Estonia, Markets and Companies, Technology, Textile

The future of many European factories lays in producing smaller batches of more specialized items. In the case of Scarfmaker the batch is one item – a scarf, a hat or other knitware – and the specialization is extremely high – the customers design clothes themselves.

Dmitry Tsekanov, the founder of Scarfmaker, says that the idea of Scarfmaker was born due to two factors. A year ago Dmitry was working in the VeTa knitting company and learned the possibilities of modern CNC knitting machines. As it turns out the modern knitting machines are incredibly capable.

At that time Dmitry also partnered with wholesale companies and learned how the market of clothes was hugely dominated by Asian manufacturers selling batches in 1000-s. It seemed that competing with the Asian manufacturers was impossible, but the idea came that, instead of getting one big order for 1000 scarves, the company could perform 1000 different orders for different scarves. Therefore making it possible to offer personalized design for similar prices than the retailers do for "standard" clothes.

The overall trend is called mass customization and by "sourcing" the design work to the customer and automating everything else it is possible to compete with the Asian manufacturers. After all the price of machines and material is similar all around the world.

Scarfmaker programmed a self-design tool and now the service has been online for almost two months. Scarfmaker sees itself as a mediator between customers and textile manufacturers. Bringing together the people wanting to look different and the possibilities of modern textile machines.