California Apparel News

    Sponsored by TextiMag™ - ICL Group.
  

Apparel-industry insiders have been preparing for 2025 under a cloudy uncertainty that offers few clear solutions for fashion professionals. From supply-chain challenges, tariff conflicts and transparency demands, the clothing business has attempted to prepare for rough seas ahead while recognizing the only constant variable is change and building a strong stable of technology resources is the best method of weathering these pressing issues.

The current climate is generating great uncertainty, but modern technology solutions such as virtual reality, artificial and augmented intelligence, blockchain, enterprise resource planning, radio frequency identification and cloud developments support greater stability and peace of mind for brands and their suppliers.

California Apparel News asked experts in fashion technology: What pressing fashion-industry issue are you most concerned with, and is there a specific technology solution that can help solve it?

Shahrooz Shawn Kohan

Chief Executive Officer

AIMS360

 Brands often struggle to maintain the right inventory levels—producing too much and creating waste or too little and losing sales. Delays in the supply chain only make these problems worse, leading to missed deadlines, frustrated customers and wasted opportunities.

By giving brands real-time visibility into their inventory and automating processes like order tracking and forecasting, we help them stay ahead of demand and avoid overproduction or stockouts.

For an industry facing increasing pressure to be more sustainable, having the right technology isn’t just helpful—it’s essential.

    John Robinson

    Senior Strategic Account Manager of Apparel

    Aptean

 The fashion industry today is achieving better visibility and efficiency across the supply chain. Brands and manufacturers are under constant pressure to meet customer demands for faster delivery, ensure ethical and sustainable sourcing, and keep costs in check. Unfortunately, many businesses are still relying on outdated or disconnected systems, making it tough to get a clear view of supplier performance, production timelines or inventory flow.

Enterprise Resource Planning systems built specifically for the apparel industry provide end-to-end visibility, giving real-time insights into inventory levels, supplier metrics and production schedules. This empowers businesses to make smarter decisions and adapt quickly when disruptions arise.

Pairing an ERP with a Product Lifecycle Management system takes it even further by simplifying the design and development process. PLM tools make it easier to collaborate with suppliers and speed up time-to-market, which is crucial in today’s industry.

When used together, ERP and PLM lay the groundwork for a supply chain that’s not just more efficient but also more transparent and sustainable. Investing in these solutions isn’t just about keeping up—it’s about staying ahead, building trust with customers and positioning your brand to thrive in a rapidly evolving industry.

Sergio Shmilovitch

Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development

Avery Dennison

 From driving supply-chain resilience and operational control to ensuring data transparency and sustainability, the challenges facing the fashion industry are substantial. But, so, too, are the opportunities. With a lack of visibility costing the industry billions each year and eroding trust between partners and consumers, connecting the physical to the digital has never been so crucial.

A full-service portfolio of end-to-end supply-chain solutions is key to this and affords greater control and visibility into manufacturing and supply-chain data. This empowers factories and brands to take a proactive approach and make more-informed decisions that help reduce waste, minimize inventory loss, boost profitability, and strengthen partner and consumer trust.

    Dan O’Connell

    Co-founder

    BrandLab360

 Over the last six months, fashion companies—particularly those reliant upon face-to-face interaction and commerce—have been forced to come up with new and more-innovative ways to do business.

Prior to the lockdown, VR was generally used as a marketing gimmick rather than a serious sales channel. However, closed wholesale showrooms and a drop in shop footfall have rendered traditional sales channels unviable. Many businesses have had to reinvent their operations with incredible speed in order to survive.

The fashion industry has changed on a huge scale and will never be the same again. What was an inevitable move to digital over the next three to five years because of sustainability, market forces and pressures on margins, has happened now because of COVID.

The future has arrived now and the companies that are investing in immersive technologies for this sudden cultural shift are the ones who will prosper in this new world.

Paul F. Magel

President of the Application Solutions Division

Computer Generated Solutions (CGS)

 Among the fashion industry’s most pressing issues is agility—the ability to rapidly adapt to shifting market forces and unexpected challenges.

This includes meeting sustainability objectives as fashion brands face mounting regulatory pressure and consumer demand to minimize environmental impact, from reducing waste and emissions to adopting circular production practices. Achieving these goals requires agile internal systems that can adapt to shifts in sourcing, production and distribution.

Agility also means staying ahead of economic uncertainties such as those posed by tariffs. Tariffs have the potential to significantly impact fashion supply chains, and preparation is key for brands to navigate these challenges. Enhancing supply-chain operational agility can help businesses pivot quickly, capitalize on changing market demands and potentially gain market share from competitors.

Digital supply-chain solutions seamlessly integrate end-to-end visibility and predictive analytics, empowering brands to mitigate unforeseen disruptions, meet sustainability goals and align with consumer preferences. For example, with real-time tracking and demand planning, fashion brands can produce only what’s needed, in turn reducing waste while ensuring timely delivery. Similarly, tools that centralize design, sourcing and production workflows improve collaboration and efficiency across the entire supply chain.

    Pam Peale

    Vice President of Global Sales and U.S. PLM Operations

    DeSL

 Greenwashing is an important topic of concern that has negatively impacted the industry. It is critical that brands are not only pursuing sustainable practices but also authentically messaging their efforts. Consumers want to know the truth about where their clothes come from and how they are made. This growing demand, paired with stricter regulations and corporate initiatives, make it increasingly more important to have full visibility over one’s own supply chain.

Technology partners can provide the tools to address these challenges and enable responsible decision-making during the design and development process. For example, leveraging a PLM system with a full-featured fabric-materials library allows brands to monitor the composition and recyclability of materials during the design phase. The bill of materials can precisely calculate recycled versus non-recycled fibers, helping teams gain deeper insights into the true sustainability of each product.

In addition, supply-relationship management with factory inspection and audit tools ensure a healthy supply chain and improved compliance. With detailed sustainability data managed within PLM, reporting is made easier and more accurate. It is important to discuss sustainability and compliance, but it is of even greater importance that brands have a path and the tools to reach those goals.

Petersen Zhu

Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

DigitBridge

 The fashion industry’s most pressing issue is the shift from traditional wholesale models to a fully digital, omni-channel strategy. It’s not just direct-to-consumer businesses going digital, B2B buyers also expect the same convenience as modern consumers. This digital transformation requires seamless integration between online and offline channels while maintaining efficient, agile DTC operations. However, outdated on-premises software systems struggle to keep up with the need for real-time data synchronization, leaving brands vulnerable to inefficiencies, delays and miscommunications that can impact revenue and erode buyers’ trust.

Wholesale fashion brands should embrace modern, native, cloud-based architecture to stay competitive. Robust digital solutions that consolidate sales-channel integration, streamline inventory operation and ensure frictionless order management are essential. Without them, brands risk losing competitive ground and struggle to meet expectations of today’s buyers or consumers.

    Micol Gamba

    Product Marketing Director

    EFI

 Sustainability came out loud and proud as a trend in the last years. The way EFI Reggiani wants to facilitate this trend is through truly sustainable solutions: Nowadays the topic is serious and, walking the talk is crucial to emerge from the crowd.

Also, operational efficiency is a more and more compelling requirement. In this context, software and workflow automatization are the next technology enabler that will help our customers grow. Our new proprietary end-to-end digital printing workflow powered by Inèdit boosts productivity and production capabilities for digital textile-print operations.

Tirsa Parrish

Co-founder and Managing Partner

Fashion Index

 The lack of transparency in the fashion supply chain often leads to issues like waste, unethical labor practices and challenges in ensuring sustainable operations. This is especially problematic for smaller businesses. The solution is technology that highlights AI-driven optimization and blockchain technology to enhance transparency and foster trust between businesses and consumers while keeping the companies competitive.

AI-powered tools can help businesses optimize design, development and production. It reduces time and waste and predicts demand more accurately. These technologies are beneficial for promoting circular fashion by accelerating innovation and recycling, upcycling or repurposing materials. Blockchain provides end-to-end visibility across the supply chain. For example, each step in production—from sourcing sustainable materials to manufacturing and distribution—can be recorded in an immutable ledger, a record-keeping system where the data entered can’t be altered, tampered with or deleted. This allows brands to prove their sustainability claims and consumers to make more informed decisions.

    Ana Friedlander

    Industry and Solution Strategy Director for North America Fashion Retail

    Infor

 Financial resilience, particularly in navigating economic volatility while maintaining profitability and sustainability is a challenge. Rising production costs, inflation and shifting consumer spending patterns have created significant challenges in the face of economic uncertainty. Equally pressing is the need for supply-chain resilience and transparency as brands navigate disruptions caused by geopolitical tensions, raw-material shortages and tightening regulations on sustainability and ethical practices.

AI-powered supply-chain optimization tools offer a robust solution to address these challenges. By providing real-time visibility into supply-chain operations and leveraging predictive analytics, AI can identify potential risks, forecast transportation delays and analyze market demand. These capabilities allow fashion brands to make proactive decisions, minimize inefficiencies and reduce financial losses caused by overproduction or inventory shortages. This level of operational agility directly supports profitability and long-term financial health.

Simultaneously, blockchain technology is driving supply-chain transparency by enabling end-to-end traceability of materials. By tracking the journey from raw-material sourcing to finished product, blockchain ensures ethical sourcing, compliance with environmental standards and greater accountability. This level of transparency not only meets regulatory demands but also fosters trust with consumers who increasingly prioritize sustainability and ethical practices.

By integrating these advanced technologies, fashion brands can reduce waste, optimize costs and meet evolving market expectations for efficiency and transparency. This strategic approach positions companies for sustainable growth, ensuring they remain competitive in an unpredictable economic and regulatory landscape.

Scott Pearson

Vice President of Sales and Marketing

Jesta

 With ongoing challenges related to the supply chain and the uncertainty of geopolitical implications, the apparel industry faces challenges like unpredictable demand, increasing sourcing challenges, inefficient inventory management and outdated trend forecasting. These lead to overproduction, markdowns stockouts and lost profits. Compounding this is the growing demand for hyper-personalized, quickly delivered products. AI-driven solutions are revolutionizing the industry. By analyzing product attributes and clustering them with customer personas, brands can create highly targeted assortments. Gone are the days of relying solely on A, B and C store categorizations. Today, customer-centric assortments ensure the right stock is in the right place, aligned with seasonal needs and strategic goals.

AI adoption progresses through three stages: predictive, prescriptive and automated. The predictive phase analyzes historical data to forecast trends. In the prescriptive phase, systems offer actionable recommendations—like optimal assortments and replenishment plans—while user feedback ensures trust and confidence. The automated phase delivers maximum efficiency, with AI managing inventory and replenishment independently while adhering to user-defined constraints such as budgets and stock levels supported by oversight protocols.

These advancements deliver tangible benefits: reduced stockouts, fewer lost sales, improved inventory turnover and increased gross margin return on investment. With enhanced efficiency and precision, brands can boost sales and revenue, setting new benchmarks for customer-centric excellence in an increasingly competitive market.

    Alison Bringé

    Chief Marketing Officer

    Launchmetrics

 Entering 2025 against a backdrop of economic uncertainty, fashion brands face a critical challenge—amplifying their reach and driving ROI, all while optimizing resources. In this climate, data-driven decisions are no longer a luxury—they’re the backbone of success, ensuring brands invest in the right channels and voices to make every campaign hit its mark.

To stay ahead, investing in advanced metrics tools that deliver real-time insights into brand and industry performance will be essential.

Leonard Marano

President of the Americas

Lectra

 The fashion industry today is faced with the task of credibly aligning sustainability and profitability. In the wake of increasingly strict environmental regulations around traceability, carbon-footprint reduction and ethical production, brands are under immense pressure to adapt quickly and achieve the delicate balance of econogy.

Econogy—where ecology meets economy at the intersection of technology and sustainability—is transforming the industry, enabling companies to leverage advanced technology like artificial intelligence. AI helps brands streamline supply chains, optimize inventory management and predict consumer demand while reducing waste and improving efficiency.

AI-powered analytics can identify areas for improvement in sustainability practices, offering brands actionable insights to enhance their operations and meet regulatory requirements. This technology empowers companies to build consumer trust, align with evolving expectations, and maintain profitability in a competitive landscape.

By integrating AI into their operations, brands can navigate regulatory challenges, foster transparency and drive innovation. As we get deeper into 2025, the adoption of AI-driven solutions will be critical for success in the rapidly evolving fashion landscape.

 Chris Benner

 Master Industry Principal

 NetSuite

 A pressing issue in the fashion industry is effectively managing demand forecasting amid fluctuating customer expectations, competitive pressures and supply-chain challenges. AI is emerging as a powerful tool to enhance decision-making and improve operational efficiency. It can analyze large data sets—including sales history, market trends and even social-media sentiment—to predict future demand.

NetSuite has been integrating AI and machine learning into its offerings to tackle this issue. This advanced forecasting system goes beyond simple statistical models, recognizing complex correlations between products, customer behavior and external factors like weather or economic shifts. The result is a proactive approach to inventory management. Businesses can optimize stock levels, reducing excess inventory and minimizing costs while ensuring products are available when customers want them.

Chris Akrimi

General Manager of B2B

NuORDER by Lightspeed

 Retailers and brands are honed in on enhancing the customer experience, curating the right assortments and increasing sell-through. All of these rely heavily on data, but many companies lack the time and resources to drive impactful change. Product data—the item-level details required to make, purchase and sell products—is essential but costly and time-consuming to collect. Brands and retailers spend significant resources maintaining this information, yet millions of overlapping data points from style numbers to classifications and enrichments, must still be processed. What results is a tedious, cumbersome workflow that slows down order writing and merchandising.

Integrations, standardization and AI solutions are essential for tackling these complex data challenges, reducing costs and improving scalability and speed-to-market. AI adoption in the fashion industry is growing rapidly, but it depends on clean, consolidated data.

    Preston Plowman

    Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

    Onbrand

 The imposition of tariffs on China poses a significant and immediate threat to fashion brands heavily reliant on Chinese manufacturing. For those with most—or all—of their production tied to China, the resulting cost increases could be devastating. Many brands won’t be able to absorb the added expenses or pass them along to customers.

For brands that don’t own their product data—like pattern files and specs—the situation becomes even worse. If that data is controlled by their factories, they’ll be unable to pivot quickly to new suppliers. How will they retrieve their files to start production elsewhere? Without this intellectual property, brands are left stranded, unable to produce their own products. It’s a critical failure and entirely preventable.

We’ve worked with brands to retrieve product data from factories, digitize and centralize it in our platform, and begin dual sourcing so they’re ready if disruptions occur. By putting all product data in one accessible place, our customers have been able to take control of their supply chains and respond to challenges with agility.

If your brand relies heavily on Chinese manufacturing and you don’t fully own and control your product data, you’re at serious risk.

Yazan Malkosh

Founder and Chief Executive Officer

swatchbook

 Currently some of the most pressing issues are addressing traceability, transparency and material origin for products. We clearly observe a significant wave of regulation emerging that is influenced by regulatory bodies and the consumer market. This challenge poses a major obstacle in terms of data collection, data analysis and data presentation to the manufacturer, designer and consumer. It will entail multiple challenges that have already begun to impact various processes within the industry, such as:

• Tracking material origin down to the fiber level for textiles and the hide level for leathers;

• Providing comprehensive manufacturing and processing data for each stage of production for these materials, including materials used and factory conditions;

• Providing all these data at the earliest stage of design, development and sourcing;

• Incorporating it into bills of material as early as the design stage; and

• Providing a user-friendly way to digest these data for consumers.

We need to delve deeper into one or two tiers lower to address the fundamental needs of material production. Topics related to sustainability are highly sensitive and, in some cases, subjective. In our opinion, complete transparency is essential to provide consumers with the necessary data to make informed purchasing decisions.

    Oya Barlas Bingul

    ICL Specialty Minerals | Senior Manager, Business Development & Marketing

    TextiMag

 One of the fashion industry’s ongoing challenges is reducing its environmental footprint—not just in manufacturing but throughout a garment’s lifecycle. While strides have been made in sourcing sustainable materials, the post-purchase impact—frequent washing, premature disposal, and excessive water and energy consumption—continues to strain natural resources.

Magnesium-based odor adsorption technology from TextiMag presents a meaningful solution. Sourced from the mineral-rich Dead Sea, the pure magnesium used in TextiMag is traceable to its origin, offering brands and consumers’ confidence in its authenticity.

Tim Hogan

Fashion and Luxury Photographer

Timothy Hogan Studio

 One of the most pressing issues in the fashion industry is the cycle of disposable content—imagery that is quickly produced, quickly consumed and quickly forgotten. While fashion thrives on reinvention, the industry has become increasingly driven by short-term trends rather than lasting impact.

As a commercial photographer and director, I believe brands need to shift their focus toward intentional, well-crafted visuals that command attention and reinforce their identity beyond fleeting aesthetics. Instead of chasing content volume, brands should invest in work that is strategically designed to make a lasting impression.

The right tools—such as high-speed cinematography and motion control—allow for a higher level of precision and storytelling that create an immersive experience rather than just another quick-scroll image. This approach doesn’t reject innovation; it refines it, ensuring that fashion visuals don’t just follow trends but define them.

Ultimately, fashion is about desire, and desire isn’t created through volume—it’s created through craftsmanship, artistry and a deeper connection to the audience. The brands that recognize this will be the ones that stand apart in an industry that too often prioritizes speed over substance.

*Responses have been edited for clarity and space.