‘Digital to physical convergence and the Internet of Apparel, with a sustainability twist!’
Dr. Kevin Dooley, a professor specializing in supply chain at Arizona State University, joins in his role as the Chief Scientist of The Sustainability Consortium (TSC). TSC is a 100+ member community of retail giants including Amazon, Walmart, Walgreens, as well as major CPG Brands, non-profits, and academic institutions. They work across all product categories to determine a way to make the things we buy more sustainable. On this episode, we learn about WearEver, a TSC project with goals to embed technology into apparel to measure usage which has the potential to increase demand for ‘clothes that have better emotional and physical utility and durability’ whilst unlocking a treasure trove of information about where / when / what consumers wear. Kevin discusses what drives interest in tracking usage of consumer products, the potential technologies to achieve this, and their current limitations.