Home AI Ask the Experts: What’s Next for DPC & Broader Digitization?

Ask the Experts: What’s Next for DPC & Broader Digitization?

by Michael Ratcliffe
0 comments

As part of our ongoing ‘Ask the Experts’ series, we have brought together some of the Fashion industry’s leading Digital Transformation specialists to answer your most pressing questions. Today, in our final piece of the series, we ask the team: what’s next for DPC and Digitization more broadly? How will they help to ignite the next big fashion (r)evolution?

Here’s what they had to say…

If we look back at the big technology revolutions over the past 20 or 30 years, we see a striking trend in how our society adopts technology. Back when film was used for photography and the digital camera had just arrived on the scene, there was a big argument around the pros and cons of “photography” vs “digital photography”. The same thing happened in the music industry, with the advent of the CD, then later the MP3… “music vs digital music”.

Obviously, the vast majority of us no longer think about photography and music this way; photos are just photos and music is just music, regardless of the source, digital or not. (Apologies to you vinyl fans out there :p)

The point is, digitization solved a number of massive problems in both of these industries; largely around speed, cost, ease of use, and democratization of creation.

Digital Product Creation is now at the tipping point where we will soon start dropping the word “Digital” in Digital Product Creation and just be left with… Product Creation. 

The fact that we use digital technology in most cases will just be assumed, because of the benefits above. So how do we get over this tipping point, and what does the other side look like?

If our goal is to revolutionize the industry with DPC, we need to look at solving the biggest problems within the industry. We need to look at material waste, overproduction, poor forecasting, and uninspiring experiences as our targets to solve. Through this lens, we can use the capabilities provided by technology to move to concepts such as high-speed design for manufacturing 3D/seamless knitting in order to reduce the waste of cut & sew. We can build just-in-time/close-to-consumer manufacturing models that allow us to deliver only what the consumer wants to buy, vastly improving forecasting and reducing overproduction. Compelling digital experiences could allow us to “test and learn” digital concepts with consumers, before committing to physical production

In this way, DPC becomes part of an entire digital ecosystem quickly delivering relevant products to the consumer with only the lightest touch to the planet. Because of this, we may need to start redefining what DPC actually means:

DPC ≠ 3D

Digital Product Creation is about using technology, in whatever form, to streamline the product creation process. It may include 3D, but it could also be 2D, AI, VR, integration, cloud computing, automation, and robotics. 

DPC needs to be about the entire ecosystem—people, process, and technology—that we use to bring about fundamental change in the industry. 

Is this asking too much from digitization? Is it too big of a change for our industry to absorb? Only time will tell.

Find Joshua here.

Joshua will be speaking at Stride in Portland next year. Click here to find out more.

Eric Hoffer, American philosopher and social critic, author of The True Believer, and recipient of the 1983 Presidential Medal of Freedom, once said:

The only way to predict the future is to have the power to shape it

When the iPhone was invented in 2007, the buzz phrase was “the consumerisation of IT.” Suddenly “the end user” not only had an opinion about tech, but was actually driving its adoption and improvement and no longer needed to know how it was built or why it had limitations. IT was no longer kept behind the scenes with its secret wizardry.

Look where we have gotten to today as a result of “the consumerisation of IT.” Digital connects us to the world around us.

No one can say for certain what’s next or how we will revolutionise the industry with digital. 

But together, we will make the next chapter of Digital Product Creation more meaningful, useful, and relevant. We will also make it easier to use, and less expensive.

Today, we are fraught with software that is biased toward symmetry, is NOT interoperable, challenging to learn, difficult to use, and not truly representative of real products.

Well done everyone for sticking with it!

  • We must have avatars that are based on bones NOT rigs and that have soft tissue not hard surfaces. They must move fluidly like humans instead of rickety jerky robots.
  • Digitised fabrics must have true fabric properties, not imposed or altered or chosen behaviours because technology allows us to alter reality.
  • The siloes of tech providers must be broken down. One stop tech shopping is over.

I remember being part of the start of the Digital Computing Lab at Parsons in NY in the mid 1990s. Textile designers attended my Computer Aided Design (CAD) class because they feared losing their jobs to computers – they didn’t. Instead, they excelled as artists because they mastered using CAD to take away some of the inefficiencies of manual work, and they drove the improvement of that tech. 

But technology never replaced the design, knowledge and craft of the artists.

Textile engineers, pattern makers and product engineers know how fabrics can be shaped and constructed into commercially viable garments. This group of people is the North Star for Digital Product Development Tech.

Let’s listen and learn.

We’ve come a long way in the past 30 years and I don’t believe it will take another 30 to advance to the next level–but only if we ALL engage on this journey.

Find Craig here.

Love these questions! I’ll start from the end: I’ll continue driving digitization in fashion through independent consulting, support and training for companies and institutes in all stages of 3D work. I truly believe that digital tools are the way to more sustainability, transparency, and efficiency.

As for the next big things in DPC and digitization, right now no one can ignore the huge changes AI and machine learning are bringing to existing processes, and they don’t show any signs of slowing down. 3D is still strong for technical accuracy and streamlining product creation (and keeps evolving with new tools and functions), while harnessing the power of big data to make better forecasts and decisions earlier in the process is amazing for design and purchasing. 

Technology is getting better and better for production, and generative AI is shifting things forward in both design and sales. 

I dare say that when it comes to showcasing and selling digital garments, we’ll see very interesting projects cropping up in the next year or two when AI is paired with previous hypes like the metaverse. 

Really, I think the next few years are going to be fascinating, and we’ll all be kept on our toes with the fast pace of improvements and changes to the technological landscape of fashion.

 If you’re interested in working together, feel free to reach out to me at hello@studiolupas.com anytime!

Find Sophie here.

When you look at the rapid development of AI-powered technologies, it’s hard to dispute the fact that we are in a time of profound and continuous disruption of our creation process. 

In the short run, the combination of: increasingly intuitive interfaces and tools; extremely powerful yet accessible software; and a hybrid approach where content – avatars, garments, accessories, material – can be simulated using AI instead of programmed from scratch, will democratize access to DPC and put the tools of creation in the hands of more contributors, allowing more startups and small companies in new geographies to pop up and push the limits of digital content. 

Advanced digital manufacturing processes will also allow new players to emerge and offer great product, with engaging narratives and innovative approaches to fulfillment. The big, well established companies will be under pressure to stay ahead, competitive, or even relevant, and challenger brands will take a bigger piece of the pie. 

Agentic AI will allow very small and nimble teams to rival much larger organizations in output and impact.

In the long run, the intersection of hyper-realistic real-time simulation, quantum computing, Artificial General Intelligence, voxel-level additive manufacturing and advanced robotics will unlock exponential opportunities which will most likely lead to completely new types of products and experiences. 

The new generations of consumers will expect more from their brands and these will need to keep pushing the limits of what’s possible to stay relevant.

In other words, we’d better buckle up…it’s going to be a wild ride !!! 💫 ✨

Find Safir here.

Safir will be joining us as a speaker at Stride on 11-12 March 2025 in Portland. To find out more, click here

Ten years ago, apparel manufacturing tradeshows were bustling and enjoying a post-recession “glow-up.” European fast-fashion brands were the bullet trains of the industry. Fashion-tech startups were everywhere.

Today, we’re less sure of ourselves as an industry but I’m optimistic! 

In 2014, industry-grade CAD tools were cost prohibitive. By 2024, SaaS (software as a service) placed some of the most popular tools readily in reach. We’re also a lot wiser about DPC. We even have experts to ask.

So, what’s next? I’m excited to see our industry work on tackling persistent gaps. 

Now that accessibility has improved, let’s tackle duplicative work and reduce distance between digital and physical.
The massive uncertainty our industry is facing is scary, but it is also creating big opportunities for the type of disruption we need. The uncertainty has our eyes open and we’re hungry for effective solutions. I don’t know which tool or process will be the next big star but my advice to would-be disruptors is to focus on empowering individuals.

In 1949, Singer Sewing Machine Company published the ‘Singer Sewing Book’ by Mary Brooks Picken. The comprehensive book about sewing also masterfully demonstrates amazing Singer sewing machine attachments. Readers learned HOW to sew… using Singer’s tools. Which would you prefer? A comprehensive book about sewing or the small user’s manual to your low-shank ruffler foot? Which resource would be better for onboarding rookies? To ignite the next (r)evolution in digital, let’s mimic the ‘Picken approach‘: we need to provide the value individuals need to be successful.

For example, many people in industry want to build their patternmaking skills. So, don’t develop training that teaches how to simulate garments in a tool. Teach patternmaking and fitting techniques in the tool with simulating the proto as a step to achieve desired results. 

Make sure the tool or process is associated with achieving positive outcomes and improving one’s work from the beginning.

 Find Christian here.

And so we come to the end of this Ask the Experts series. I want to take this opportunity to thank our experts, on behalf of PI Apparel and our readership, for their insightful and informed answers! 

Whilst this series may be over, you’ll no doubt be seeing our experts soon at an upcoming PI Apparel event.

Found this helpful and have more questions you’d like answered? Pop them into the comments section below and we will add them to the list.

You may also like

Leave a Comment

Exploring Fashion’s Digital Frontier

Get Seamless stories to your inbox

© 2024 All Right Reserved seamless.fashion