with over 30,000 dots of infrared light during a 10-second body scan. The customer’s 3D avatar is then used to digitally design and fit a pair of jeans.
While Unspun’s price point is approximately USD 100 more than a pair of Levi’s premium jeans, it is less than a quarter of the price of a pair from Levi’s made-to-order Lot no. 1 service. The Levi’s process involves multiple fittings with a tailor and takes up to four months.
Unspun’s current fabric roster includes GOTS-certified organic Cotton and Repreve recycled polyester – sadly. The brand has committed to phasing out virgin polyester, and has a 2022 goal of zero plastics in its material compositions, with the exception of stretch components (where it tries to source biodegradable or eco-lycra options).
On its product pages, Unspun offers CO2, water and waste metrics, however, no information is given about how these are calculated (so we won’t give them too much credence).
In January 2021, the company released its Genesis jeans, designed for disassembly and circularity in line with the Ellen MacArthur Jeans Redesign programme. They feature organic cotton fabric from Panther Denim, a removable button by Dorlet, an EON circularID enabling data collection across the product’s lifecycle and heat-dissolvable threads from Resortecs.
A November 2021 partnership with Pangaia introduced rain-fed Hemp treated with PPRMINT oil to its line-up.
Unspun claims its packaging is 100% biodegradable and compostable, and ships all fabrics by ocean or low-impact transportation. In 2021, the company eliminated electroplating processes in its supply chain, and is eliminating the use of any chemicals on the Bluesign® Restricted Substances List.
The company also offers an end-of-life service where customers can request a returns label to send old jeans back, however, it is not clear what happens to returned items.
In June 2023, Unspun unveiled its new 3D weaving technology called Vega. The on-demand apparel production platform weaves yarn directly into clothing, and is five times cheaper than conventional cut-and-sew models. The localised and automated platform is said to cut production lead times from nine months to two days. The company closed a USD 14 million Series A funding round led by Lowercarbon Capital to support the Vega platform.
Unspun was the winner of the Fashion Tech award at the 2020 San Francisco Design Week Awards and the winner of the 2017 and 2019 H&M Foundation Global Change Award. It was listed as one of the 100 best inventions of 2019 by Time Magazine.
In March 2022, Unspun became a certified B Corp.

"We're breaking the status quo that is fashion, building new processes and new perspectives on the clothes we wear."

Unspun

Key Design Considerations:

Go further by eliminating plastic

While Unspun has made a public commitment to eliminate plastics from its material composition, we are left disappointed by its exception for the stretch component of its jeans. Especially given that there is a plastic-free alternative – Coreva from Candiani is a plant-based, biodegradable stretch denim that could elevate the sustainability credentials of the final product.

Customer benefit meets sustainability

Unspun isn’t shy about its long-term vision – to reduce global carbon emissions by 1%. But we love how it leads with the customer benefit of ‘perfectly fitting jeans’, with zero waste and reduced environmental impact as a very welcome benefit. If your product isn’t solving a real customer pain point, you will struggle to scale beyond early eco-evangelists.

Affordability

Consider whether you could combine on-demand manufacturing with a subscription service in the vein of MUD Jeans to spread the cost and open up access to a higher proportion of consumers.

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Unspun

WHAT WE SAY:

Every season, about 30% of clothes produced are never sold, and brands have a habit of burning and destroying what they don’t sell. That’s a lot of fabric, mostly synthetic, being produced for nothing.

KEY FACTS:

DIVE DEEPER:

Inconsistent sizing is the primary reason consumers make in-store and online returns, with the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis driving up return rates even further.

Unspun customers can either choose to use the brand’s iPhone app to scan themselves, or book an in-person fitting at its flagship San Francisco store.

The company uses the FaceID scanning technology to map a user’s body with over 30,000 dots of infrared light during a 10-second body scan. The customer’s 3D avatar is then used to digitally design and fit a pair of jeans.

While Unspun’s price point is approximately USD 100 more than a pair of Levi’s premium jeans, it is less than a quarter of the price of a pair from Levi’s made-to-order Lot no. 1 service. The Levi’s process involves multiple fittings with a tailor and takes up to four months.

On its product pages, Unspun offers CO2, water and waste metrics, however, no information is given about how these are calculated (so we won’t give them too much credence).

A November 2021 partnership with Pangaia introduced rain-fed Hemp treated with PPRMINT oil to its line-up.

Unspun claims its packaging is 100% biodegradable and compostable, and ships all fabrics by ocean or low-impact transportation. In 2021, the company eliminated electroplating processes in its supply chain, and is eliminating the use of any chemicals on the Bluesign® Restricted Substances List.

The company also offers an end-of-life service where customers can request a returns label to send old jeans back, however, it is not clear what happens to returned items.

Unspun was the winner of the Fashion Tech award at the 2020 San Francisco Design Week Awards and the winner of the 2017 and 2019 H&M Foundation Global Change Award. It was listed as one of the 100 best inventions of 2019 by Time Magazine.

In March 2022, Unspun became a certified B Corp.

Unspun

Key Design Considerations:

Go further by eliminating plastic

Customer benefit meets sustainability

Affordability

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