Ignore this Amazon textile patent at your own peril.
Another ‘big idea’ seems to come out of Amazon (or the press making one up) just about every day. But whatever you do, DON’T ignore this one! Yesterday Amazon won a patent for an on-demand apparel manufacturing system.
Here's the deal:
- The system includes a textile printer, cutter, and a made-to-order design system.
- Let’s be clear, the ‘personalization’ trend isn’t a trend – it is a massive secular change in how FUTURE consumers will dress themselves.
- Logos, on the whole, will not be anywhere near as important as something that is unique and one of a kind.
- The BIG winners will be the brands that can offer this, and Nike is the only one that will (and has been working on this for the better part of a decade).
- It’s not clear how quick the turn time will be and where the technology will be based, but I’d fall out of my chair if they’re not based centrally (for quick delivery) in Amazon’s major markets around the world.
- But consider this… remember those 500,000 square foot boxes I outlined in our #Retail5.0 deck? People have pushed back – a lot – as to how those will be filled. Why can’t 25k feet of it be a design/manufacturing studio where you walk out with garments you design on the spot? Yep…I’d bet anyone that this is gonna happen.
Welcome to #Retail5.0 my friends…
