Virtual prototyping or 3D sampling for apparel manufacturing has been around for three decades; however, it has gained momentum only over the past decade. As time and technology progress further, there is only one way the industry will move – faster. Fast fashion is already pushing the whole supply chain. The number of seasons has grown from the traditional spring/summer and autumn/winter to at least six distinct seasons. Retailers are replenishing their racks with new styles every month and apparel manufacturers are reporting higher than ever style changeovers every month. This nature of the industry principally means that there are more designs and sketches than ever, being conceptualized, prototyped and sampled.
Virtual prototyping solutions have emerged as a huge enabler in the apparel manufacturing supply chain. “Sometimes we have lost beautiful designs and products because product development teams were not able to thoroughly render the designer’s vision,” shares Michaela Pokorna, Apparel Designer – Bikewear & Running, Scott Sports – an Optitex user, highlighting the limitations when the product development teams have 2D sketches for reference. Since the styles are visible onscreen and modifications can be done immediately and shared visually between different teams, including design, product development, product marketing, and management & sales, it facilitates the Product Development teams to see designs and suggest changes on a design much quicker, hence permitting faster approvals.
To a great extent it can be said that the 3D revolution has been buyer-driven as shorter lead times is the need of the time. “We can now get products in store within four weeks,” says Ben Lee, F&F Senior Women’s Wear Designer, highlighting the advantages Modaris 3D – Lectra’s virtual prototyping solution has brought to the table. “Today, we are in control of patterns making and grading. Whereas previously suppliers created patterns based on a size chart and the resulting patterns and garments were open to interpretation,” shares Kathy Fawcett, Technical Manager, F&F, explaining the advantages from a retailer’s point of view.
Virtual prototyping has found virulent ground in the growing e-commerce market scenario too. “While most e-commerce retailers take six to eight months from concept to consumer, with TUKA3D, they can go live with a new collection in less than 30 days,” says Ram Sareen, Head Coach & Founder, Tukatech. “New styles are developed, corrected, and approved digitally. Once approved, the digital image is transferred to the e-commerce site and offered for sale. No samples, no photo shoot, no inventory in this business model,” he adds. These virtual prototyping solutions have also evolved to work with technical materials, respond to unique fabric and fit challenges and sport-specific fit. “The unique fit requirements of a sports garment need to be respected, as well as demands for sun protection, breathability, elasticity, and resistance to water and wind. The pattern for a pair of bike shorts, for example, is designed specifically to support the athlete in a seated position,” explains Ulrike Froitzheim, Head of Quality Management and 3D Project Manager at Odlo – a premium functional sportswear online store and a Modaris 3D user.
“TUKA3D’s e-fit allows us to see how the garment will look on our fit model, and we can see how the clothes drape and move in realtime. 90 per cent of everything we do can be done on e-fit. Besides, a style that once took us three days to design, we can now design in half of a day, thanks to Tukatech,” shares Arshad Sattar, CEO of Timex Garments. Timex was one of the first apparel companies to adopt TUKA3D to create samples and since then cut down on the number of physical samples. At the same time, Timex has increased the approval rate on first time sample submission.
“On an order-toorder basis, virtual prototyping solutions render the total lead times shorter by 10 per cent. If all these savings of times are viewed in congregation, it implies that the user can make space for 11.11 per cent more styles than before.” – Nitin Mohan, IT Head, Triburg
Where does 3D sampling find application?
While some buyers prefer sending virtual samples to buying offices and/or factories, most of the time TechPacks and flat sketches is what the manufacturer receives. An average manufacturing cycle is roughly 100 days long, out of which, 30-40 days are reserved for sampling – which is a long lead time. Triburg – a leading Indian buying house with a team of 20 3D technicians is working on Gerber VStitcher and bringing savings of up to 10 days per style. Avers Nitin Mohan, IT Head of Triburg, “On an order-to-order basis, it renders the total lead times shorter by 10 per cent. If all these savings of times are viewed in congregation, it implies that the user can now make space for 11.11 per cent more styles than before.”
A typical sampling procedure has about 11 different sampling stages, like design development, proto sample, fit sample, ad or photo shoot sample, salesman sample, size set sample, preproduction sample, wash sample, TOP sample and shipment sample. The first three samples relate to designing and require a lot of interaction between the buyer and manufacturer where a lot of time gets wasted on design understanding and reproduction. Hence a virtual prototyping software is a must. The next two samples are for sales and the samples required thereafter facilitate quality production. It can be noted that the samples required for the sales and production stage cannot be virtual.
Out of the samples of the design stage, mainly design developments and proto samples are developed on 3D software. The fit samples are reviewed by the buyers on physical samples. “Buyers are migrating to 3D sampling for proto samples only, whereas they still want to check the fit on physical samples,” Nitin shares. “With Tukatech, we do only one prototype before it goes to the salesman, and later proceeds for the fits,” corroborates Nuwan Bandara, GM – Product Development and Technical, Hirdaramani International Exports. Using virtual prototyping, Bandara and his staff have significantly reduced the number of samples needed to meet a customer’s approval, and reduced the time in which the process typically takes.
