How IoT is changing the fashion retail experience

/in

This article was written by Cate Lawrence for readwrite

Oak-Mirror-5-e1463501294945

It’s plain to see that emerging technology has changed the retail experience beyond recognition.

We can shop on the internet anywhere, and at any time, without a physical cash transaction and have it delivered to us in what can feel like the blink of an eye. In times where retail fashion can be bought in seconds and free returns mean that your apartment can be an at-home changing room, I was interested to talk last week to Healy Cypher, co-founder and CEO of Oak and creator of a hardware enabled platform that uses mirrors as a conduit to transform the retail experience.

Oak has creating the Oak Mirror, a connected device that turns the bricks-and-mortar retail experience into one that is closer in reality to what we have come accustomed to online. Cypher reminded me that while it’s easy to do your shopping online, it still only accounts for a small amount of all retail sales:

“In-store sales are still up to 95% of all retail experiences and e-commerce is less than 7% of all retail transactions. Retail is a $12 trillion industry that employs a quarter of the people in the US. and accounts for 50% of  expenditure of disposable income.”

It is an sector that Cypher is passionate about, particularly in regard to improving the customer experience. Usually trying on clothing means stumbling around a store semi-dressed to find a different size or dealing with the ministrations of an overeager sales attendant who whips back the curtain to catch you in your…unawares.

But Oak wants to make that a thing of the past.

They currently have embedded their technology in a range of Ralph Lauren stores in the US. All in-store items are connected to it with RFID chips. This means an almost self-curated shopping  experience. Any clothes you select to try on appear on a connected touch screen which is part of the dressing room mirror. Need a new size or a different color? Just tap the screen and a store assistant – each outfitted with a corresponding iPad – brings you your choice. The screen also offers you styling recommendations based on what’s available in store and you can email your selection to yourself for future consideration.

For those a little more discerning, the mirror even offered a variety of lighting experiences: Fifth Avenue Daylight, East Hampton Sunset and Evening at The Polo Bar.

It’s easy to dismiss such notions as gimmick but the reality is that Oak see the benefits of their platform far beyond novelty factors.

“The RFID gives perfect data. This means stores can always know what’s in stock at a glance, including size and colours. The average industry inventory accuracy is 55% in retail. It also enables buyers to see what other people bring into the fitting room and what items they are buying together. You learn whether certain items are always tried in one size but bought in another or tried but never purchased”.

All of which is especially important for fashion houses, especially those that stock “fast fashion,” defined as fashion cycles of six weeks or less.

Cypher admits that fashion is a traditional industry that has in some respects been slow to adopt technology. Two of the leading reasons he attributes this to are generational norms – “Younger, digital natives are more likely to adopt this technology than older store owners” – and also the difficulty in “getting retailers uses to expending capital on technology. They are more likely to see the value in expenditure on their front of house signage.”

Yet, as Cypher notes, “consumers want things fast, easy, beautiful, robust and personal.” This will be the reality of retail fashion, and Oak is keen to be part of this innovation, blurring the boundaries between the digital and physical retail experience.

Check out the The Oak Interactive Fitting Room from Oak Labs, Inc. on Vimeo.

 

US retail giants feel pain as online shopping hits

/in
By John Biers for AFP
images
NEW YORK – Iconic American stores Macy’s and Gap are facing tough questions about their future following dreary earnings announcements last week that highlighted the growing market share taken by online retailers.
Conventional retailer profits are falling as fewer shoppers head to malls in favour of click-and-buy options offered by Amazon and a trove of emerging online fashion vendors. The trend is all the more striking because retailers see good conditions in the economy for consumers, including strong employment levels.

“We’re frankly scratching our heads,” Macy’s chief financial officer Karen Hoguet, told an analyst conference call. “We see the same economic data you all see and it would point to a customer that would be spending more.”

In the first four months of 2016, all online retail sales rose 8.1 percent over a year ago, compared with just 1.9 percent growth in clothing stores, according to the Commerce Department.

“We’re seeing a fundamental reorganization of retail from an automobile-centered model to a smartphone-centered model,” said Andy Dunn, chief executive of Bonobos, a nine-year old men’s apparel store that does most of its sales online.

“We’re seeing a tremendous shakeout as we see online grow and offline contract,” Dunn said. Still, he added, “I don’t think we’re moving to an online-only world.”

In women’s apparel, rising online players include websites like Wanelo, which “curates” products from 550,000 vendors and doubles as a social network for shoppers.

There are speciality sites for plus-sized women, such as Eloquii, and for consumers focused on sustainable manufacturing, such as Reformation.

There are also fashion websites that combine editorial and selling functions, such as WhoWhatWear, part of the Clique Media Group, which boasts 12 million unique monthly visitors.

“People are now realizing they have more options,” said Chris Morran, deputy executive editor Consumerist.com. “I don’t see any of the (newer) companies replacing Gap, but I see them all chiseling way.”

Shoppers say the online experience is greatly improved from just a few years ago, with sellers permitting returns and sometimes paying for the shipping of items that don’t fit. More online vendors lets shoppers easily compare items and prices as well.

“It’s not only that you don’t have to leave your house, it’s that you don’t have to walk around,” said one forty-something professional mother of two. “It’s very efficient.”

Men’s fashion too is experiencing seismic shifts. Gone are the days when department stores could rely on a captive audience to buy button-down shirts for the office. Boutique stores like Thomas Pink and Charles Tyrwhitt boast a multitude of fits for different body types that can be bought online once a consumer knows his size.

Bonobos, which began as an online-only men’s store in 2007, began adding small showrooms in 2011 to display product and let customers get fitted.

“The store piece of what we do is really profitable,” Dunn told AFP. “But you want the right sized store footprint and you want to be fully integrated with online.”

But online earnings remain constrained by factors that include high shipping cost and bruising competition. Profit margins in brick-and-mortar stores remain about 10 percent compared with seven percent online, said Credit Suisse.

However, as shipping costs decline and rent and other infrastructure weigh on traditional stories, “brick-and-mortar” stores will be the ones to suffer, Credit Suisse said. That means more retail stores are likely to close.

Nordstrom, which reported earnings Thursday that badly lagged analyst expectations, said it will emphasize a buyer loyalty program and exclusive merchandise. It is also beefing up e-commerce.

“We’re seeing a transformation in our business model,” said chief executive Mike Koppel. “We continue to see traffic falling off in malls, and how we think about our store base asset will probably require some level of adjustment.”

Macy’s, which announced in January plans to close 40 stores, is emphasizing store-within-store ventures intended to appeal to millennials, such as the off-price Backstage and the beauty-and-spa Blue Mercury stores.

Macy’s Hoguet said the 186-year-old retailer is “always evaluating” its fleet of 870 stores for potential closures.

Gap, which a year ago announced plans to cut 175 namesake stores in North America, pledged renewed focus to streamline its operations and whittle its presence internationally to the most promising markets.

The mother lode of young entrepreneurs

/in

Article written by Sungula Nkabinde for Moneyweb

shutterstock_321155882-555x370 (1)Much is said about the need to foster a culture of entrepreneurship among South Africa’s youth. But it’s already there. Just untapped.

Be Bold is a student-driven movement, with a network of over 53 000 student entrepreneurs nationwide. Through university societies and clubs Be Bold is creating a culture of entrepreneurship. According to its founder Charles Maisel, it is the only student society with a presence on every campus in the country.

“That’s where the potential lies,” says Maisel. “If you’re going to approach entrepreneurship as a means to solve the youth unemployment problem, and take it to the next level, then you have to start with the 600 000 people already at university.”

Primarily, the societies’ functions are to organise pitch events, where students come to pitch their business ideas, and members contribute by interrogating each idea and choosing the best one. Because a lot of the pitches are for products and services for students themselves, they understand their market better than anybody else.

“Plus if you have 100 people attending a pitch event, you’re going to get a lot more feedback,” says Maisel.

The top pitches from each campus go to an inter-varsity pitching competition held at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch offices in Sandton. It is the sponsor of the competition.

In Limpopo, people fight to pitch, because there can only be ten pitches per night and there are up to 50 people who want to pitch. “So the demand is massive,” says Maisel.

“There is no format. You can pitch with beer in your hand if you want to. You can use a Powerpoint presentation. There are no rules…. But we only want original ideas. You can’t go there with ideas for food trucks, hair salons or event management companies.”

The societies also have speakers that come to campuses and talk on issues surrounding entrepreneurship. To help members come up with the best ideas, they hold programmes on how to generate ideas and develop them as, according to Maisel, this is the biggest stumbling block for all entrepreneurs.

Success stories

A masters chemical engineering student from the University of the Witwatersrand saw a need in the university for sneakers to be cleaned. He developed his own range of chemicals and started to wash sneakers in his room, charging R60 a pair. Be Bold is planning to help him get a presence on every campus in the country.

A student from the University of Pretoria has designed and manufactured a paper-based brick, which costs 30 cents, compared with regular bricks, which retail for around R2 each.

There is also a group of students at Fort Hare University who have designed an Uber-type tutor-sharing platform. “So basically you can find a tutor anywhere and you pay for every ten minutes of tutoring. The university has since bought the idea from those guys,” says Maisel, adding that there are thousands of examples of other entrepreneurs.

Lack of funding

One problem that Be Bold has been able to resolve for students is in making it easier for them to own the intellectual property of their business ideas, whereas in many cases, it would have been the university that would own it.

An obstacle that remains, however, is funding. Maisel explains that, despite approaching many institutions, their efforts to fund these students’ ideas have come to naught. Invariably, funders want to see some kind of track record, which Maisel says is unreasonable because university students do not have a business with a track record, otherwise, they wouldn’t be at university.

Says Maisel: “We’ve got the brightest brains in the country and they are coming up with innovative ideas, but they can’t get any money. We’ve gone to the IDC and we’ve been to a couple of venture capital companies and the reality is that it is impossible to get funding.”

Creatives are also getting involved

Be Bold has built upon the university society framework to target other kinds of entrepreneurs. Snake Nation is a social studio and multi-platform network for creatives, which allows anyone to create a profile of themselves and share their creative works, be it music, art or literature, and get exposure in the US market.

There is also a publishing society, which despite the fact that it has only been in existence for four months, has also had two books by student writers published. Lastly, Fashion Society, aims to help fashion designers on campus create lasting brands, “because young people are coming up with new brands and T-shirts all the time. In Cape Town alone, there are eight different fashion brands started by students already,” says Maisel.shutterstock_321155882-555x370 (1)

How fashion retailers are helping the environment

/in

This article was written by  KARISHMA DIPA for THE STAR

download (12)

As one of the largest polluters in the world, the clothing industry has taken an initiative to minimise the hazardous effects it has on the environment.

Global fashion retailer H&M has been one of the chain stores to take up the challenge. According to H&M South Africa spokeswoman Amelia-May Woudstra, the store has a “global garment collecting initiative”.

“This initiative is in place in all of our stores, 365 days a year,” she told The Star. It involves customers bringing their old clothes into H&M stores and in return they qualify for a 15 percent discount on a future purchase at the fashion outlet.

During World Recycle Week last month, customers who brought their unwanted clothes into the store qualified for two 15 percent discounts during the seven-day period.

Although the collected items are still being tallied, Woudstra said globally about 25 000 tons of clothes had already been recorded as being donated during the week of recycling.

As part of the initiative, H&M has partnered with I:Collect (I:CO), the international organisation that buys the donated clothes from the retailer, as well as other well-known clothing brands – including Levi’s and Puma.

The solutions provider, with offices in Germany, the UK, the US and Japan, then reuses or recycles the garments.

“I:CO aims to keep consumers’ clothing and shoes in a closed-loop production cycle where the goods can be reprocessed and reused again and again through I:CO’s take-back system and global infrastructure,” the organisation said on its website.

“This protects the environment, reduces waste and preserves resources.”

As part of the process to get the donated garments to the organisation, Woudstra said the collected clothes from all the stores in South Africa are sent to Joburg.

The attire is then stored in a container and once it is full the garments are shipped off to I:Collect’s nearest split point, which is in India.

The clothing donated by H&M customers is then sold to the organisation by the kilogram, where it is sorted to either be re-used, re-worn or recycled.

The money H&M gets from the garments sold to I:Collect is then donated to the UN Children’s Emergency Fund and South Africa’s early childhood development programme.

“The rest of the money earned will then be donated to the H&M Foundation and earmarked for investments in innovation projects for closing the fashion loop on textiles,” said Woudstra.

These initiatives are seen as a step in the right direction, as the fashion industry operates under strenuous conditions of production, textile manufacturing, clothing construction, shipping, retail, use and ultimately disposal of the garment.

On its website, I:Collect said the production of a T-shirt alone consumes between 10 000 and 30 000 litres of water and emits 3.6kg of carbon dioxide.

The organisation said only five to 10 percent of these quantities are used or produced with a recycling process.

A future in fashion

/in

Written by Tsholofelo Mosina for Fourways Review

download (5)

It’s an industry few people truly understand and according to Shana Rosenthal, chief executive officer of Lisof, the fashion industry is a highly diverse and mesmerising world of creative commerce with many career paths often overlooked by too many students.

Rosenthal said, “Surely we must blame stigma and ignorance when it comes to perceptions about the fashion industry.”

Rosenthal added that there was an urgent need to change this misconception, because of what the industry had to offer, especially on the business side. “The fashion and retail worlds are vast, fascinating and challenging,” she said.

One such person who has found just that is Katherine Mortner, ladies and design specialist at Edcon, the largest non-food retailer in South Africa.

Mortner said, “I remember attending a career day at school and deciding that this is what I want to do, but was put off when I realised you had to study sewing.” Mortner then studied fine arts for a year, only to follow her passion a year later.

She went on to win the Elle New Talent Award in 2008, which resulted in her being spotted by Stuart Marsh, brand director of Guess South Africa.

Rosenthal outlined the top 10 career paths pupils could consider in the fashion and retail industries:

  •  Planner: Merchandise planning is a systematic approach aimed at maximising return on investment through planning sales and inventory to increase profitability. It’s all about ensuring what the customer wants is available through research, sales tracking, employee training, buying and maintaining the visual aesthetic of a store.
  •  Buyer: Fashion buyers use their sense of style, knowledge of fashion trends and understanding of their target customers’ desire to create an attractive selection of apparel for retail stores. Retail buyers are the brains behind which products or garments are sourced and stocked in advance of a coming season for retail outlets.
  •  Merchandiser: Fashion merchandisers are on the apparel production side and analyse market trends, production costs and previous sales numbers to determine the product direction manufacturers will need to take each season.
  •  Designer: Designers are the creative geniuses who work on the design of clothing and fashion ranges.
  •  Trends forecaster: Trend forecasters predict upcoming trends and reignite trends that are on the decline.
  •  Pattern engineer: The pattern engineer creates the blueprint or pattern pieces for a particular apparel design.
  •  Production manager: The fashion production manager position calls for a person with a passion for detail and an organised mind.
  •  Stylist: Fashion stylists are responsible for bringing to life a photographer or director’s vision for a fashion photoshoot, layout, commercial, print advertisement or music video.
  •  Brand manager: The brand manager’s job is to rev up fashion sales, which can only be done by having a fantastic knowledge of fashion and marketing techniques such as brand equity and consumer buying habits.
  •  Fashion media: This is the world of fashion writers and photographers, fashion public relations specialists, publicists, journalists and bloggers, who help apparel companies and retail stores build and maintain a favourable public image.

Ethical consumers key to cleaning up India’s apparel supply chain: experts

/in

This article was written by Rina Chandran and is placed courtesy of  the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Employees sew clothes at a garment factory in New Delhi September 29, 2014. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

Employees sew clothes at a garment factory in New Delhi September 29, 2014. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

MUMBAI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Global retailers’ efforts to clean supply chains of slave labor and improve labor conditions will have little impact unless consumers in India, Asia’s third-largest economy, demand more ethically produced goods, industry experts said.

India is among the largest manufacturers of textiles and apparel in the world, supplying leading international brands. In and around the southern city of Bengaluru alone, there are some 1,200 garment factories making apparel for global brands.

But it is estimated that the domestic market accounts for more than 40 percent of the industry’s revenue.

Hundreds of small and medium-sized enterprises use forced labor and treat workers poorly, with abuses ranging from withheld salaries to debt bondage, human rights groups say.

“The industry has the most invisible supply chain. It is also mostly unorganized, which makes it harder to map and regulate,” said Mona Gupta, a senior official at India’s Apparel Export Promotion Council late on Thursday.

“Domestic consumers should raise their voice. If they insist on buying only ethical products, that will bring pressure on manufacturers,” she said at a panel discussion on trafficking and modern day slavery organized by the Thomson Reuters Foundation and the Asia Society in Mumbai.

Panelists pointed to the example of Apple Inc., which tackled poor wages and working conditions at the factories of its partner Foxconn in China after criticism from consumers among others.

PUSH, PULL FACTORS

Estimates of the number of people trapped in forced labor vary. The International Labour Organization says 21 million people are victims of forced labor globally, while the Global Slavery Index says there are 36 million slaves in the world, half of them in India.

The conditions of garment workers in South Asia have come under sharp scrutiny following the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh, in which 1,135 workers were killed, many of them employed by suppliers to Western retailers.

In India, legislation exists against bonded labor and child labor, but enforcement is weak.

“Unethical practices in the supply chain must be the responsibility of corporations, but corporations first need to accept the problem exists,” said Dhananjay Tingal, executive director of Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Movement), which says it has freed more than 85,000 children from various industries.

“Corporations must be proactive and engage with the public, as well,” he said.

Global apparel brands H&M, Inditex, C&A and PVH in January committed to improving the lives of workers in Bengaluru, after a report said laborers lived in appalling conditions and were denied decent wages and freedom of movement.

However, campaigners say the seasonal nature of work in India’s textile industry, the advent of fast fashion and the competitiveness of the business have helped create conditions leading to the exploitation of workers.

“There is child labor not just because of a supply-pull factor, but also a demand-push factor,” Gupta said.

“The only way to resolve the issue is to sensitize everyone: businesses, workers and consumers. It can be done,” she said.

 

Buy local because it’s tops

/in

This article was originally published on Independent Media’s World of Work website. 

download (1)

Buying and wearing locally designed and manufactured fashion should not be a “pity party”, or an attempt to force consumers to buy garments just because they are “local”.The purchase of a local fashion product should be an almost unconscious decision that occurs when customers see merchandise that they love, and feel a strong urge to buy.

Yes, we have had many international retail brands and stores finding a home in local retail space; but as an industry, we have the advantage of intimate knowledge of local consumers and markets.

We should be delighting shoppers with on-trend products, at the right price, in the correct fabric, with trims and quality to match these amazing designs.

The vast majority of consumers in South Africa cannot afford to make a conscious decision to buy local products, or are unable to consider the importance of the origin of the garments they purchase. Decisions for these LSM rankings are based purely on affordability and functionality.

For the few who can actively choose, the decision tends to be focused far more on aesthetic appeal than on price alone. These consumers will look at the visual attraction of fashion items as a first criterion.

For this reason, South African fashion design and retail should be in a position to regain market share from international branded products, by capitalising on their first-hand knowledge and understanding of the consumers, and the market.

The South African clothing sector employment peaked at 149 000 jobs in 1996. In 2016, we struggle to confirm 80 000 formal jobs in this sector. Total retail sales were quantified by Statistics SA at R868 billion in January 2016, of which 22 percent (R191bn) was attributed to clothing, textile, footwear and leather goods (CTFL) retail sales.

This is where the opportunity lies for us as a country. If the CTFL sector retail space consists of 50 percent local retailers, and 50 percent international branded retailers, then the local retail “pie” is worth at least R95bn. We know that South African retailers procure at least 25 percent (R24bn) of their product from the local value chain.

The increased international retailer competition is forcing South African retailers to make better use of their local suppliers, to ensure a quicker turnaround time on fashionable products.

This methodology is linked to quick response and fast fashion models, based on the concept that 60 percent of a clothing retailer’s product can be sourced from anywhere globally, to ensure the lowest price, at the best quality, using a six- to nine-month lead time, from design concept to consumer purchase.

The other 40 percent requires a much faster lead time (four to eight weeks) from design concept to consumer purchase.

This portion of the retail buy is not basic commodity items, but rather fashionable, trendy and innovatively designed products that attract customers into the retail store.

These “fashionable” products can be sold at higher price points due to the uniqueness of the items, and the limited quantities of goods.

Once in the specific retail environment, it is hoped that the customer will purchase other basic commodity items to wear with the alluring fashion pieces.

The shift in South African retail procurement practices from 25 to 40 percent locally designed and manufactured product will not only assist retailers to regain and sustain market share; but result in the doubling of local manufacturing jobs to over 155 000.

With women making up 71 percent of all CTFL workers, and each person supporting up to seven people at home, this shift in retail procurement practices, and consumer buying trends, could see more than a million South Africans benefiting.

The call is thus not for patriotism on the part of individuals who cannot afford to be such; but rather a call for South African designers to come to grips with understanding the South African consumer.

Know what drives demand in your particular market.

Whether you design for independent retail, online retail, or formal retail,you must be able to read global trends, and understand point-of-sales data, to ensure customers are attracted and delighted by South African designs.

Buy local, not because it is local – but because it is amazing!
* Anita Stanbury is SA Fashion Council chief executive

H & M promise fair living wage to garment workers by 2018.

/in

download (1)This article originally appeared in the H & M Blog.

“It has always been our vision that all textile workers should be able to live on their wage. We are focusing on our strategic suppliers to start with. Our goal is that all of them should have improved pay structures for fair living wages in place by 2018. This will affect around 850,000 textile workers.

Everyone who’s employed by the fashion industry should earn enough to live on – whoever they are and wherever they work. Unfortunately, this is not the case in many of the countries that we rely on for garment production.

Change is happening, but we think it needs to happen faster. That’s why we’ve created a pioneering roadmap to a fair living wage. It’s our plan for a global change in purchasing and supplier practices, workers’ rights and government responsibility. We’re going further than any fashion company has ever gone, and we’re encouraging the rest of our industry to follow our lead.

What is a ‘fair living wage’?

A fair living wage should at the very least cover the worker and their family’s basic needs and a discretionary income. This wage should be reviewed annually and negotiated with democratically elected trade unions.”

 

TFG looks for space to bring premium UK brands to SA

/in

imagesThis article was written by PALESA VUYOLWETHU TSHANDU for BDLive
CLOTHING and apparel retailer The Foschini Group (TFG) is looking for retail space to bring its recently acquired UK chains Phase Eight and Whistles to its home market.

The group’s chief financial officer Anthony Thunström confirmed Phase Eight expansion plans in SA, saying: “We are currently looking at locations for Phase Eight. We probably will bring a limited number of both Phase Eight and Whistles stores to SA, (but) they could only be in your absolute premium shopping destinations.”

Mr Thunström said that the retailer thought it had a location, in Johannesburg’s Hyde Park mall, but had found that it was better suited for its G-Star Raw clothing store.

There was “massive growth that we continue to see in SA, and that really is because of the diversity of the different brands that we’ve got”, he said.

The group, which owns brands such as Markham, Mat & May, Charles & Keith and Donna Claire, acquired Phase Eight for £140m last year to spring-board its UK portfolio.

Last week, TFG announced it had bought a 100% stake in high-end mass market retailer Whistles for an undisclosed amount.

Kyle Rollinson, an analyst at Avior Capital Markets, said TFG’s expansion of Phase Eight into local markets would add value to its retail offering.

“Foschini has an extremely good portfolio of brands and I think it’s more of a value add, rather than trying to counteract a weak offering. Their offering is strong,” Mr Rollinson said.

TFG is no novice. Woolworths introduced its private label brand David Jones into its South African stores earlier this year, after it acquired the Australian-based women’s wear retailer in 2014 for R23.3bn.

Mr Thunström said: “I don’t think from a strategy point of view anything has changed … there is an advantage in risk diversification in terms of being in different geographies, and it’s certainly been a rand hedge.

“The reality is within this financial year … we will have opened roughly 200 stores in SA this year, and if I look forward over the next five years, we’ll open between 9,100 new stores in SA, so that’s massive growth that we continue to see.”

Chito Siame, an equity analyst at Mergence Investment Managers, said: “I don’t think that would be their primary strategy with regards to recently acquired foreign brands.

“Phase 8 would probably roll out faster in a Macy’s than back home. They are searching for growth, and they’ll buy it if they have to.”

Phase Eight has 107 stores and 203 concessions throughout the UK and Ireland. It also has 15 stores and 113 concessions in 16 global markets.

TFG shares gained 1.02% to close at R141.44 on Thursday.

The Need for Speed in Design Development and Creative Collaboration

/in

This article was compiled by Alison A. Nieder for California Apparel News

download

A global supply chain coupled with increased collaboration between manufacturers and retailers as well as the need to improve speed-to-market is driving apparel makers to look for ways to improve efficiency without sacrificing quality and innovative design.
For many, the answer is 3-D computer-aided design and patternmaking. For the second inCalifornia Apparel News’ ongoing Industry Focus: Technology series, we take a look at 3-D design technology. Executive Editor Alison A. Nieder recently caught up with several apparel technology executives to discuss what’s driving interest in 3-D design technologies and how apparel makers are using 3-D for everything from design development to customer engagement.

Mark Faber

Vice President of Global Customer Success

Optitex.com

We see a combination of operational and strategic motives driving businesses of all different sizes to adopt 3-D. With 3-D, you can create once but leverage everywhere across multiple business processes, from product development and merchandising all the way through to sales and marketing.

One of the biggest benefits on the operational side is time saved. It’s about saving time and costs associated with product development, particularly related to proto and fit samples, by reducing the amount of physical samples needed. Technology also closes the gap between distances, making it much easier for decision makers to see virtual designs and make decisions fast and more effectively. You can speed up collection reviews between a brand’s merchandising, design and product-development teams and between the brands and their vendors. In other cases, it can even extend to the sales and marketing process by reducing costs and time associated with salesman samples, changing the experience of buyers in the showroom, improving store merchandise planning and even photo shoots.

On a strategic level, companies are driven to adopt 3-D with the goal to deliver the best possible product to their customers. Virtual sampling gives merchandisers and designers more color and design options to select from without impacting time and cost of delivery. You can present 3-D samples in any meeting, even without a physical sample, in all colorways. The decision making is happening much faster, and the quality of the product is better as you visualize a true-to-life garment, all months earlier than brands could have done before. In other cases, the motivation stems from a desire to be innovative and leaders in the industry, with forward-thinking technology and a vision of a future that includes consumers interacting with 3-D samples, whether online or in-store.

Regardless of the initial driver for adopting 3-D, the bottom line for all the brands and retailers we work with is that where it starts is never where it ends. Within a relatively short period of getting started, they see additional uses and benefits of 3-D for their whole workflow and implement them from concept all the way to the in-store experience.

Luis Velázquez

Director of Business Development

Lectra North America

www.lectra.com

Leading companies have already squeezed all of the big chunks of fluff time from their product-development calendars. Many of them have also managed to push forward into fabric platforming and tight vendor partnerships, economizing time even further. However, the pressure to reduce time has not waned, and COOs are being asked to push for more. What is the next opportunity? The ability to generate virtual digital prototypes seems to be what executives are looking at now. The genesis of this interest centers on replacing one to two sample iterations with 3-D, thereby reducing total development time and cost accordingly. The added benefit, of course, is that design teams can then generate and review an increased number of product options without added cost. Seeing the same dress with long and short sleeves, for example, requires only a nominal investment in time with 3-D compared to full prototyping.

Sample reductions may have been where it started, but innovative companies are pushing the technology even further, looking to positively impact areas such as on-product marketing and in-store presentation for an ever more inviting shopping experience. For example, some are looking to 3-D virtual prototypes to allow for printing of labels with product renderings. In the past, product rendering on labels was cost prohibitive and nearly impossible to execute because of the time needed to execute samples and photography in every colorway. 3-D has the potential to allow fit protos to be executed in one colorway physically while all other colorways are approved off swatch and 3-D renderings. This means that label ordering can proceed on an expedited timeline, no longer dependent on a physical sample or photo shoot timelines. In addition, merchandising is beginning to use 3-D not only at the product selection/adoption phase but also in designing the product presentations in-store, for stronger visualization of the shoppers’ experience prior to roll out. We have even seen one company use 3-D prototypes as part of a video created to pitch to one of its customers.

Many of the best new ideas for the use of virtual prototypes are coming directly from our clients. We can’t wait to see where this goes next.

Mary McFadden

Executive Director, CAD Product Management

Gerber Technology

www.gerbertechnology.com

Now that companies understand the current applications for 3-D in the value chain, they are starting to think more creatively about additional uses, from textile development to engaging with consumers. What we think of as “traditional” uses of 3-D as well as the promise of less talked about applications are all driving adoption.

There is now a general understanding that product development can save a minimum of two weeks in the development calendar, depending on the average number of prototypes created during the development process. Prior to the sample being created, pattern development is made even more efficient due to the patternmaker’s ability to validate their patterns without having to rely on others to execute a physical sample. Patternmakers quickly become dependent on 3-D as a tool to make the pattern development process more efficient.

For many, the use of 3-D integrates so readily into the collaboration process, they easily expand the audience beyond their original target. We have some customers that planned on using 3-D between design and product development but added the use of 3-D as a sales tool. These customers are also finding that their opportunity is increasing because they are able to present more designs in the line to buyers, virtually. They no longer need to take the time to create physical samples but can present design concepts digitally, increasing their opportunity to have more designs selected.

When designers collaborate with customers, 3-D design provides a more effective tool than flat sketches. Companies that specialize in digital design can more effectively present concepts in 3-D as compared to flat sketches. In a flat sketch the impact of the design is lost and the customer cannot fully understand how the design will look when executed. Leveraging 3-D for this customer interaction reduces the overall cost and time of development but also results in a more satisfied customer.

Another area where we have seen a lot of excitement is in the area of textile development. Textile designers can use virtual samples to test design concepts without creating physical samples or yardage. Scale and proportion can be visualized and modified on a virtual sample quickly to help refine a design concept prior to the expense of physical samples.

There are many other areas of interest from the effects of laundry and reverse engineering of textile properties to dynamic fit and deeper consumer interaction, all of which excite customers’ imagination. All of these areas are driving adoption of 3-D technology. 3-D is clearly here to stay, and the possibilities are really endless. We can all look forward to a more enriched experience as both industry professionals as well as consumers.

Dr. Andreas Seidl

Chief Executive Officer

Human Solutions Group/Assyst

www.human-solutions.com

Discussions with our customers have repeatedly shown that making solidly based decisions fast is becoming increasingly important for them when they’re creating their new collections. Many see the benefits of 3-D, especially in the design process. Our simulation software, Vidya, makes it possible to work with an almost photorealistic image of a product right from the outset. Changes in materials, applications, buttons, stitch types, etc., can be simulated lightning fast. This reduces the risk of wrong decisions and elaborately produced sample pieces. Our customers tell us that they can now do without as much as 60 percent of their sample pieces. This simplifies and speeds up the production process—and naturally generates significant cost reductions. Work goes much faster, especially in the creation of variants and later collections.

Vidya also offers the great advantage of possible integration with our iSize portal, plus the option to work directly with a body scan of the house model, ensuring that sizing and fitting remains highly visible throughout the entire design process. This is a big advantage for sales, for example, when it comes to keeping the number of returns in the online shop as low as possible, and we also offer the Bodyprofiler for this, an ideal complementary software solution. Many of our customers are using 3-D more and more to communicate with their own customers, especially in the online environment—and this means that all those expensive photoshoots are now a thing of the past. Color and material variants can be quickly and easily imaged in the online shop and the house scanatar can be used for virtual try-ons.

Savannah Crawford

Chief Collaborator

Tukatech

www.tukatech.com

Manufacturers are looking for ways to reduce the number of samples and shorten the product-development process. Brands are looking for ways to expand their product offering without risk.

There is a lot of opportunity for improving efficiency in the product-development cycle. When everything was vertical, sample approvals took place with the fit model, designer, patternmaker, and sample maker all in one room. Changes were communicated clearly between the relevant people, and the final sample was approved within a day or two. Now, because of globalization, sample approvals must take place across continents. Sending a sample via courier adds additional cost in both money and time. Language barriers add another layer to the complexities of design interpretation. We’ve tried communicating with tech packs and fit forms, but these methods just add new problems in analyzing fit and design. Lots of companies are now looking for solutions that close the communication gaps in a fast-paced, globalized industry.

With 3-D technology, there is more consistency because the 3-D fit model will have a consistent shape, anywhere and anytime. The live fit models’ bodies are replicated with the correct measurements, shape and posture so that right from the beginning every curve in the pattern is matched to the same figure. In TUKA3D, animation can be added to the models (walking, cycling, dancing, running, playing golf) to replicate live fit sessions. The 3-D operator can verify how the garment is fitting while the model is in motion using different tools within the software. Companies find this advantageous because they are able to achieve a consistent fit between styles. Furthermore, they see an improvement in their sample approval rate because the garment is being analyzed on the same body at all stages of development.

After the fit of a garment is approved, changing the design in 3-D becomes much faster. New details, prints, or colorways are easily visualized on a 3-D garment rather than producing physical samples for every variation. There is more flexibility because images or videos can be viewed anywhere on any device. Instant feedback and collaboration is more easily facilitated between international parties, which gives companies the efficiency they are looking for in their product development and even allows for more ingenuity when marketing to the end consumer.

Because of the limitless variations that can be offered by a brand as a result of 3-D technology, e-commerce companies are able to operate on a made-to-order business model. Hundreds of graphics and prints can be shown on any number of silhouettes, all as rendered 3-D garments. Nothing is made until it’s already been paid for, which means that there is no inventory. The brands do not have to stock thousands of samples in hopes that they will sell, and they can still showcase unique product offerings.

Over 500 brands, retailers and vendors are already using 3-D technology for their product-development processes. Many of them have even eliminated physical sample making, as they have found that there is zero tolerance between what they see on the computer and what they get in real life.