Building the future:

Walmart x unspun Made in America project

True to their name, 3D woven chinos will be made of cotton fabric in a twill weave, yet won’t feature an inseam or an outseam along the legs.

Remaking how we manufacture apparel

The effect an invention has is best measured broadly. Our Vega™ 3D weaving technology proposes to significantly mitigate the environmental impact of the fashion industry by restructuring its supply chain. We’re joining forces with the global retailer Walmart to architect how this disruption can work at scale.

In the effort to slow global warming, we share big ambitions, and Walmart is no small player. Our project seeks to integrate Vega™, which efficiently outputs clothing, into Walmart's effectively organized supply chain. We believe this can maximize our abilities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and materials waste while cultivating skilled jobs in America.

Our plan is straightforward. Using the Vega™ platform, we aim to design and produce pairs of 3D woven chinos that are comfy, sturdy, and affordable. The implications of our plan are far-reaching. 3D weaving automates much of the clothing manufacturing process, permitting localized production in microfactories to be as cost-effective as making clothes in factories across the world. This means Walmart may consolidate the supply chain necessary to make and distribute 3D woven work pants within California and other States, without affecting its competitive prices. Situating microfactories so close to Walmart’s customers additionally enables production in response to customer demand, avoiding overstock.

To contribute to the well-being of the planet, the fashion industry must conserve fabric, burn less fossil fuels, and optimize inventories. We’re very eager to work with Walmart, our first major collaborator in the USA, to pilot the ways clothing manufacturers and retailers can implement these solutions.

Walmart improves supply chains with management acumen, and unspun streamlines clothing production with 3D weaving technology, to modernize the fashion industry.

Combining industry know-how and revolutionary technology allows sustainable clothing to be easily adoptable.

Toward its climate goals, Walmart works with suppliers to tamp down greenhouse gas emissions along its supply chain, with millions of metric tons avoided since 2017.

Walmart

For every American, Walmart is a household name. Though synonymous with its prominent stores, all-encompassing selection, and Every Day Low Prices, the world’s foremost retailer is also a hub of innovation. Guided by an ethic of regeneration, Walmart is determined to address the climate crisis in direct ways that leverage the sophistication of its supply chain, such as by electrifying its fleet. Its sustainability benchmarks are not ends in themselves, however. To pollute less and conserve more, Walmart is jump-starting a new era of American manufacturing through its American Lighthouses initiative, which seeks to create 750,000 jobs around emergent technologies. That’s advancing the now to meet the future.

What our partnership shows

Vega™ machines have the capacity to manufacture clothing commercially

Over the course of several years, we’ve fine-tuned our 3D weaving technology to produce large quantities of fabric tubes, including pant legs, in precise dimensions and with consistent quality. Collaborating with Walmart activates our initiative to establish and operate 350 Vega™ machines throughout North America by 2030. Serving local and regional markets, this scale will achieve an aggregate productive capacity of 10 million garments a year.