# Additive Manufacturing in the Clothing Industry: Towards Sustainable New Business Models
## 1 Introduction  
The clothing industry is estimated to be worth about 2.2% of the world's gross domestic product (GDP) or about USD 1.68 trillion in 2015. Estimations also predict the continuation of growth in this industry [1, 2]. The clothing industry makes up about 6% of global trade [3]. The enormous size of the industry makes attention to waste reduction an essential task. In the United States alone, landfills receive approximately 11 million tons of textile waste every year [4].  
In addition to creating large amounts of waste, the clothing industry is highly water- and energy-intensive, and can pollute the environment. The source of clothing fiber is either natural (cotton, silk, sheep, etc.) or synthetic (such as oil-based polyester), and in both cases requires significant amounts of water and energy to be produced firsthand. While synthetic-based fibers release emissions of various types (such as acid gases and volatile organic compounds), cotton requires the use of pesticides that are harmful to the environment as well as humans [5].  
Nowadays, clothes are considered to be disposable products, and the inception of fast-fashion concepts increases the environmental risks if the product lifecycle is not carefully managed [6]. The use of clothing in a fast-fashion setting and with short lifecycles will increasingly put pressure on the world's environment and resources while making garment production an unsustainable industry. Therefore, it is essential to explore the possiblemethods of clothing lifecycle extension to reduce the industry's footprint and amend sustainability. In this research, we aim to shed light on the possibilities enabled through the emerging additive manufacturing technology in the pursuit of improving the sustainability of the clothing industry.  
Additive manufacturing (AM) is a novel production process that is based on the direct manufacturing of a digital model. It is the next step in the development of computer numeric control (CNC) machines, with a single major difference in that it constructs objects in an additive process rather than a subtractive one. This gives AM distinctive characteristics that can radically change the way products are designed, produced, and provided to customers [7]. With AM, items are designed with greater freedom and less manufacturing waste, and can be customized on a case-by-case basis in new business model (NBM) arrangements. If these improvements can be coupled with in situ service provision, then AM can provide an opportunity to redefine sustainability in various industries, including the clothing industry. AM as a production technology may enable maintenance and revitalization of clothing in the use stage of the lifecycle. Moreover, AM potentially can decrease the production of virgin products and consequently reduce the environmental footprint of the clothing and textile industries. However, the obstacles of such implementation should be investigated from different perspectives. This study sheds light on the AM-enabled NBMs in the clothing industry and their potential sustainability impact.  
The research questions of this study are as follows:  
1. What are the future AM-enabled NBMs for the clothing industry to improve sustainability?  
2. What are the opportunities created by NBMs, and what are the existing obstacles to AM utilization in the clothing industry?  
The paper is structured in five sections. After the introduction, a literature review of the research subject is presented in Section 2. Section 3 presents the methodology that explains the way we reached the outcomes. Finally, the results of this study are described in Section 4, followed by the conclusions in Section 5.