Why digital product creation (DPC) matters

The industry mindset has shifted over the past 25 years towards excessive physical sampling, resulting in significant waste. A change in thinking is essential.

Consider a core men's shirt, for instance. It uses the same fabric base with occasional variations in weave, colour, or finishing across seasons. When producing such consistent core products, why create physical samples when you can view them digitally?

Digital colour approvals and 3D garment visualisation are possible, making a virtual showroom the logical choice.

Barriers to digital fabric adoption

The main challenges are:

• Uncertainty around digital fabric return on investment.
• Workforce lacks digital materials expertise.
• Mills struggle to integrate digital processes alongside physical production: the question of who within the mill understands this process and is ready to embrace it remains unanswered.
• If brands are uncertain about their digital workflows, mills hesitate to invest in software or hardware that may not align with the brands' final choices.

Challenges in introducing digital workflows to mills and factories

The main point is aligning with the brand's digital quality standards, which are additional benchmarks garment manufacturers and mills must adhere to, similar to fabric testing standards.

However, comprehension of these standards varies depending on the digital proficiency of the manufacturer or mill, affecting how they align their fabric testing processes.

When it comes to fabric testing for digital materials in 3D software, there are specific CAD requirements that may seem unconventional to traditional fabric technologists in mills.

• Digital testing requires specific CAD methods (e.g., stretch recovery tests, even for rigid fabrics).
• Traditional mills may find these methods counterintuitive.
• Standardisation is needed across the industry.

Overcoming the lack of tactile experience in digital textiles

Trust is crucial when working with digital twins of physical materials.

Other types of information that can help build trust, especially in terms of fit and how the fabric behaves are:

• Images.
• Data.
• Videos of the physical material.

While there are software tools for fit testing in the digital realm, it's essential to iterate and test physical samples as well to ensure the fabric responds correctly when used in garment production.

Mills leading the digitisation process

Mills already have data on their materials, which can be leveraged for digitalisation. Garment manufacturers, however, often hold more influence and are hesitant about its use.

This hesitancy stems from concerns about whether the digital fabric will behave the same way as the physical one. Simplifying the process by implementing systems where mills can scan fabrics, learn the necessary digital skills, and provide digital assets could help overcome these challenges.

The financial barrier to digital transformation

High costs:

• Investment in hardware.
• Software costs and training can exceed $50,000.

A fairer approach would involve sharing the cost among mills, brands, and manufacturers. Brands could offer financial support to facilitate digitalisation, possibly by establishing digitalisation labs in their buying offices or providing training through universities.

This support doesn't have to be solely financial; it can encompass training and resources, making the transition more appealing and practical.

Standardising digital quality in fashion

Standardisation is crucial in our industry, but we often struggle with self-governance and establishing our own standards. We already have well-defined fabric testing methods through ISO, BS, and ASM, and it makes sense to extend these to include methods for digital fabrics. The question is, who will lead in setting these standards? We need:

• Open discussions and collaboration among brands, technology companies, and academia.
• Many research papers are emerging on physical testing and digital software, which could help guide the industry towards developing these standards collectively.
• It's important for a group of stakeholders to come together to establish these standards effectively.

Emerging trends in textile technology

• I'm excited about viewing materials in augmented reality (AR) because the current technology falls short in terms of fidelity and resolution.
• There's promising work on avatars and digital humans that could improve material visualisation.
• While there's scepticism about how AI understands the physics of materials, the potential lies in utilising data for support.
• A handheld spectrometer or scanner could revolutionise the design and development process by capturing detailed information and easily transferring it to computers. While these concepts exist, they're not yet widely used in the supply chain, but I hope to see them integrated in the future.