[TC]² Bi-Weekly Technology Communicator

November 1, 2006	Index • Sizing: The Solution, A Fitting Experience • [TC]² Activity - Supply Chain Leadership Committee • Member Profile - Geomagic • Important Dates • A Look Ahead • Sign Up or Unsubscribe

Sizing: The Solution, A Fitting Experience from Design to Retail

By Dr. Kim Anderson, [TC]²

The AAFA and FIT’s Center for Professional Studies presented the seminar, Sizing: The Solution, A Fitting Experience from Design to Retail. The seminar was held at the Katie Murphy Amphitheater in New York City on Wednesday, October 11th. After a brief introduction, Robin Lewis, President, Robin Lewis Inc., introduced Marshal Cohen. Cohen is the Chief Industry Analyst for NPD Fashionworld.

Cohen began his presentation by emphasizing how sizing in the apparel industry has changed. Depending on the brand, a size 1, 6 and 8 may all be the same size. He stressed the importance of vanity sizing. Today, the average woman is 5’4’’ and a size 14. To accommodate her, clothes are made to be bigger and sized smaller.

Other issues Cohen said apparel companies should be aware of are:

• Women are practicing wardrobing, buying pieces of apparel to add to their existing wardrobe as opposed to buying whole new wardrobes.

• The apparel industry is competing with other industries, not just itself.

• The #1 reason consumers purchase clothing is style and color. Tied for #2 are price, comfort and fit.

• Obesity trends are on the rise.

• 47% of women don’t try on clothes.

• People are willing to pay more not to try on clothing.

• 52% of people say it is somewhat difficult or difficult to find clothes that fit.

• 74% of women have purchased clothes on line.

Anne Jardine, President, VF Intimates, moderated the next three presentations. Before introducing the speakers, she told the audience about VF’s new brand called Curvation.

Jardine said that focus groups have revealed that “the level of frustration among large women is enormous. Big women are treated with a huge lack of respect…they feel neglected.”
 
She said the words plus and queen size are degrading, so the first thing VF did was change the vocabulary. The Curvation brand is a celebration of curves. The second thing they did was to get a great role model, Queen Latifah.

Jardine believes that in the world of women there is a 50/50 split, those that have an inclusive psychology and those that have an exclusive psychology. Women with an inclusive psychology are those that wear a size18 but keep their size 8 clothing because they hope to be a size 8 again someday. Women with an exclusive psychology are happy with their size and want to shop for brands that specialize in large size apparel.

Jardine then introduced Roxie Star of Shapely Shadow Inc., and Irene Mak, Vice President, Technical Design, American Eagle Outfitters. Shapely Shadow Inc. and American Eagle Outfitters have jointly conducted a project with the goal of producing better fitting apparel.

After realizing that large sizes were selling out, American Eagle Outfitters bought clothes from their competitors, measured them and found that grading practices have changed. Their competitors are grading larger. They developed a fit focus group consisting of 28 women and 21 men, ages 18-30 years old. The women participants ranged in size from XXS-XXL. The men ranged in size from XS-XXXL.  

The technical team at American Eagle Outfitters made 293 garments using new grade rules and their old grade rules. They asked participates about fit, tightness and comfort.

They reviewed 600-800 images using the FastFit technology developed by Shapely Shadow Inc. FastFit allows users to generate digital photographs and 10-15 second video clips. The technology allowed the technical team to capture and analyze images of the participants wearing garments made with the new grade rules and old grade rules. Overall the participants preferred the fit of the apparel made with the new grade rules.

Janet Moss, Director of Operations, Nike, Inc., and Susan Ashdown, Professor, Cornell University, have been working together to explore mass customization, body scanning and Lectra’s FitNet technology.

Nike’s top selling pant was chosen for the project. Nike sent the garment specifications including sizes, grading rules and garments to Cornell University. Under the direction of Ashdown, graduate students developed a focus group consisting of 67 women, ages 18-30 years old and a variety of ethnicities. Sizes ranged from XS to XL. Participants were scanned twice, once wearing scanner wear and a second time wearing the Nike pant. The scans revealed that the waist band had a rise that was too high.

An important issue that arose during the project was the determination of “fit preference” versus “perfect fit.”  Many of the participants rolled the waistband down, therefore, determining fit was challenging.

Custom patterns were generated. Ashdown said that Lectra’s FitNet technology, which generated the custom patterns, was a good solution. Ashdown said the most important message she would like to emphasize was “Understand how a garment is fitting on your target market.”

Terri Meichner, Senior Vice President and General Merchandise Manager, Soma by Chico’s, began her presentation by saying, “Great shaped lingerie begins with great fit.” Research has shown that the majority of women wear bras that don’t fit well.

Soma’s target customer is women age 35 years old and older. Women that are 35 years old and older and women who have had kids tend to get larger around their chest making their bra too tight.

Soma is interacting with its customer on a personal level by teaching them how to measure themselves accurately. Soma experts give style advice and fit tips to help the customer find the perfect bra. Meichner says, “It’s all about looking good and feeling good.”

Susan Moses, a stylist to stars such as Queen Latifah and Kathy Bates, closed the seminar by sharing the humorous, trying and triumphant moments she has experienced while dressing the stars.

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[TC]² Activity

By Jim Lovejoy, [TC]²

The AAFA Supply Chain Leadership Committee Meeting held in Arlington, VA last week kicked off the full agenda with a tour of the White House. The two day agenda contained presentations that were selected and prepared by the committee’s work groups at the SCLC spring meeting.

Forecasting at Warnaco was presented by Laurie Lofgren, Vice President Planning & Forecasting. She shared her views on the value and benefits of collaborative forecasting and planning with both customers and suppliers. She is an enthusiastic promoter of collaboration with Warnaco’s customers.

A Supply Chain Risk Panel moderated by Jim Lovejoy included Rick Horwitch from Bureau Veritas, Russ Goddard from Landau Uniforms, and John Wells from Phillips-Van Heusen. The major supply chain risks were defined as: products not meeting technical specs, late delivery, no delivery, bad press about suppliers, and contamination of product.  Some of the solutions discussed to avoid risks were: an early warning system, multiple product sources, an in-country sourcing team, use of 3PL’s, and programs like WRAP.

Kevin Burke, President  & CEO, AAFA, gave his insights on the current state of Washington politics and the key AAFA industry activities.  He spoke about the importance of the mid-term elections that will determine the control of Congress and shape decisions for the next several years. Burke outlined AAFA’s active legislative agenda that supports its members’ interests.

A Made in USA Success Story was presented by Walter and Bonnie Meck, of FesslerUSA. Walter has been in a role of turning around problem companies and decided to run his own company.  He engineered FesslerUSA to be a private label manufacturer that offered manufacturing plus services.  A major advantage for the company is offering design services in collaboration with its customers’ technical design and development staffs. They accomplish quick turn or speed to market in small quantities with in-house knitting and garment dyeing. In addition, FesslerUSA has formed strong alliances with its suppliers of yarn and technology to attain maximum competitive advantage. Since taking over the company in 1994, Walter and Bonnie have tripled the Pennsylvania company’s revenue.

Service Oriented Architecture, a concept for leveraging existing information assets while providing for business process changes through reusable functions, was presented by Steve Townsend from SAP. The concept provides an abstraction and integration layer also called middleware above existing systems so that business process experts can make changes as their requirements change. This has a lot of appeal as the apparel and footwear supply chains continue to move around the globe.

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Member Profile

By Karen Davis, [TC]²

Geomagic was founded in 1996 to provide products and services for digital shape sampling and processing (DSSP).  The technology is used to transform scan data from physical objects into highly accurate digital models.

The company is headquartered in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, with subsidiaries in Europe and Asia, and distributors worldwide.  Ping Fu, the company chairman, president, and CEO, was named Entrepreneur of the Year by Inc. magazine in 2005 for her efforts to build Geomagic into an industry leader in the high-tech field of DSSP.

Patented Geomagic technology is used in industries including aerospace, automotive, turbine, consumer products, electronic instruments, heavy industry, medical device manufacturing and personal dental reconstruction.  Manufacturers worldwide use Geomagic software to digitally capture design intent and model parts and assemblies. Manufacturers use Geomagic software to custom-design personalized medical devices and consumer products, digitize physical parts for inventory and accurate engineering analysis and compare as-built parts to as-designed CAD models to ensure quality and standards compliance

Geomagic software offers a new way to capture and process 3D geometry of existing shapes with accuracy and speed otherwise not possible.  The software works with all major scanning and CMM measurement systems and interfaces with all major CAD/CAM design, engineering and visualization software. Geomagic software enables and supports rapid prototyping, additive manufacturing and tool/die/mold-making systems.  [TC]² uses Geomagic’s technology in concert with its 3D body measurement system to create high fidelity body models.

Complementing software products and technology is Geomagic Services – a program designed to ensure success and support as customers implement DSSP solutions. In addition to traditional classroom training and technical support, Geomagic Services provides custom software development of tailored workflows, specialized functionality for vertical markets, as well as building customer-specific solutions. Consulting services from Geomagic help customers with needs analysis, workflow and process definition and scanning services for discrete projects. Ensuring customer success, Geomagic provides implementation services with proof-of-concept studies, installation, configuration and optimized on-site rollout.

For more company details, go to www.geomagic.com.

[TC]² Announces 2007 Seminar Schedule

Click here to view a listing of the Education and Training Programs to be held at [TC]²’s Cary, NC facility. For more information on these seminar offerings or other programs, please contact Elizabeth Salisbury at 919.653.3507, or complete the contact form.

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Important Dates

November

December

For detailed information about industry events, visit www.techexchange.com

Thanks to the techexchange site sponsors
Apparel Magazine, Gerber Technology, Intentia, Lectra, Methods Workshop and Reach Technologies.

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A Look Ahead in the Newsletter


MEGATEX
SEAMS Fall Meeting
Apparel Tech Conference

View previous editions of this newsletter

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