Listen here to the article.
“Alone you can go fast, but together you can go far.” An ancient proverb that remains highly relevant, especially when discussing digital product development in the ever-evolving fashion and luxury industry.
Streamlining processes such as defect correction, prototyping, and sampling delivers global benefits, including enhanced sustainability. We’ve experienced this firsthand by collaborating with partners like Microsoft, Centric Software, NetApp, Ocra, and Prima Tech. We recognize the value (economic and beyond) of collaboration between various technological stakeholders. This integrated approach enhances the product lifecycle while preventing the entire management burden from falling solely on brands.
So, are there solutions to optimize prototype and sample development, improving workflows, quality, and sustainability? What factors hinder digitalization in prototyping and sampling processes in today’s context? Let’s explore these questions together.
The significance and value of fashion sampling
When discussing sampling, we refer to a crucial process in the lifecycle of a fashion product. Starting from sketches, drawings, and technical designs, it involves creating the first physical examples of the product. Typically managed by the product development team, this process includes sourcing materials and accessories and reviewing all necessary prototypes to finalize the product.
The result is the creation of the first sample collection. This collection is initially used to present the designs to internal and external buyers to gather orders before moving into production. Samples are also used in press meetings to showcase upcoming collections and propose items for articles and editorial shoots.
After completing the sales campaign and collecting orders and potential modifications to the collection, the product team undertakes another crucial phase before production begins. This phase involves developing the products in various sizes and color/fabric variations ordered during the campaign. It concludes with creating a new sample, the pre-production sample, which, after a final quality check, becomes the ultimate reference for mass production.
The challenges of prototype defect correction
Let’s revisit one of the most challenging phases in the sampling process: producing and correcting defects in prototypes. Consolidating the final sample requires numerous prototypes and iterative modifications to meet all design, construction, and fit requirements set by the style office and product team.
Two key factors make this phase particularly demanding:
- The cost of individual prototypes, which, being produced as single units, is inherently high.
- The typically long timelines. Beyond production, this includes the movement of prototypes for defect correction and the sustainability impact of prototype creation and disposal.
Digitalising sampling processes, particularly the defect correction phase, can bring immense value by reducing costs, timelines, and environmental impact.
The role of digital tools in defect correction, prototyping, and sampling
In digitalising sampling processes, particularly the defect correction phase, 3D design plays a pivotal role as the quintessential digital substitute for traditional fashion product design and prototyping processes.
By eliminating physical prototype creation and movement entirely, 3D design offers the most effective solution for significantly reducing timelines, costs, and the environmental footprint of sampling.
Another scenario for the digitalisation of prototypes involves the use of dedicated photo sets on production lines. By capturing high-definition and 360° images, remote defect checking of physical prototypes becomes possible, once again significantly impacting turnaround times.
Barriers to Digitalisation
Digitalising sampling processes often presents a complex challenge for companies, as they encounter several obstacles during implementation:
- Resistance to change:
A common hurdle in digitalising sampling processes is resistance to change among stakeholders. Adopting and disseminating new skills and transitioning from a physical product focus to a digital mindset require significant effort. - Integration difficulties:
Successful digitalisation demands seamless integration between traditional and digital processes. This requires alignment in workflow, language, and systems. Structured, siloed systems often complicate the integration of new tools. - Challenges in workflow synchronization:
Tools like 3D design often exist in isolation, operating separately from traditional fashion prototyping workflows. Synchronizing these processes within a unified workflow remains a major challenge for fashion companies.
External collaboration:
Proper integration also involves external collaborators and organizations. Aligning internal teams with external partners adds another layer of complexity.
Hyphen solution: Chalco Digital Product Development
From Hyphen’s 20 years of experience in the fashion industry comes Chalco Digital Product Development, a new solution designed to support organisations in the critical phase of digitalising prototyping and sampling processes.
Chalco Digital Product Development is the latest addition to the Chalco BrandLife suite, created to manage all prototype defect-checking operations within a single workflow—whether they are 3D-generated or physically produced and digitised through photography. Seamlessly integrating upstream and downstream with leading ERP and PLM systems, it can inherit or generate product lists and sheets, enabling end-to-end management of the entire sampling process, from project creation to planning, approval workflows, and real-time activity monitoring.
The solution includes an advanced interactive viewer for visualisation, commenting, editing, and precise measurement of prototypes, ensuring a seamless experience between defect-checking on 3D renders and photography.
Natively integrated into the Chalco BrandLife suite, Chalco Digital Product Development provides a powerful tool for managing the complex sampling process. At the same time, it enriches the set of content and data that form the Digital Product Identity throughout the entire product lifecycle.
