Product development in the apparel industry

The effective integration of 3D virtual prototype in the product development process of the textile/clothing industry

“…The price of body scanners has come down by 50-75% with improved portability (Senanayake, 2015). Numerous studies Loker et al, 2005;Istook, 2008;D'Apuzzo, 2009) have demonstrated the significance and value of using 3D technology to address the challenges associated with garment sizing and fit worldwide.…”

“…Apparel companies will benefit from this "mobile body scanning" capability for size-prediction applications and supplying correct-fitting clothing to consumers. It is also expected that the scanning applications can be accessed through subscription systems (Senanayake, 2015). Indeed, experts report that the depth-sensing time-of-flight camera technology is already showing up in the next generation of smartphones.…”

“…Historically, many of those companies used spreadsheets to manage their information all through the previous activities. However, spreadsheets lack the functionality and data structure needed to collaborate and communicate to conduct this fast-moving consumer-driven industry (Senanayake, M., 2015). Fashion, retail, outdoor and footwear are all extremely complex, each product having widely varying lead time and necessitating large teams to get to market.…”

“…The Clothing Industry 4.0-IoF (Internet of fashion) (Senanayake, 2015), made a prediction arguing that in the future, there will be many applications developed to be used on mobile devices, providing apparel companies as well as consumers the opportunity to design, develop, visualize, and purchase apparel products fast (see also section 2.4). The virtual representations will look real, with virtual collections, dressing rooms, show rooms, etc.…”

“…With tech-companies becoming more transparent, tools from one company will be able to communicate with the tools from another tech-company, providing better technological collaboration for apparel Product Development (Senanayake, 2015). While evolving technologies in 3D design environment are trying to convince clothing brands & manufacturers to invest in both chain management and in the infrastructure and architecture itself going through the journey of 3D scepticism to 3D evangelism, attention is also gathered in the retail space with virtual and augmented reality technologies.…”