Introduction
The 3D Retail Coalition (3DRC) Grand Challenge, established in 2018, is an annual competition that recognises innovators leveraging 3D technology to transform the retail and apparel industry. Organised in collaboration with the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE), PI Apparel and Kalypso, the challenge provides a platform for start-ups, researchers, and technology pioneers to showcase solutions that enhance digital product creation, automation, and consumer experiences. The challenge has played a crucial role in accelerating industry adoption of 3D, offering winners visibility, mentorship, and credibility to scale their innovations.
As we head into its 7th year, in this series we interview past winners and explore where they were then, where they are today, and how the challenge helped them scale for success.
2019 Grand Challenge Winner
Whitney Cathcart is the Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer of 3DLOOK, a pioneering company in AI-powered mobile body scanning. With decades of experience in apparel manufacturing and a sharp eye on emerging technologies, Whitney helped steer 3DLOOK from an early concept to one of the most recognised names in digital fit and body data solutions. Their mission: to transform how brands understand and serve the people who wear their products.
3DLOOK won the 3DRC Grand Challenge in 2019 for its innovative approach to generating accurate 3D body models from just two smartphone photos—enabling brands to reduce returns, improve fit, and access anonymised consumer body data for smarter design and merchandising decisions. Since then, the company has expanded into uniforms, wellness, and health sectors, offering advanced tools like body composition tracking and predictive body changes using AI.
🎥 Watch the full video below!
Don’t have time to watch the full video? Scroll down for a summary of key takeaways and noteworthy quotes.
🔑 Key Takeaways
📱 1. Pioneering Mobile Body Scanning Before It Was Mainstream
Back in 2016, when most of fashion was still focused on eCommerce basics, 3DLOOK took a leap, building mobile scanning tech that leveraged deep learning, computer vision, and neural networks to reconstruct 3D avatars from just two photos. It was a visionary move that anticipated today’s obsession with fit, personalization, and digital identity.
📉 2. Solving Returns, Fit, and Feedback with One Tool
3DLOOK’s early thesis went far beyond simply addressing return rates. As Whitney explained, their approach tackled a threefold challenge: helping consumers find better-fitting clothes, equipping brands with real insights into the bodies actually buying their garments, and reducing waste by aligning product design and fit with actual customer data. The goal wasn’t to sell a clever gadget—it was to fundamentally rethink the relationship between data, design and waste in the apparel industry.
🧠 3. Designing for Both Accuracy & Accessibility
Behind the scenes, building the tech was hard, but making it usable was even harder. Whitney stressed the challenges of early data collection, building diverse training datasets, creating clothing detectors, and ensuring the system worked across lighting environments and phone types—all while staying privacy-compliant and intuitive for low-tech users.
🏗️ 4. Built to Scale Across Industries
Even in the early days, Whitney had a vision: this tech wouldn’t just apply to fashion. Post-Challenge, 3DLOOK expanded into uniforms (a critical use case during COVID) and now health and wellness. Their investment in an in-house 3D body scanning lab and use of synthetic data positioned them to evolve fast across sectors.
🏆 5. The 3DRC Grand Challenge Sparked Focus and Confidence
Winning the 3DRC Grand Challenge in 2019 provided critical validation, not just externally, but for the team internally. It gave them visibility with brands, but more importantly, helped them refine their pitch, focus their value proposition, and accelerate strategic hiring in areas like 3D and machine learning.
🔁 6. Bootstrapped Growth Built on Real Problems
Unlike many start-ups, 3DLOOK wasn’t chasing hype or VC dollars; they grew by solving real problems and listening closely to customer pain points. Whitney’s approach has always been grounded in ROI and business value, not just cool tech.
🧩 7. Business Integration > Tech Novelty
One of the most powerful lessons Whitney shared: your solution doesn’t matter if it can’t integrate into a brand’s real-world workflows. Many tech start-ups fail here. You need to speak the retailer’s language and solve a clear, high-priority problem—not just showcase a flashy prototype.
💡 8. Advice for Innovators: Cut the Fluff, Own the Value
Her advice for challenge applicants and tech start-ups is gold:
➡️ Keep your messaging lean
➡️ Align your story with industry pain points
➡️ Ditch the buzzwords and tech speak
➡️ Be crystal clear about what changes for your customer after using your product
🗣️ Noteworthy Quotes
🧵 On the Industry & Impact
“Apparel brands still don’t fully understand the bodies buying their clothes. That’s a big part of why returns are so high.”
“Body data is the beginning of fit—yet most brands are still grading patterns linearly, even though human bodies don’t change that way.”
“Mobile body scanning opens up so many opportunities, from reducing returns to designing for real people—not just fit models.”
“There’s still a long way to go in digitizing this industry, but the next five years are going to be transformational.”
🎢 On the Journey
“I spent 30 years in the apparel industry before jumping into tech. I went back, took classes in AI, and taught myself just enough to be dangerous.”
“From day one, we set out to build the most accurate mobile body scanning technology in the world—and we always knew it could go beyond apparel.”
“We didn’t have access to the kind of AI we have today, so building our own datasets in those early years was a major challenge.”
“Our tech stack is incredibly complex, but that’s not what customers care about. What matters is what it enables them to do.”
🏆 On the 3DRC Grand Challenge
“Winning gave us exposure, validation, and focus. We got in front of big brands and gained clarity on our value proposition.”
“The feedback we got was invaluable. It helped us sharpen our narrative and accelerate both product and team development.”
“It was also a huge morale boost internally. Our team worked hard on the application—having that recognized meant a lot.”
“You can have a cool tech demo, but unless you’re solving a real business pain point, you won’t get anywhere.”
“To anyone entering: edit, edit, edit. Know your audience. Get clear on your elevator pitch. If it’s not a real problem, no one’s taking the pill.”
The 2025 Grand Challenge is now LIVE!
The 7th Annual 3DRC Grand Challenge is back with a bold new theme for 2025: harnessing the transformative power of data-driven AI and 3D technology to revolutionize the product development lifecycle.
This year, we invite visionary minds to push the boundaries of innovation and reimagine how retailers and brands discover, design, make, and sell products!
Want to know more? Click on the image below…
