This article was taken from the November 2014 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.

With its biannual design cycles, the clothes industry moves slowly. Seattle-based inventor Pablos Holman wants to change that.

Holman's label, Bombsheller, makes customisable unisex sports leggings -- on demand. Launched in June, the website lets customers submit a design or choose from a catalogue, pick the size and adjust the length before clicking "buy". A dye-sublimation printer prints the design on to fabric, seamstresses cut out the template, then sew it together and send it. "We're vastly more efficient [than the apparel industry]," says Holman, 43. "We don't have any waste." The idea sprang from Holman's love of salsa dancing -- and his other job as a full-time inventor at Nathan Myhrvold's innovation lab Intellectual Ventures.

Through Bombsheller, Holman hopes to identify inefficiencies in clothes manufacture and invent tech-based solutions. "With the same supply chain I could make skirts or shorts. Maybe a 3D printer could make sunglasses. This is about changing the way we make clothes."

This article was originally published by WIRED UK