Fast Retailing showed off its Jeans Innovation Center (JIC) in Los Angeles.
Fast Retailing, behind fashion brands such as Uniqlo, J Brand, Theory and more, hosted a global media event that showed the inside of its Jeans Innovation Center (JIC). The event provided information about the JIC itself, as well as demonstrated innovative technologies used in jeans production.
The Denim Innovation Center is located in Los Angeles. It was founded with the aim of creating ever new types of fabrics that would combine the latest technologies, without forgetting about the long tradition of denim production. The history of the center began quite recently - in 2016. However, the technologies that were used in the development of Uniqlo jeans for the fall/winter 2019 season had already been developed. This collection should appear on sale in August. At the same time, according to Masaaki Matsubura, chief operating officer of JIC, by 2020, all Uniqlo jeans will be created with the participation of the center.
The launch of JIC allowed Fast Retailing to independently develop new models of jeans, the company no longer needs to attract third-party specialists. The fact that the innovation center makes it possible to make production more “green” is also noted with particular pride. So, to clean jeans from excess dye, JIC uses Ozone Washing technology, which washes the fabric without the use of water. This allows you to reduce the use of water in production immediately on the impressive 90%.
Also, production time is significantly reduced, the need for chemicals is reduced, and manual labor is less involved. And the laser engraving system allows you to significantly simplify the process of applying patterns to the fabric.
And by 2025, the company plans to completely switch to 100% sustainable cotton in all types of clothing. There are also plans to reduce the use of plastic on the 85% by 2020.
