Will a robot ever make your blue jeans?
There is a quiet effort underway to find out — involving clothing and technology companies, including Germany’s Siemens AG and Levi Strauss & Co.
"Clothing is the last trillion-dollar industry that hasn’t been automated," said Eugen Solowjow, who heads a project at a Siemens lab in San Francisco that has worked on automating apparel manufacturing since 2018.
The idea of using robots to bring more manufacturing back from overseas gained momentum during the pandemic as snarled supply chains highlighted the risks of relying on distant factories.
Finding a way to cut out handwork in China and Bangladesh would allow more clothing manufacturing to move back to Western consumer markets, including the United States. But that's a sensitive topic.
Poster Comment:
I met Democrat Presidential candidate Marianne Williamson years ago. She said LA was in an economic boom due to the garment trade. I pointed out that we subsidized all those illegal alien workers with $5,500 in assistance plus their court and prison costs. So all we have to show is a lot of illegals, lots of crime, high rents and lots of taxes.