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Technology

DAMn, That’s Smart! PixaScale’s AI-First 3D Product Engine

by Michael Ratcliffe 8 July 2025

Forget static storage. What if your DAM was intelligent – able to learn, adapt, and drive decisions?

As the Start-up Winner of the 2025 3DRC Grand Challenge, PixaScale is rewriting the rules of product creation. Their AI-first platform transforms traditional DAMs into intelligent digital ecosystems, turning static 3D assets into living, breathing digital twins that learn, adapt, and drive decisions across the value chain.

In this conversation with Kristian Sons, Founder & CEO of PixaScale, we explore how this new paradigm is poised to radically streamline workflows, slash development timelines, and enable a more responsive, data-driven, creative process – all while keeping humans firmly in the driver’s seat.

It’s not just smarter asset management. It’s a complete rethink of how fashion operates, collaborates, and scales.

🎥 Watch the full video interview below!

Don’t have time to watch the full video? Scroll down for a summary of key takeaways and noteworthy quotes.

Key Takeaways

1️⃣ Goodbye Dumb DAMs

Traditional DAM systems are glorified file cabinet – storing static images, “stupid” 3D files, and PDFs without context. PixaScale’s vision? Build a cognitive engine that understands relationships: this is a style, it has colorways, these fabrics are assigned. That means your system doesn’t just hold data, but reasons, connects, and acts on it.

A DAM typically just holds ‘stupid’ images or 3D files. But what we need now is a cognitive engine – something that knows, reasons, and can actually do autonomous tasks.

2️⃣ Product Awareness That Automates the Mundane

Imagine telling your system: ‘Carry over this style, remove these colorways, add the new ones,’ and having it done. PixaScale’s product-aware digital twins make that possible – freeing designers and developers from tedious updates, so they can focus on creative, high-value work.

No one wants to spend their day manually tweaking carry-overs. The AI can do that autonomously, then a human stays in the loop for approval.

3️⃣ Designed for Late-Stage Agility

Whether it’s meeting ESG compliance, responding to market feedback, or chasing new cost targets, late changes are a brutal reality. PixaScale’s platform connects every node of the process so change is frictionless – helping brands adapt fast without endless sample rounds or Excel chaos.

Change is good if it’s data-driven – you want to keep that. But you need a system that can handle it seamlessly.

4️⃣ A Single Source of Truth, Finally

Most brands still battle fragmented data. Kristian envisions the 3D asset as the collaborative nucleus, the place where design, development, marketing and suppliers all work off the same live digital twin. This mirrors best practices from industries like automotive, where suppliers integrate from day one.

Why not let a supplier start iterating off a sketch immediately? If your digital twin sits three folders deep, you lose that chance.

5️⃣ GenAI as Connective Tissue

Forget AI just generating pretty images. Kristian sees generative AI as the glue across systems, powering multi-agent frameworks where each system (PLM, ERP, sales) has agents that can think and coordinate. That means asking: ‘We need a floral T-shirt for Turkey – what hits cost, ESG, and demand?’ and getting six viable options before your first meeting.

Let AI handle the boring stuff. Humans can then sit together, cherry pick, combine ideas – and stay focused on the creative.

6️⃣ What Sets PixaScale Apart

Unlike most DAMs or 3D pipelines that simply house files, PixaScale bakes in semantics, reasoning, and scalable compute from day one. In this way, brands can effortlessly ramp to a million images a year, run on-avatar experiences automatically, and prepare for AI-native workflows.

Every brand wants these digital assets to do more. Our platform was built for it from the ground up.

7️⃣ Why the Grand Challenge Was a Game Changer

The 3DRC Grand Challenge validated Kristian’s bold bet on AI-first infrastructures. It delivered instant credibility, direct feedback from industry experts, and, perhaps most crucially, connected PixaScale to new brand partners ready to take risks and rethink old systems.

The exposure’s been huge. Even brands I’ve dreamed of working with reached out after the announcement.

8️⃣ Advice to Fellow Innovators

In an era where everything is suddenly labeled ‘GenAI,’ Kristian’s advice is clear: don’t get lost in the hype. Go deeper. Understand the technology, challenge the fluff, and figure out how it creates real business value.

Don’t just scratch the surface. Learn how these cognitive engines actually work – it’s the only way to separate the nonsense from what will truly transform your business.

Next Steps

With their MVP complete, PixaScale is actively looking for pioneering brands to partner with – those willing to break from rigid legacy systems and explore how AI can supercharge collaboration, creativity, and speed to market.

Their groundbreaking work goes beyond simply managing assets. It’s laying the technical and operational groundwork for a future where digital twins aren’t passive files, but proactive co-pilots driving more sustainable, profitable, and inspiring fashion ecosystems.

Congrats once again to Kristian and the PixaScale team on their 3DRC Grand Challenge win! If you’re curious about what this future could look like for your business, reach out to Kristian here.

8 July 2025 0 comments

AI Ask the Experts DPC Technology

When Craft Meets Code: How Are Footwear Leaders Shaping a New Era of Design?

by Michael Ratcliffe 4 July 2025

written by Michael Ratcliffe

Introduction

At Stride 2025, we brought together some of the sharpest minds in footwear – from luxury and sport to computational design and sustainability – to tackle the nuanced question: how can traditional craftsmanship and digital innovation truly work together?

In an industry racing to adopt AI, 3D, and new digital workflows, this panel went deeper. They explored not just tools, but the soul of making; asking what we risk losing, how to preserve the artistry of shoemaking, and what the future might look like if we build it right.

Meet the Speakers:

Susan Sokolowski VP – Footwear Innovation, lululemon
Miranda Morrison VP – Design & Sustainability, Steve Madden
Onur Gun Director – Computational Design, New Balance
Matteo Burzio Head of 3D Footwear Design, Luxury Footwear Brand
Brett Golliff Creative Design Director & Consultant, GPGD
Mark Vickers Sr. Director – DPC Technology,VF Corp
James Carnes Chief of Staff, HILOS Studio

🎥 Watch the full video interview below!

Don’t have time to watch the full video? Scroll down for a summary of key takeaways and noteworthy quotes.

Key Takeaways

1️⃣ Digital Innovation Can Elevate vs Replace Artistry

True craftsmanship is as vital today as it ever was – it just maybe looks a little different. Matteo Burzio stressed that for him, crafting a shoe in 3D still draws on the same principles as hand-building one on the bench: attention to proportion, detail, and function.

It’s the same approach, just different tools

Miranda Morrison, who’s spent decades designing shoes by hand, reminded us of what’s at stake:

You can’t dismiss the feel of how it holds the foot, how it pitches, how it looks in real space – things you only learn from master craftsmen.

The clear and overriding message: innovation and artistry aren’t trade-offs. The best work happens when technology elevates the sensibilities honed by centuries of shoemaking tradition.

2️⃣ Tools Should Serve Creativity, Not Shackle It

James Carnes captured a pivotal shift underway: after decades of forcing design to adapt to technology, we’re finally designing technology that adapts to designers.

We spent years changing the creative process to fit the tools. Now we’re finally building tools to fit how we naturally create.

Onur Gun drew an elegant parallel to computational design, describing code as a new kind of stitching, where you bring disparate parts together conceptually. But even as digital tools become more powerful, they’re still just tools; your hand is still the fastest connection to your brain, whether it’s holding a pencil or a mouse. It’s only when tech respects this human-first dynamic that true creativity flourishes.

3️⃣There is Power in Platforms Over Prescriptive Tools

James Carnes and Mark Vickers both leaned into the idea that future innovation in digital workflows isn’t about enforcing one single tool, but about building platforms or ecosystems that let designers and developers integrate whatever tools suit their craft, while still bringing it all together in a unified process.

Why try to standardize creativity to fit a single tool? A platform that brings sketches, Illustrator, hand drawings, Rhino – all together – is far more powerful.

Mark noted how the Universal Scene Description (USD) format coming from gaming and VFX could be a breakthrough, allowing all these disparate tools to speak the same language, thus preserving creative diversity while still enabling a coherent pipeline.

4️⃣ Honor Imperfection Because It Makes Products Feel Alive

Miranda told a striking story about digitally wrapping patterns around a shoe last, only to find the outcome looked “dead in the hand.” It was technically flawless, yet aesthetically off. The fix? Going back in by hand to introduce the subtle tweaks the eye and fingers know instinctively.

Brett Golliff echoed this from his automotive days, recalling how CAD and milling were essential, but cars only gained character when clay sculptors reshaped them by hand.

Without that human flair, it all just looked stiff.

This shared insight carried across the panel: true design often lies in intentional imperfection, in letting small human variations breathe life into a product.

5️⃣ Standardization is Foundational But Must Leave Room for Specialization

Mark Vickers gave an important window into what this looks like at scale. With VF Corp’s 11 brands using five different PLMs, seven DAMs, 31 design tools, and dozens of different processes, the challenge is staggering. His big push is to streamline these down to common foundations…

…so a designer has everything they need come to them, and then they can just focus on being creative.

But he also stressed that for truly specialized craft work, they don’t want to flatten out differences:

A lot of the tools are like a surgeon’s scalpel – very specialized. And we still need that. It’s about balance.

6️⃣ AI Should Augment Human Intuition, Not Override It

The conversation around AI was one of cautious optimism. Onur urged the audience to remember just how multi-sensory humans are: we understand shape not only through sight, but through touch, pressure, and even subtle temperature shifts. AI can’t replicate that.

We’re sensory creatures. We reduce so much when we digitize.

Brett added a dose of humility, describing how teaching his students to work with AI highlighted their own communication gaps:

You’re only as good as how well you can instruct it. The first time I used it, I realized I wasn’t nearly as clear as I thought.

Used wisely, AI can and should accelerate decision-making and reduce bad iterations, but it shouldn’t replace the deeper intuition built through years of craft.

7️⃣ Rethink Workflows to Be Truly Collaborative and Iterative

James painted a compelling picture of what future workflows could look like, especially drawing on his work at HILOS. It’s not about building a single prescriptive tool, he argued, but rather creating an open studio-like environment where designers can experiment freely, integrate new digital tools as needed, and move fluidly between digital and physical iterations.

I want to sketch, prototype, change a last, print it, then go back – without someone in operations saying we have to start over.

This kind of flexible, cyclical process mirrors how human creativity actually works and ensures we’re not just making more stuff, but making better, more thoughtful products.

8️⃣ Build Better, Not Just Faster (Or at the Planet’s Expense)

The panel pushed back on the industry’s obsession with speed to market.

We don’t need to just go faster. We need to make less crap.

AI and generative tools can indeed compress timelines by helping teams make better decisions sooner, but Onur cautioned against mindless acceleration. He raised the overlooked cost of AI’s massive server farms:

Every time you open a prompt, you’re consuming water and energy on a scale we’re only beginning to grasp.

Thoughtful innovation means building quality over quantity – and doing so with both people and the planet in mind.

Conclusion

What emerged from this rich discussion is a roadmap that’s as philosophical as it is practical. The future of footwear doesn’t lie in abandoning the past for shiny new tech, nor in clinging stubbornly to tradition. It lies in fusing them; respecting the tactile, imperfect, deeply human side of making while harnessing digital tools that honor and extend our creative instincts.

As the industry races ahead with AI and 3D, it’s worth pausing to ask: are we using these tools to create more meaning, more quality, and more beauty? Or just more?

Missed this year’s event?! Worry not; Stride USA will be returning to Portland in March 2026. Register your interest now.

4 July 2025 0 comments

3D AI Education Size & Fit Technology

FIT Happens: How 3D & AI Could Kill the Grade for Good

by Michael Ratcliffe 1 July 2025

written by Michael Ratcliffe

What if pattern grading didn’t exist, because it didn’t need to?

As the Academic Winner of the 2025 3DRC Grand Challenge, the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) is rethinking fit from the ground up. Their winning concept blends 3D prototyping, AI, and real body data to automate grading, unlock true custom sizing, and turn every shopper into their own base size – transforming each garment into a digital original, made to fit.

In this conversation with Leigh Lavange (Adjunct Professor at FIT), we explore the thinking behind the solution: how it could slash inventory waste and returns, safeguard design integrity even at a one-to-one scale, and ultimately replace traditional grading with smarter, data-driven personalization.

It’s not just better fit; it’s a fundamental rewrite of how we size, scale, and serve the next generation of fashion.

🎥 Watch the full video interview below!

Don’t have time to watch the full video? Scroll down for a summary of key takeaways and noteworthy quotes.

Key Takeaways

1️⃣ The Fundamental Flaw of Grading

Traditional grading, built on statistical averages of thousands of body measurements, ends up creating garments designed for a mythical “average body” that doesn’t truly exist. The result? Shoppers everywhere have to compromise, awkwardly fitting into garments that were never actually meant for them.

When you take hundreds and thousands of average body measurements and create one size in the middle, oftentimes we’re creating a body shape that isn’t realistic…so therefore, no one’s really winning.

2️⃣ Turning Every Shopper into Their Own Base Size While Mantaining Design Intent

Leigh’s winning concept upends this by using 3D, AI and personal body data to make each customer their own base size; automatically adjusting the pattern the way a tailor would. Crucially, this still protects the designer’s vision. Brands control the style, silhouette and details, while the tech subtly tweaks for shape.

It’s like if you went to a tailor for a custom suit – they’d measure you and make a pattern just for you. I’m proposing the same thing, but automated. Most customers don’t want to design their own thing. They want expert designers to say what’s on trend.

3️⃣ From Heat Maps to Hard Data: How 3D & AI Quantify Fit

This approach is possible, in no small part, because of the evolution of 3D tools. Leigh describes moving beyond subjective fit checks to hard metrics, by mining the pressure and tension maps that already live inside 3D workflows. These heat maps show exactly how a garment presses, pulls or gaps on a digital body, thus turning intuition into math.

We’re already using pressure maps as subjective tools in 3D fits, saying ‘this looks too tight or too loose.’ But there’s real data behind that. We can quantify it – it’s like the avatar telling us ‘the chest is too tight.

4️⃣ Custom-Fitting Any Garment, Even the Wild Ones

Most existing mass-customization experiments focus on straightforward products like T-shirts. Leigh’s vision is far more ambitious. She wants to empower designers to dream big – asymmetrical, ruched, or tailored garments that still adapt beautifully to individual shapes.

I want a designer to submit an asymmetrical ruched dress with a flared skirt and be able to customise that size. That’s my ultimate goal.

5️⃣ Fixing Fashion’s Waste & Returns Problem For Good

This isn’t just a better experience for consumers. By only making garments after they’re purchased, brands cut the financial and environmental toll of unsold inventory. And by dialing in fit from the start, they tackle one of fashion’s biggest drivers of returns: clothes that just don’t fit right.

Inventory is one of our biggest wastes…And fit is the number one reason for returns – this could be a huge unlock.

6️⃣ Rewiring the Pipeline From Design to Manufacturing

It’s not enough to tweak patterns at the design stage. Leigh is clear that truly personalised fit requires a reimagined pipeline that links design, pattern engineering, grading, and even how factories read and cut files. It also means capturing decades of tacit pattern knowledge from people’s heads, and overcoming the constraints of today’s software.

Most pattern and grading knowledge is inside people’s heads…We can’t just change one part of product development. We have to change every piece from design to production so it’s interconnected.

7️⃣ Why Small Brands and Bold Partners Matter

Surprisingly, Leigh believes it may not be giant corporations who take this leap first. Smaller, more agile brands – those without entrenched bureaucracy – are often better positioned to experiment. Likewise, tech partners who champion new avatars and smarter automation will be essential to make it work.

Small brands can be more willing to take risks…In big corporations, just finding the person who puts the sizes on the website can take all day.

8️⃣ Never Accept ‘That’s Just How It’s Done’

For anyone in fashion or technology trying to rethink workflows with 3D and AI, Leigh has one core philosophy: question everything. If the only answer for why something’s done a certain way is “because that’s how it’s always been,” it’s exactly the right place to start disrupting.

Anytime someone says, ‘that’s just the way it’s always been done,’ I say, I call B.S. Tell me why…If we understand why, then we can question it – and maybe do it differently.

9️⃣ The 3DRC Grand Challenge as a Catalyst

The 3DRC Grand Challenge didn’t just give Leigh’s team a platform – it validated years of quietly developed ideas and energised FIT’s growing tech design programme. It’s also set the stage to attract students eager to merge creativity with engineering and truly innovate.

It puts our tech design department on the map…I hope it helps us bring in students who don’t just want a job, but want to challenge how we do things.

Next Steps

Leigh and the team at FIT aren’t just solving for fit – they’re laying down a bold new blueprint for fashion, where design creativity, digital precision, and true body personalization finally work hand in hand to serve both people and the planet.

Their groundbreaking work doesn’t just challenge how we size garments, but how we think about production, waste, and the very relationship between clothing and the body.

A huge congratulations once again to Leigh and FIT on their 3DRC Grand Challenge win! If you’re a brand, technologist, or fellow innovator who sees potential in this paradigm shift, don’t hesitate to reach out to Leigh here.

Let’s help turn this future into reality!

1 July 2025 0 comments

AI People & Leadership Technology

Rethinking Recruitment: The Art of Going Slow in the Age of AI

by Michael Ratcliffe 20 June 2025

written by Michael Ratcliffe

Introduction

As AI and automation become more embedded in fashion’s workflows, the conversation is often dominated by tools, tasks, and tech stacks. But beneath the surface lies a more pressing question: how is the workforce itself evolving?

In this Fireside Chat, Nigel Robinson, Senior Recruiter at unspun™, pulled back the curtain on what it really means to build an AI-augmented talent function. Speaking from his experience inside a tech-driven fashion company, Nigel offered not just a rundown of tools, but a reframe of mindset – from philosophical takes on bias and storytelling, to practical tips on integrating AI into daily talent work with thoughtfulness, creativity, and care.

🎥 Watch the full video interview below!

Don’t have time to watch the full video? Scroll down for a summary of key takeaways and noteworthy quotes.

💡 Key Takeaways

1. AI should speed up tasks so humans can slow down meaningfully

AI brings exponential speed to the admin side of recruiting – from scheduling to screening. But Nigel believes the real value is how that speed creates room to slow down elsewhere. By automating low-impact tasks, recruiters can spend more time being present with hiring managers and candidates, focusing on human connection, empathy, and strategic alignment.

It allows you to focus more on the human parts…being with your hiring managers, being with the teams, being more present with the candidates.

2. Build your own AI workflows to match your context

At unspun, Nigel didn’t just adopt off-the-shelf tools; he adapted them. Using Notion AI, Claude, and Replit, he created a custom headcount planner, synthesized interview feedback, and built a narrative brand voice for recruitment.
Without a big tool budget, he proved that with curiosity and resourcefulness, AI can help you shape workflows around your team’s actual needs.

We don’t chase all of the tools. It’s really about finding the workflows that work for you.

3. We’re still treating AI too much like a to-do list

Most panels, Nigel said, frame AI as just a task automator. But he sees it as a collaborator, a teammate that brings outside context, helps pressure-test ideas, and pushes deeper thinking.

People see AI as a task manager. But it’s a thought partner… it can help you think about something differently.

4. AI won’t erase early careers but it will reshape them

Entry-level roles will be affected by AI, especially in operational tasks. But for those starting out, it can be a career accelerator allowing faster learning and more diverse paths.

If I had started as a coordinator today, I think my learning would’ve been way more accelerated…there’s an opportunity to be a kind of professional that hasn’t existed before.

5. Soft skills are becoming the new superpower

As AI handles more of the technical and repetitive tasks, human qualities like curiosity, communication, and collaboration, are increasingly valuable. At unspun, soft skills are non-negotiable. Candidates must be able to translate across functions, express ideas clearly, and show energy and care.

Most hard skills will be commoditized…it’s the ineffable that makes any place worth being.

6. Bias isn’t avoidable – but it can be intentional

Rather than chasing “bias-free” AI (which doesn’t exist), Nigel encourages being conscious about the biases you do build in. Company values, team dynamics, and desired working styles are all forms of bias, and they can be designed for inclusivity.

There is no process without bias. The goal is to make sure the bias isn’t blind or arbitrary.

7. For hesitant HR teams, start small and start playfully

AI doesn’t have to mean system overhauls. Nigel recommends starting with small, safe experiments: a single workflow, a chatbot prototype, or a hackathon-style session where the team can test and explore ideas.

Start with something bite-sized. Treat it like play. Let people run and come back with ideas.

8. To convince leadership, tell better stories, don’t not just show more data

Executives think in stories: about the company, about their people, about what’s working. Data without narrative can be ignored, but storytelling with AI-derived insights is persuasive.

Everyone’s telling themselves a story – leadership, candidates, employees. Talent’s job is to harmonize those stories.

9. AI-generated resumes are already the norm, but is that a bad thing?

Nigel estimates that most applications he sees have some level of AI involvement. Rather than police it, he focuses on signal: is the application thoughtful, specific, and clear – or generic and careless?

It’s fine if you used an LLM – but did you show attention to detail? That’s what matters.

10. AI will change recruitment but people will remain at its heart

Nigel’s future vision isn’t about perfect automation; it’s about making recruiting more meaningful. From narrative-driven analytics to self-sorting talent ecosystems, he hopes AI makes it easier for people to find work that matters to them.

Hopefully recruiting fades into the background – and it’s just people meeting people.

Closing Thoughts

If we’ve learned anything from this conversation, it’s that fashion’s future workforce isn’t just about who you hire but about how you build the space to let them thrive.

From treating AI as a creative collaborator, to redefining soft skills as strategic assets, the real opportunity lies not in replacing people, but in redesigning systems around them.

So the question for every HR and talent leader now is this: are you building a recruiting function that chases efficiency, or one that champions meaning?

❤️ A big thanks to Nigel for such an insightful conversation. Want to keep the discussion going? Connect with him here.

20 June 2025 0 comments

Culture DPC Technology

Designing Performance: Reimagining the Basketball Shoe with EQLZ

by Michael Ratcliffe 12 June 2025

written by Michael Ratcliffe

Introduction

At PI Apparel Stride 2025, three cross-disciplinary designers – Brett Golliff, Aaron Cooper, and David Burpee – shared the story of their collaboration on EQLZ, an independent basketball brand redefining performance through purpose-driven design, biomimicry, and computational innovation.

With backgrounds spanning Nike, New Balance, automotive design, and skyscraper engineering, the trio came together to create not just a shoe, but a platform for storytelling, community building, and product excellence at the intersection of human and machine.

🎥 Watch the full video interview below!

Don’t have time to watch the full video? Scroll down for a summary of key takeaways and noteworthy quotes.

🔑 Key Takeaways

1. Designing with Empathy: Letting the Player Lead

At the heart of EQLZ’s creative process was a simple but powerful principle: listen before you design. Rather than beginning with materials or trend boards, the team started with the community – the athletes, their needs, their pain points, and their love for the game. Aaron Cooper emphasised that empathy was the most important design tool in the room. The brand name EQLZ, pronounced “equalize,” reflects this philosophy – a commitment to equality and shared experience in sport. The goal wasn’t to build hype, but to build trust, performance, and relevance from the ground up.

2. Learning from the Legends: A Design Lens Across Generations

To build truly versatile and resonant performance products, the EQLZ team looked to iconic players from basketball’s recent past – Scottie Pippen, Jason Kidd, and Steve Nash – each representing a unique movement style that still resonates with players today. These references grounded the footwear design in time-tested movement types, creating shoes that feel relevant not just to today’s pros or street players, but to an evolving game shaped by decades of performance evolution.

3. Three Speeds, Three Shoes: Designing for Movement Archetypes

Recognising that no two basketball players move the same, the team created three unique shoes, each inspired by a distinct “speed type.” The First Step Speed shoe was built for explosive launchers like Pippen. The Transition Speed shoe embodied constant movement à la Jason Kidd. And the Shifting Speed shoe was engineered for agile players like Steve Nash, optimising for rapid directional changes. This framework helped the team align product performance with the lived realities of players across styles and eras.

4. Biomimicry: Learning from Nature’s Athletes

Nature served as both inspiration and blueprint. The mako shark, known for smooth, gliding motion, influenced the Transition Speed outsole. The cheetah’s explosive acceleration informed First Step Speed design, while the falcon’s pivot and dive behavior shaped the Shifting Speed shoe. These biomimetic references informed traction zones, flex patterns, and geometry – not as aesthetics, but as functional parallels to human performance.

5. Parametric Precision: The Role of Algorithmic Design

David Burpee brought deep expertise in computational tooling, using Houdini to build performance-tuned outsoles based on 2.1 million pressure data points. He applied reaction-diffusion algorithms – the same processes that form zebra stripes and coral – to generate organic, fractal traction patterns. These weren’t just beautiful – they delivered measurable performance advantages in grip, durability, and biomechanical response.

6. Craft Meets Code: The Human Element in Digital Design

Despite leveraging cutting-edge digital tools, the final product was shaped by hand. Aaron Cooper emphasised the need for manual surfacing and physical sculpting to bring warmth, personality, and nuance. Citing wabi-sabi, the Japanese appreciation for imperfection, he noted that “the answer isn’t human vs machine – it’s in the middle.” The result was a shoe that looked engineered but felt human.

7. Design as a Narrative Engine

The same digital assets used for prototyping and simulation were repurposed for marketing, storytelling, and content creation. “Design is communication,” Aaron noted – emphasising that the tools weren’t just for making product, but for sharing its purpose. One of the most shared posts on EQLZ’s social channels? A parametric outsole render from David’s simulations – showing that even technical storytelling can captivate an audience.

8. Giving the Culture Its Flowers: Community-First Marketing

To launch the brand, EQLZ launched “Hidden Gem,” a campaign that spotlighted under-recognised players sourced from Instagram. These everyday hoopers weren’t influencers – they were gifted pairs of shoes and told their stories, organically generating buzz. The result was grassroots, emotional, and deeply authentic. The campaign flipped the traditional marketing model by celebrating culture rather than chasing clout.

💬 Noteworthy Quotes

Aaron Cooper – Creative Direction & Design Philosophy

“We’re not here to create more stuff. We’re here to create better-performing product that people want to keep in their life.”
“It’s not human versus machine. The answer is in the middle.”
“Some of the players were in tears when we gave them their pair…they felt seen.”

Brett Golliff – Form, Emotion & Cross-Industry Insight

“Design is not about what it looks like. Design is about what it does.”
“We’re not trying to impress designers. We’re trying to connect with athletes.”
“The car world taught me: if it doesn’t move people emotionally, it doesn’t matter how cool it is technically.”

David Burpee – Engineering & Computational Design

“We simulated over 2 million points of pressure to shape the outsole – it wasn’t guesswork.”
“Reaction-diffusion algorithms – the ones nature uses to make zebra stripes – helped shape our traction.”
“I thought only other nerds like me would care – but the parametric outsole post became the most shared thing on their IG.”

👏 Closing Thought

The EQLZ story is more than a case study in modern footwear design – it’s a blueprint for what’s possible when empathy, engineering, storytelling, and cross-generational insight come together with purpose. From algorithmic traction patterns to emotionally resonant campaigns, Aaron, Brett, and David reminded us that great design doesn’t just perform, it connects.

❤️ A huge thank you to all three speakers for sharing their process so generously at PI Apparel Stride 2025. Their work doesn’t just move the game forward; it honours everyone who plays it.

Missed Stride 2025?! Worry not; Stride USA will be returning to Portland in March 2026. Register your interest now.

12 June 2025 0 comments

Interviews People & Leadership Retail Technology

Designing for Wonder: Eric Cruz on Storytelling, Immersion & The Future of Experiential Design

by Michael Ratcliffe 9 June 2025

written by Michael Ratcliffe

Introduction

What does it mean to design for wonder in an age where reality itself is being reinvented?

In this Seamless interview, I sit down with Eric Cruz – Creative Director, Designer, & Educator | Sphere, ex-Amazon/AKQA/Wieden+Kennedy – to explore his unique 25+ year journey across brand storytelling, experiential design, and emerging technologies. From Tokyo’s cultural incubators and Shanghai’s AR commerce labs, to Comic-Con virtual worlds and generative AI-powered creativity, Cruz shares how immersive storytelling continues to evolve and why human curiosity remains the ultimate driver.

🎥 Watch the full video interview below! Don’t have time to watch the full video? Scroll down for a summary of key takeaways and noteworthy quotes.

Key Takeaways

🎭 A Hybrid Designer Rooted in Storytelling and Culture Creation

Eric describes himself as a hybrid designer and storyteller whose career has spanned multiple disciplines over 25 years, from motion design at Imaginary Forces to cultural advertising at Wieden+Kennedy Tokyo and London, working with brands like Nike to help shape youth culture from within.

🎶 Building Culture from the Inside Out

While at Wieden+Kennedy Tokyo, Eric founded a music label (W+K Tokyo Lab) as a way to create culture directly rather than just advertise around it. This enabled cross-pollination between brand work and independent cultural projects like music videos, album packaging, and live performances.

📱 Experimenting with Early Interactive and Mobile-first Experiences

In Asia, Eric led projects blending creativity and new technology, such as co-creating dynamic music videos for Samsung where each user experience was unique, and developing AR-powered retail experiences where consumers could shop using mobile devices and alternative currencies like sweat coins.

🌐 Immersion as World-Building

For Eric, immersion means building worlds that confound, captivate, and elevate reality. Whether it’s LED-covered retail environments like Nike Shanghai 001, fully virtual escape rooms for Warner Bros, or real-world installations like Krista Kim’s Times Square takeover, the goal should always be to architect new, transformative environments.

🤖 AI as a New Creative Partner

Eric has actively explored how large language models and generative AI platforms like Runway are reshaping the act of storytelling itself, offering new ways to prompt and generate experiences that would have been impossible only a few years ago.

**🧠 “Walk in Stupid” – The Importance of Humility and Curiosity**

Eric’s guiding philosophy is to constantly approach new creative challenges with humility, bringing expertise but leaving room for new ideas to reshape your thinking, especially as technology redefines creative rules.

✨ Designing to Create Wonder and Emotional Connection

At every scale – from intimate to massive – the ultimate goal is to move people emotionally through moments of wonder. Whether inspired by nature (the Northern Lights, cherry blossom season) or art (Olafur Eliasson’s ‘Weather Project’ and ‘Anyma‘ at The Sphere), memorable experiences are those that surprise and transform.

⚡ The Challenge of Breaking Through in an Overstimulated World

With increasing sensory overload, Eric emphasises that unforgettable experiences are often those that the audience didn’t see coming; those capable of stopping people in their tracks and making them feel something lasting.

🔀 The Rapid Convergence of Physical and Digital Realities

The evolution of immersive design is accelerating quickly, collapsing timelines where developments that once took decades now occur within years or even months. Eric believes physical and digital spaces will become increasingly inseparable, with virtual layers embedded into lived environments.

🌍 Anthropology as a Creative Lens

Eric draws inspiration from his early interest in anthropology and culture, seeing creative work as both the study of civilization and the act of contributing to culture itself.

💡 The Rise of Experiences as a Business Model

Referencing groups like teamLab and experiences like ‘Sleep No More’ and ‘Ultraviolet‘ in Shanghai, Eric observes how immersive design is becoming not just creative work but a self-sustaining business model, in which people pay to engage with experiences, not simply consume designed products.

🎙️ Generative AI’s Next Frontier: Speech, Sound, and Visual Fusion

Citing recent experiments like Google VEO 3, Eric points to emerging creative intersections where AI-generated speech, sound effects, and visuals synchronise to generate entirely new kinds of dynamic, responsive films and experiences.

🚀 A Future Driven by Curiosity and Reinvention

Above all, Eric emphasises human curiosity – our innate drive to explore new frontiers – as the unchanging fuel behind immersive storytelling. As creative tools evolve, the challenge is not just using new technology but defining what meaningful stories we want to tell with it.

Noteworthy Quotes

Designing for all means designing to create moments of wonder – moments that elevate reality and stay with you.

We’re living in a time where even reality itself is being reinvented. The virtual and physical are converging faster than we realize.

Innovation means being comfortable building the plane as you fly it.

AI will make it easier to create, but harder to be compelling. That’s the creative challenge ahead.

The real fuel behind immersive experiences? Human curiosity. It’s what drives us to explore the new.

Closing Thoughts

During our discussion, Eric Cruz reminds us that as technology unlocks new canvases, the essence of great storytelling remains timeless: creating emotional connections, sparking curiosity, and inviting audiences to step into the unknown. In a world accelerating toward ever more immersive futures, Cruz offers both inspiration and a steady creative compass for anyone navigating the intersection of design, technology, and human experience.

A huge thank you to Eric for his time! Want to know more? Reach out to Eric here.

Eric will also be a keynote speaker at our upcoming PI Apparel West Coast event, taking place in LA between 29th & 30th September. Want to know more about the event? Click on the banner below!

9 June 2025 0 comments

AI DPC People & Leadership Technology

Part 2 – From Trade Shock to Strategic Shift: Rebuilding the Fashion System from the Ground Up

by Richa Agarwal 29 May 2025

written by Richa Agarwal

Editor’s Note: This article is the second in a three-part series by Richa Agarwal examining how the 2025 tariff environment and broader economic disruption are reshaping the global fashion industry. In Part 1, Richa explored the macro forces at play – from trade policy upheaval and consumer fragility to the unraveling of outdated operating models.

Missed Part 1? Catch up here.

Here in Part 2, Richa turns to the strategic responses underway: how fashion leaders are recalibrating sourcing, rethinking merchandise planning, investing in intelligent technologies, and redefining leadership for a more volatile world.

The Forced Evolution: Adapting to Uncharted Territory

This period of intense pressure is compelling a critical re-evaluation of established norms, forcing strategic shifts across the value chain.

1️⃣ Sourcing Recalibrated: The High-Stakes Game of Global Diversification

The “China Plus Many” strategy has shifted from long-term goal to urgent necessity. A temporary U.S.–China tariff truce (reducing some rates to ~30% for 90 days) offers a brief pause, but the broader landscape remains volatile – with a baseline 10% U.S. tariff on most imports and the risk of new “reciprocal” tariffs on others.

Nearshoring to Mexico and CAFTA-DR nations is gaining traction, but comes with trade-offs: higher costs, capacity constraints, and inconsistent duties (e.g., 25% on some Mexican imports). While CAFTA-DR’s share of U.S. apparel imports dropped from 9.6% to 7.6% in early 2025, FTA utilization rose from 73.8% to 81.1%, suggesting brands are becoming more adept at extracting value from the agreement, even as overall volume dips.

India is also emerging as a key alternative sourcing hub, combining mature capabilities with geopolitical alignment. However, expanding there at scale means navigating regulatory complexities and ensuring high standards for quality, ethics, and compliance.

The rush to diversify must not come at the cost of integrity. As brands enter newer or less mature markets, ethical labor, environmental compliance, and human rights must remain non-negotiable. AI-powered supplier vetting and third-party audits can support this vigilance – safeguarding reputation while enabling agility in an increasingly fragmented global sourcing environment.

2️⃣ Merchandise Planning Remastered: Precision, Prudence, and Predictive Power Become Standard

The traditional, often rigid, seasonal merchandising calendar is proving increasingly ill-suited to an era defined by extreme uncertainty. Success now hinges on embedding a new level of precision, prudence, and predictive capability into the planning process:

Hyper-Responsive Pricing and Promotion Strategies: With acute consumer price sensitivity—over half of consumers are willing to switch brands due to significant price hikes —and volatile input costs, AI-powered dynamic pricing tools are transitioning from innovative options to essential instruments.
AI-Driven Predictive Forecasting as a Baseline: In a fluctuating economic climate, achieving high forecast accuracy (where AI can offer up to a 20% improvement or even cut errors by up to 50% as McKinsey suggests) is vital for optimizing inventory, minimizing markdowns, and understanding nuanced shifts in demand elasticity.
Strategic Assortment Curation and Inventory Management: A more discerning approach to assortments is emerging, often characterized by a “less is more” philosophy that prioritizes core items, proven sellers, and higher-margin products. There’s increased caution regarding highly experimental lines until consumer demand patterns stabilize. On-demand manufacturing and agile hybrid fulfillment models are also being actively explored to reduce upfront inventory risk.
Adapting to the De Minimis Revolution: The definitive elimination of the de minimis trade provision for direct shipments from China and Hong Kong (with new effective duties around 54% for these individual postal shipments) fundamentally alters the cost structure for ultra-fast fashion and D2C brands relying on this channel. This necessitates new pricing, global logistics, and potentially U.S.-based warehousing and fulfillment strategies.

3️⃣ Technology as the Indispensable Engine: AI, DPC, and PLM

In this complex, data-intensive, and rapidly changing global environment, technology is no longer merely an enabler of efficiency but the critical engine for adaptation, resilience, and sustained competitive advantage.

➡️ Artificial Intelligence (AI) – The Strategic Intelligence Layer:

AI’s role is expanding far beyond initial applications. It is now essential for:

Sophisticated Risk Modeling: Integrating and analyzing diverse data streams related to trade policy volatility, geopolitical shifts, macroeconomic indicators (including credit conditions and consumer sentiment), and even climate-related disruptions to provide predictive risk assessments.
Advanced Demand Sensing and Consumer Analytics: Moving beyond historical sales data to interpret real-time market signals, social media sentiment, and nuanced shifts in consumer behavior and purchasing power.
Supply Network Optimization and Simulation: Enabling dynamic management of complex global supply networks, simulating the impact of potential disruptions, identifying optimal alternative pathways, and proactively reallocating resources.
Enhancing Sustainability, Transparency, and Compliance: Leveraging AI for verifying material provenance, tracking ethical compliance across multi-tier supply chains, and accurately calculating and reporting Product Carbon Footprints (PCFs).

➡️ Digital Product Creation (DPC) & 3D Design

The urgent need for speed, cost reduction, and sustainability makes DPC and 3D design technologies indispensable. As demonstrated by industry leaders like Perry Ellis (who reportedly reduced physical samples by 50% and shortened product development calendars by two months through DPC), these tools radically diminish reliance on physical prototypes, slash material waste and shipping costs, and facilitate faster, more collaborative, and iterative design processes.

➡️ Advanced Cloud Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Systems

Modern, cloud-based PLM platforms serve as the central nervous system for today’s fashion enterprise. They are essential for ensuring data integrity, fostering seamless global collaboration among design, development, sourcing, and merchandising teams, enhancing supply chain visibility and traceability, and enabling the rapid execution of sourcing and production pivots demanded by the current environment.

4️⃣ The Evolving Fashion Leader: Architects of Resilience in an Age of Ambiguity

This era of profound disruption calls for a new paradigm of leadership and a significant evolution in professional roles, particularly for merchandising experts – a key focus at industry gatherings like PI Apparel Merchandise Planning New York. The traditional art of merchandising, while still valuable, must now be powerfully augmented by the science of data, technology, and strategic global awareness.

The modern fashion executive and merchandiser must increasingly function as a strategic orchestrator, demonstrating:

Deepened Financial and Geopolitical Acumen: A sophisticated understanding of global economics, the intricacies of international trade policy, currency risk, and the far-reaching implications of macroeconomic events like sovereign credit rating downgrades.
From Predictor to Scenario Architect: The ability to move beyond attempting to forecast a single future to skilfully modeling multiple complex scenarios and developing robust contingency plans for diverse trade, economic, and geopolitical outcomes.
Mastery of Resilient Value Networks: A strategic focus on designing, building, and managing adaptive, multi-nodal global value networks, shifting from an emphasis on linear chain optimization to holistic ecosystem resilience.
Champion of Data-Driven Transformation & AI Literacy: The leadership to drive the enterprise-wide adoption, integration, and effective strategic utilization of advanced analytics, AI tools, and digital platforms.
Decisive and Agile Leadership Under Pressure: The capacity to make informed, high-stakes decisions swiftly and confidently, often navigating ambiguity with imperfect or rapidly evolving information.

Looking Ahead

The strategies explored here in Part 2, mark the foundation of fashion’s transformation. But strategy alone is not enough.

In Part 3, I’ll distill these insights into a set of actionable imperatives – the essential building blocks of an antifragile fashion system. From operational resilience to ethical clarity and ecosystem collaboration, I’ll explore what it truly takes to lead through uncertainty and shape a stronger, more intelligent industry on the other side.

Part 3 will be released on Tuesday 3rd June…

Sources

McKinsey & Company, AI-Driven Operations: Forecasting in Data-Light Environments, 25 Apr. 2024
Bloomreach, The Merchandiser Reimagined: How AI Is Changing the Role
Syrup Tech, AI in Footwear Merchandising: Advancing Flexibility and Profitability
Techpacker, How Artificial Intelligence is Revolutionizing the Fashion Industry
Marketsy.ai, AI and Fashion: How AI Is Revolutionizing the Fashion Industry
Logistics Viewpoints, Amazon and the Shift to AI-Driven Supply Chain Planning, 26 Mar. 2025
PYMNTS, Walmart Develops AI Assistant That Helps Merchants Source Products
Alvarez & Marsal, Global Shift: Taxing De Minimis Imports and E-Commerce Strategies
Maersk Insights, Navigating 2025’s Geopolitical Supply Chain Landscape
BoF x McKinsey, The State of Fashion 2025

For a full list of citations and further resources provided by the author, please contact us or reach out to Richa directly.

29 May 2025 0 comments

3D Digital Materials Technology

Surfacing & Storytelling: Chris Nichols on Crafting Emotion & Realism in Digital Design for Film

by Michael Ratcliffe 20 May 2025

written by Michael Ratcliffe

Introduction

At first glance, you might not expect the digital artist behind Thanos, Alien Queens, and Mobius to have much in common with fashion designers or digital garment creators. But as this interview with Chris Nichols proves, there’s a surprising – and deeply valuable – overlap between industries.

For me, as an avid Marvel fan, speaking with the person who helped bring such captivating characters to life in the MCU franchise, was not just a professional conversation, but a personal thrill. But beyond the fangirling moment, what stood out most was how relevant Chris’ creative approach is for anyone working in design’s digital future.

Chris is a seasoned character and texture artist whose credits span some of the most iconic blockbusters of the past two decades. From layering real-world references into fantasy characters to maintaining emotional resonance across digital surfaces, in this interview, Chris shares a powerful creative perspective that holds just as much value in fashion as it does in film. His journey through modelling, texturing and concept art offers rare insight into how high-fidelity assets are brought to life – and why fundamentals always matter, no matter the tech available.

🎥 Watch the full video interview below!

Don’t have time to watch the full video? Scroll down for a summary of key takeaways and noteworthy quotes.

💡My Key Takeaways

1. Design Foundations Are Everything

Colour theory, tonal value – all those things are intrinsic to texturing.

Chris credits his background in graphic design with grounding him in the fundamentals he uses every day. Understanding light, colour, and structure is critical not only for cinematic characters but for any digital design success.

2. Realism Starts With Reference

The quality of the reference really is going to propel you forward.

Whether it’s a creature’s skin or a piece of clothing, Chris emphasises the importance of a deep reference library. For fashion designers, this echoes the need for accurate material scans and real-world inspiration when building 3D or digital twin assets.

3. Collaboration Shapes the Outcome

You’re not just one person on an island in the visual effects department.

Chris explains how he collaborates with upstream and downstream artists to bring characters to life. It’s a reminder that even the best assets fall short if they’re not aligned across design, animation – or in fashion’s case, across merchandising, marketing, and tech.

4. Detail Delivers Emotion

I put blackheads on Thanos’ nose, I put tiny little scars in places, really paid special attention to the crow’s feet…I was trying to put tan lines in as well – as if he’d been exposed to the sun.

Chris’ surface work is about more than polish – it’s about storytelling. His meticulous attention to imperceptible features creates characters you believe in. Fashion brands can adopt this thinking when designing for emotional impact in physical or digital spaces.

5. Texture Tells a Story – Even When You Don’t See It

The calluses on Thanos’ hands, the cracked nails, even goosebumps on his neck — those subtle layers help sell him as a living, breathing character.

Some details may never be seen clearly or acknowledged on screen, but Chris adds them anyway because believability comes from treating even invisible parts with care. It’s a reminder that good design is often felt more than seen.

6. Technology Accelerates, But Doesn’t Replace

You have to deeply understand how light interacts with a surface – how reflection, colour, and bump details work together – to create something truly believable and emotive.

While Chris embraces new tools, including scan data and smart surfacing software, he stresses that technology only enhances the craft and doesn’t replace the need for artistry.

7. Real-Time Tools Are Changing the Game

We’re seeing our results in real time, and as a result, we can do iterations much faster.

Drawing from experience in both film and gaming, Chris praises real-time engines like Unreal for accelerating iteration without compromising fidelity. For fashion, this has implications for faster prototyping, virtual fittings, and immersive storytelling.

8. Practical Experience Makes You Better Digitally

I went back and learned how to make creature masks…it just made me a more well-rounded digital artist.

Chris believes deeply in learning by doing – whether that’s sculpting in clay or building assets in ZBrush. For digital fashion creators, this is a call to remember craft: how something is made still matters, even in pixels.

9. Emotional Impact Begins in the Brief

You’re looking for the nuances, the little things you can put in that help with the storytelling.

Even minimal creative briefs can offer environmental or narrative clues. Chris shows how to extract emotional storytelling from limited inputs – a valuable skill for fashion teams interpreting trend concepts or digital campaigns.

10. Nail the 80/20 Balance

For me, you want to try to get to 80% as quick as you can…and then really polish it in the remaining 20%.

In high-pressure environments where deadlines rule, Chris’ workflow is rooted in pragmatism. Getting to a solid draft quickly allows time for the refinement that creates magic. Whether in film or fashion, that final 20% – the polish, the emotional nuance, the unexpected detail – is what sets great work apart.

🤔 My Final Thoughts

Chris may not work in fashion, but his creative approach, mindset, and respect for process mirror many of the challenges and opportunities facing any of today’s product creators, whether they’re designing characters, clothing or something else entirely. For me, Chris represents a breed of digital artisan who beautifully blends artistry and tech with humility and precision, and I hope that showed throughout our conversation.

For those of you fashion professionals working in 3D, DPC, or digital transformation at scale, this interview is a reminder: cinematic quality doesn’t come from tools alone. It comes from detail, emotion, and a collaborative spirit.

👏 A huge thank you, Chris, for your time! I know you have exciting projects coming up (all very hush, hush I know!) and I for one, can’t wait to see more of your work brought to the big screen!

20 May 2025 0 comments

Manufacturing Supply Chain Technology

Part 2: The Top 8 Themes Shaping the Future of MAKE in Asia

by Michael Ratcliffe 16 May 2025

written by Michael Ratcliffe

Introduction

Asia’s fashion supply chain is being re-engineered in real time. Tariff pressures, rising costs, and shifting sourcing geographies are forcing brands and manufacturers to rethink long-held strategies, while simultaneously navigating demands for speed, flexibility, and sustainability. From digital sampling to micro-factories and AI-assisted production, the MAKE phase is no longer just about efficiency – it’s becoming a space for reinvention.

Based on interviews conducted by Alexandra Shagzhina for PI Apparel’s DESIGN.MAKE.SELL 2025 event, we’ve identified eight core themes driving this change across MAKE (aka manufacturing and the supply chain) – straight from the mouths of those shaping the industry across Asia.

Missed Part 1? Read it here.

👇 In Part 2 of our series, discover the key manufacturing and supply shifts defining the future of fashion across the region…

🌍 Sourcing Strategies Are Shifting…Again

Tariff wars and geopolitical uncertainty are forcing brands to rethink their sourcing strategies across Asia. With aggressive levies on Chinese goods back on the table, countries like Vietnam, Bangladesh, and India are quickly gaining ground. At the same time, Hong Kong’s once-central role is under pressure, with questions around relevance, cost, and access. As trade winds shift, how should sourcing strategies evolve to stay ahead of disruption?

⚡Faster, Leaner, and More Local: The New Supply Chain Mandate

Manufacturers across Asia are under growing pressure to do more with less. Brands want faster timelines, lower MOQs, and greater flexibility, without compromising on cost or sustainability. In response, Southeast Asia is emerging as a testbed for innovation, from digital product creation to nearshoring strategies and micro-factory models. Can Asia’s manufacturing powerhouses rise to meet this new triad of speed, flexibility, and sustainability?

🤖 AI in Manufacturing: Promise vs. Proof

From fabric yield optimisation to demand forecasting, AI holds major potential to streamline manufacturing massively. But on the factory floor, adoption is still early and scepticism remains high. While pilot programmes abound, manufacturers are calling for proof, not prototypes. What’s missing are practical case studies that clearly show where AI is saving time, improving margins and reducing waste. Where is AI in manufacturing actually delivering measurable value and what’s still just hype?

🏭 Diversifying Asia’s Production Powerhouses

Hong Kong continues to serve as a strategic gateway to China’s supplier ecosystem, but production dynamics across Asia are evolving fast. Cities like Shenzhen are gaining traction for their advanced infrastructure and speed, while regional hubs such as Ho Chi Minh City, Bengaluru, and Dhaka are attracting attention for their cost advantages, skilled labour, and growing tech-readiness. How can brands build a more resilient sourcing strategy by leveraging Asia’s increasingly diverse manufacturing landscape?

♻️ Sustainability Can’t Just Sit in a CSR Report

Sustainability is no longer a “nice to have” – it must be embedded into everyday production decisions. But ESG fatigue is setting in. Manufacturers are increasingly sceptical of rigid frameworks that feel disconnected from business realities. As regulations tighten and buyer demands grow, the focus must shift to scalable, cost-effective strategies that make sustainability part of the operational norm. How can sustainability move from reporting requirement to operational reality?

⚙️ The Automation Divide: Can Small Players Keep Up?

Larger manufacturers are doubling down on automation – from laser cutting to AI-powered warehouse systems – gaining clear efficiency advantages. But for small and mid-sized factories, the high cost and complexity remain major barriers. To level the playing field, the next generation of tools must be modular, lightweight, and easy to integrate. Can automation be democratised across Asia’s highly fragmented manufacturing landscape?

👩‍🏭 A Talent Crisis on the Factory Floor

Across Asia, production leaders are facing a growing talent gap. Aging workforces, high attrition, and a shortage of technically skilled recruits are putting pressure on output and quality. At the same time, there’s a disconnect between young digital creatives and experienced factory staff, highlighting a cultural and generational divide. What new models can bridge the growing gap between digital design and traditional manufacturing expertise?

💤 Innovation Fatigue – Tech Must Deliver, Not Distract

Even as innovation accelerates, manufacturers are growing weary of flashy tools that fail to integrate, scale, or show measurable ROI. The appetite is shifting toward practical, modular technologies that enhance existing workflows, not disrupt them. Is your tech stack solving real problems, or just adding complexity without clarity?

🔗 Ready to explore these themes in person?

DESIGN.MAKE.SELL 2025 lands in Hong Kong this 11–12 November. The agenda is live, the first speakers are locked in, and the conversations promise to be bold. Join fashion leaders from across Asia to explore the future of design, manufacturing, and retail. For more information, click the image below!

Coming soon: In the 3rd and final part of this series, we will dive into ‘The Top 6 Themes Informing a New Era of SELL in Asia’.

16 May 2025 0 comments

Education Sustainability Technology

Towards a Brighter Blue: Mariette Hoitink on Denim, Education & Radical Transparency

by Michael Ratcliffe 13 May 2025

written by Michael Ratcliffe

Header image: Mariette Hoitink; source: https://www.parool.nl/

Introduction

In 2023, when I was still working at The Fabricant, I had the chance to get a behind-the-scenes tour of the Denim City campus right here in Amsterdam. From the moment I stepped inside, I was struck by the energy of the space – the hum of machinery, the quiet focus of students honing their craft, the collision of tradition and innovation happening in real time. Denim wasn’t just being studied here; it was being reimagined.

At the centre of it all was Mariette Hoitink: bold, grounded, and unwavering in her purpose. She speaks about education, sustainability, and collaboration with the kind of clarity that only comes from years of being on the front line, doing the work.

In this Seamless interview, I reconnected with Mariette to explore how she’s using denim as a vehicle for meaningful industry change, from launching the world’s first jeans-focused school to helping shape national policy through the Denim Deal. Whether it’s nurturing overlooked talent, developing denim hubs across continents, or embedding transparency and craft into every layer of the supply chain, her mission is clear: to build a fashion industry that’s fairer, cleaner, and smarter – led with a kind of leadership that’s deeply intentional, human, and effective.

🎧 Listen to the full interview below…

If you don’t have the time, scroll down for 9 key takeaways that capture the spirit, insight, and energy Mariette brings to the denim space, and why her vision for a brighter blue future is resonating far beyond Amsterdam.

💡Key Takeaways

1. Craft Must Come First, Then Tech Unlocks Its Power 🧵

At Denim City, technology is everywhere, from Jeanalogia’s “eDesigner” to ozone finishers and digital pattern tools. But none of it replaces the need to understand how garments are made by hand. Students learn to sew, draft paper patterns, and experiment with fit long before they’re introduced to tech. The result? They use technology not as a crutch, but as a creative accelerator.

“A sewing machine is tech. So is eDesigner. But neither matters if you don’t know how jeans are made…or what it takes to make great fit.”

2. The Jean School: Filling the Gap Left by Traditional Education 🎓

When art schools and universities turned her down, Mariette turned to vocational education, and co-founded Jean School, the world’s first denim-focused training programme. It’s built around four pillars: sustainability, circularity, craftsmanship, and creativity. Today, it includes a three-year course and a one-year international programme that attracts students from across the globe.

“Vocational education is often dismissed, but that’s where the real makers are. We built Jean School for them and the results have been incredible.”

3. Talent Incubator: Supporting the Makers Who Don’t Fit the Mold 🌟

Launched during the pandemic, the Talent Incubator is one of the Foundation’s most human-centred programmes. It supports gifted young creatives who may not thrive in conventional systems by offering hands-on training, personal development, mental health support, and real-world industry experience. Participants learn everything from fit and fabrication to how to pitch themselves, build a portfolio, and start their own business.

“We’re not just training denim makers – we’re developing people who can lead, pitch, and build something of their own.”

4. Making as Healing: Focus, Mindfulness, and Self-Worth 🧘

Beyond skills, Mariette emphasises that making is medicine, especially for a post-COVID generation often navigating anxiety, ADHD, and digital overload. Sitting behind a sewing machine, students learn to focus, be present, and build something tangible from scratch. There’s no music, no multitasking – just attention and transformation.

“When you’re making, you have to listen. You’re not allowed headphones -you need to hear the machine. That focus is powerful.”

**5. ‘Stretch Yourself’: A Crash Course in Creativity Under Pressure ⚡**

A two-week sprint in partnership with Kingpins and mills using Lycra, Stretch Yourself challenges students to create new garments using stretch denim , all in the tightest of timeframes. It’s a test of design, craft, time management, and emotional resilience, culminating in a live showcase at one of denim’s biggest global events.

“It’s not just about the fabric stretching, but about students stretching themselves creatively, technically, and emotionally.”

✂️ I was lucky enough to attend the Kingpins Amsterdam show and you can read more about the ‘Stretch Yourself’ project, along with other highlights from the show’s ‘Beyond the Fabric’ initiative, here.

6. Sustainability Starts with Radical Transparency 🌱

For Mariette, true sustainability isn’t about buzzwords, but about accountability. She’s blunt about the fact that many brands still hide behind cost-cutting and opaque sourcing, instead of owning their full supply chains. Whether it’s fabric traceability, chemical use, or living wages, she believes in making every link in the chain visible and ethical.

“We’re still talking about living wages in 2025. That’s unacceptable. If you’re not paying fairly across the chain, you’re not sustainable.”

**7. Policy Can Start with Practitioners 🏛️**

Mariette didn’t wait for government regulation to start pushing post-consumer recycling. Before the Denim Deal became a national green initiative, her team was already piloting concepts like Red Light Denim – a jeans-recycling project built around hemp, post-consumer fibre, and Amsterdam’s cultural identity. That grassroots experimentation later helped shape real legislation.

“We said: focus on one fabric, get it right, and use it as a model. That’s how the Denim Deal started – and now it’s global.”

8. The Storefront as a Living Lab 🏛️

The House of Denim Foundation recently took over the Denim City Store, transforming it into a fully immersive space where visitors can shop, learn, repair, and make. It now serves as a showroom for sustainable brands, a visibility platform for student work, and a gateway into courses like “Make Your Own Jeans” or “Make Your Own Kimono.”

“If you come to Amsterdam, this is where you go for denim. It’s not just a store – it’s an experience. You’ll leave with a product, a story, or a skill.”

9. Denim City Is Becoming a Global Movement 🌍

What started as a single campus in Amsterdam is now evolving into a global model for denim innovation, education, and sustainability. In São Paulo, Denim City operates with a different structure – larger in scale, more commercially driven, but with the same mission at its core: to showcase how denim can be produced more responsibly and collaboratively. Plans for a third hub in Istanbul are already underway, reinforcing the Foundation’s long-term ambition to establish denim centres across continents, each grounded in local culture but united by shared values.

“Brazil wasn’t the obvious next step, but the opportunity and the mindset were right. And now, with Istanbul on the horizon, we’re continuing to connect the dots between regions, supply chains, and generations.”

Final Thoughts

Across every initiative, Mariette’s vision is clear: combine education with community; transparency with innovation; and making with meaning. Denim City isn’t just a school or a lab, but a living, evolving model for what the future of fashion education and sustainable production could look like.

Her mantra?

“We want to make the industry cleaner, drier, and smarter – and we call that working toward a brighter blue.”

👏 A huge thank you to Mariette for your time! And if you do find yourself in Amsterdam, take her up on her invitation: head over to De Hallen and spend the day soaking it all in. Visit Denim City, grab lunch at the Foodhallen, browse for locally made keepsakes at the Makers Market, and maybe even catch a film at the cinema. It’s a beautiful space full of creativity, craft, and community – and something just a little different. 💙

13 May 2025 0 comments

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