Application of design for disassembly in men's jacket: A study on sustainable apparel design

Combining of natural and synthetic materials in apparel products caused problems with material recovery, reuse, recycling, or composting at the end of product life. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the application of design for disassembly methods in the design and construction of men's jacket. With this type of design, consumers and manufacturers can easily compost, recycle, or reuse different materials and components at the end of the garment's usable life.

After analyzing the men's jackets available in the market and identifying obstacles to disassembly, the authors designed and constructed a man's jacket that can be easily disassembled. The jacket design for disassembly focused on material selection, jacket design, and stitch evaluation and selection. The disassembly time was also measured.

It was found that minimizing material diversity and sewing similar materials together whenever possible, replacing fusible interfacing with blind hemming stitches under the collar and on the backside of the lapel, and using an appropriate low density stitch to sew the wool outer shell and polyester lining together, can make the jacket disassemble easily into a compostable outer shell and recyclable lining within 1.5 min.

This research provided a pilot study demonstration of applying “design for disassembly” in apparel design and construction. The findings could be employed in different apparel products to help reduce environmental pollution and resource depletion problems related to the apparel industry.