California Apparel News

NEW YORK—When luxury clothing brand Ports 1961 decided to relocate its design office to Milan but retain its corporate office in Manhattan, the company needed a way to connect everyone on the same page.

That’s where Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) came in handy. With a software system that filed everything onto a central database, apparel factories, fabric buyers, designers, showroom salespeople and executives could have an instant, up-to-date look at what was happening around the globe.

But that wasn’t enough. Ports 1961 also selects and sells its merchandise based on the demographics differences found in various regions. Germany is different from France. Canada is light years away from Russia. So, Ports 1961 decided to put each season’s collection on iPads, with collections edited for each geographic area and prices listed in the local currency. 

Technology is becoming the main tool these days to become more efficient, boost sales and unite companies that are operating in far-flung regions around the world, said James Horne, vice president of marketing for Centric Software, whose Centric 8 PLM system is being used by Ports 1961.

“Ports 1961 wanted to keep their finger on what was going on,” Horne said. “Sketches are reviewed by the management team. They decide what a style will look like [depending on] if it is sold to Italy or to France and which styles are in and out for the season. They are capturing all those decisions on PLM.”

Horne was speaking at the Nov. 29 Apparel Business & Technology Leadership Conference, organized by Apparel magazine at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York.

Another company using Centric’s suite of software systems is Beretta, an Italian company established in 1526 to produce firearms and hunting apparel. It is using Centric’s Collection Management system to create digital catalogs highlighting the company’s assortment of clothing and accessories. Beretta can present a collection of styles to customers through an interactive mobile device, whether online or offline. It is formatted for different regions and consumer taste. 

Old and new companies alike are getting into the technology and software game. Speed to market, digital display of products and cost-cutting measures are driving their quests for improved software.

Speed is becoming paramount and often can only be accomplished with a highly efficient system. Omar Saad, a luxury and softline retail observer at ISI Group, noted that Inditex, which owns fashion-fashion retailer Zara, and The TJX Companies, whose stores include Marshalls and TJ Maxx, are two publicly traded companies that since 2005 have outperformed other retail corporations. “They have speed to market,” he said. “Speed is the one element that will make a difference for your business.”

Quality control

Increasingly, apparel companies are challenged by more stringent environmental regulations and testing requirements to make sure fabric and clothing are non-toxic. California’s Proposition 65 adds an extra layer of testing. It requires businesses to notify Californians about significant amounts of chemicals in their products.

Nearly one year ago, Joe Dixon, senior vice president of production and technical at Brooks Brothers, came to TexBase hoping to solve a serious and expensive problem. 

The company’s board of directors was concerned about an increase in product recalls across the system. Brooks Brothers was challenged with material management and inconsistent testing. “We met with Brooks Brothers’ team and outlined a solution,” said Wayne Huyard, president of TexBase, a software company based in Bozeman, Mont. “They chose TexBase systems for standardized testing and compliance to improve quality, speed to market and operations cost.”

TexBase has developed a Product Integrity Management software system that is compatible with PLM. It deals with many compliance issues. “Compliance becomes more important with each passing day,” Huyard said. “The Consumer Products Safety Commission has overseen 82 civil cases and collected $30 million in fines that range from $25,000 to $4 million. The average fine is $350,000. It is really serious business.”

TexBase also has software to help manage fabric sourcing. It was adopted by Under Armour, the athletic-wear company that has undergone tremendous growth in the last few years with its high-performance fabrics that wick away perspiration. “When Under Armour came to us to adopt our solution, they were using 100 new fabrics a season. That was three or four years ago. Now it is up to 700 new fabrics a season,” Huyard said. “They needed something for testing and performance documentation. They were in search of a solution to document and analyze and catalog their inventory and develop production fabrics.”

Under Armour signed up to use TexBase’s Material Lifecycle Management system, which integrates with PLM. It also is using TexBase’s Material and Connect software systems.

With freight-and-logistics costs making up 4 percent to 12 percent of sales, several tech companies have developed software systems that help fashion companies pack their cargo containers more efficiently, put more cargo onto trains and position inventory in the right distribution center. “Logistics is a big deal, and it is often misunderstood by the C-level suite,” said Jordan Czeizler, managing director of CoMetrics Partners, a New York company that provides supply chain–management software.

Shipping a partially filled cargo container can increase the transportation cost by two to eight times. It can be $1,000 more expensive to ship a cargo container to the East Coast rather than unloading it on the West Coast.

Variables that drive logistic decisions include production schedules; cargo volumes; cost of services; point of origin; disasters, such as hurricanes; and labor strikes.

All of this is difficult to understand and coordinate with faxes and emails flying around the world. “There is a lot of money that can be saved by having the right tool in place to maximize loads and optimize utilization,” Czeizler said. “Just having the visibility and availing yourself of solutions can result in savings.”