Portland User Meetup: Navigating the 3D Journey at Columbia
Adrianne and Johanna reflect on their experiences working at Columbia as the company navigates its 3D journey.
About the Company
Founded in the early 1980s, Kane Top Group is a vertically integrated global supply chain manager and apparel manufacturer, focusing on developing and producing knitted fabrics, with advanced textile and apparel purchasing and manufacturing capabilities. The company, which is spread across mainland China, Hong Kong, and Vietnam, works with a variety of internationally renowned brands, such as Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, J. Lindberg, Abercrombie & Fitch, Armani Exchange, Roots, Urban Outfitters and J. Crew. Since its founding, the company prioritizes environmental sustainability and social responsibility with strict quality control, competitive prices, and punctual delivery of goods.
Shifting to Digital
As the apparel industry continues to embrace digital transformation and adopt more sustainable product development methods through 3D design tools, smart manufacturing, digital printing, and more, Kane Top soon recognized the importance of shifting to digital and was eager to embark on its 3D journey, with Browzwear as its partner in 2020.
To begin the 3D adoption process, the team at Kane Top defined several key goals that they hoped to achieve: conducting the sampling process using digital prototypes and implementing creative ODM online reviews that would enable secondary development correction, color development, and product pre-sale. By developing virtual samples with 3D, the company would ultimately be able to cut back on its production costs of physical sample development.
The Impact of 3D
Since leveraging Browzwear’s 3D design technology, VStitcher, within the design workflow, the design team has noticed significant enhancements with the preliminary design phase of the garments. One is that by working in 3D, they can easily identify any imperfections or faults early on in the process and amend them before being produced physically. “Whereas in the traditional sample development process, potential issues are resolved through multiple iterations and customer approval rounds which can often take up to two weeks.
By incorporating 3D into the product development workflow, both the time taken for a style to be approved and the number of samples needed throughout the process is significantly reduced,” says Ms. HongYan You, CEO, Kane Top.”When it comes to sample development, 3D has enabled us to shorten the process from two weeks to just one day, allowing us to take action and execute the workflow instantly with a 32% reduction in physical samples throughout the cycle,” she adds.
Looking Toward a Digital Future
As the company presses on with 3D implementation, they plan to focus on garment presenting capabilities with Browzwear’s showcasing platform, Stylezone, in the coming months as well as look into creating virtual catwalks. From a long-term perspective, the adoption of Browzwear’s software enables the two companies to work together to facilitate the apparel industry’s transformation, both in terms of efficiency and creating a greener and less wasteful future.
Benefits Of 3D For Kane Top Group
Sample development cycle shortened from two weeks to just one day
32% reduction in physical samples throughout the process
Design imperfections can be identified and amended instantly
A much faster sample approval cycle
“When it comes to sample development, 3D has enabled us to shorten the process from two weeks to just one day, allowing us to take action and execute the workflow instantly with a 32% reduction in physical samples throughout the cycle.”
