According to a new article from The Fashion Law, affordable 3D printers could lead to a boom in counterfeit apparel.
Considered to be, “the new industrial revolution,” experts expect that 3D printing will have major ramifications on the fashion industry, and cause the relocation of production facilities, reconstruction of labor, and changes in material application.
And with no existing regulations, and thousands of pirated product blueprints available online, anyone with a home 3D printer and access to the internet can now reproduce items on their own, which presents a huge challenge to intellectual property owners, and puts fashion companies in the same position the music industry found itself with the advent of MP3s and file sharing services.
While some athletic wear brands like Nike and Adidas have embraced the technology, the luxury market has not. Instead, higher end labels have opted to insert radio frequency identification (RFID) chips into their products to verify authenticity, fearing that copycats could soon be creating bags, apparel, and jewelry at a lower production cost than ever before.
You can read more about it at The Fashion Law.
