Adobe Customer Story

Bringing people closer to sports. Alpen Group improves design quality and efficiency with .

“Switching to Adobe Creative Cloud for teams leads to greater design efficiency through the use of new features.”

Mr. Yuki Mori, Winter Group, Outdoor Merchandising Department, Alpen Group

SOLUTION Adobe Creative Cloud for teams

RESULTS VISIBILITY with centralized license management

Design changes completed in <20% of the time previously required

Greater CREATIVITY through new features

Improved workflows with NEW APPS and services Adobe Customer Story

Alpen Group Established in 1972 Nagoya, Japan www.alpen-group.jp

CHALLENGES • Make license management easier and Bringing people closer to sports more efficient Alpen Group is a known trailblazer in the Japanese retail sports industry. Its multifaceted businesses were • Improve speed of in-house design work developed around the concept of bringing people closer to sports. Alpen Group runs retail chain stores • Develop creative products that meet across Japan, including Alpen, the golf specialty store GOLF5, and the large sporting goods specialty store customer needs SPORTS DEPO. In the 1970s the company became one of the first to adopt the specialty store retailer of private label apparel (SPA) strategy by overseeing research and development of original product lines in-house. Even professional athletes praise the brand’s high quality, with one athlete using skis developed by Alpen Group to win a gold medal at the Sochi Winter Games. As of December 2017, Alpen Group has grown to a nationwide network of approximately 420 stores. In addition, the company also operates sports facilities across Japan, including golf courses, ski slopes, and fitness gyms. As a pioneer in the Japanese sports industry, managing everything from manufacture and sales of sports equipment to operations of sports facilities, Alpen Group aims to become and remain a reliable and accessible company to all people who enjoy sports.

Improving license management Alpen Group has 11 original brands, including Hart, a brand with a long history of accolades, and TIGORA, a brand praised by pro athletes. From winter sports to marine sports, Alpen Group handles the planning and design of its original brands and products in-house. One of the company’s strengths is its ability to use its close ties with customers to develop products based on their true needs. In the 1990s, Alpen Group’s design department switched from creating designs with specialty CAD developed for apparel design to producing designs with and . About ten years ago, Alpen Group decided that each employee should have his or her own computer. Since then, each team in the design department has purchased their own hardware and software out of their own budgets, leading to inconsistent versions in each department. Mr. Hidetsugu Tao, Headquarters Support Group, Information Systems Department, explains the reason why. Adobe Customer Story

“Each designer needed different hardware specifications depending on their work,” says Mr. Tao. “To maintain good operational efficiency, it seemed reasonable to have teams purchase hardware and software depending on their needs.” As a result, software license management became extremely complicated. Alpen Group decided to migrate to Adobe Creative Cloud to improve this situation.

License management from one screen The most important benefit of migrating to Adobe Creative Cloud for teams was centralizing license management. Mr. Tao speaks highly of how he can use the Admin Console to manage licenses for each team and see who is using which licenses at a glance. “Unlike before, when each team would purchase a few software licenses at a time, we can consolidate Left: Mr. Yuki Mori quantities and benefit from volume discounts,” says Mr. Tao. “Alpen Group has about 20 Adobe Creative Right: Mr. Hidetsugu Tao Cloud users, and another 50 users of just Adobe Photoshop CC and Adobe Illustrator CC. We plan to migrate everyone to Adobe Creative Cloud for teams in the future when we replace their hardware.”

“Unlike before, when each Improving design efficiency team would purchase a few Alpen Group doesn’t just benefit from easier license management. With Adobe Creative Cloud, users always software licenses at a time, we can have access to the latest functions. Mr. Yuki Mori of the Winter Group, Outdoor Merchandising Department, consolidate quantities and benefit which oversees planning and design of sports gear, shares how the team uses features in specific applications. from volume discounts.” “Switching to Adobe Creative Cloud for teams leads to greater design efficiency through the use of new features,” says Mr. Mori. “For example, the Content-Aware Fill function in Adobe Photoshop CC helps us Mr. Hidetsugu Tao, Headquarters Support improve efficiency dramatically. In Adobe Illustrator CC, the Puppet Warp function allows us to make natural Group, Information Systems Department, transformations to artwork using mouse operations. Previously, when making modifications to artwork, Alpen Group the only way we could do it was to adjust each path one by one. With Puppet Warp, we can make the adjustments instantly for more efficient operations.” “It now takes less than 20% of the Mr. Mori also highly praises Adobe Creative Cloud Libraries, which allows designers to manage design time to make changes.” assets created in a variety of applications in one place. Mr. Yuki Mori, Winter Group, Outdoor “When using a single piece of artwork in multiple designs, previously if we made changes to the artwork Merchandising Department, Alpen Group after developing the other designs, we had no choice but to update each design individually,” says Mr. Mori. “When working with artwork linked through Adobe Creative Cloud Libraries, we can reflect the changes in all of the designs just by changing the artwork. That makes things much easier. It now takes less than 20% of the time to make changes.” Adobe Customer Story

More expressive designs Adobe Creative Cloud not only improves work efficiency, it also helps designers create more expressive and creative designs. “One example of how we are improving creativity is through Adobe Typekit, which provides a variety of fonts through the cloud,” says Mr. Mori. “The choice of font can dramatically change how people view a design. When I’m working on designs for women’s gear, I tended to make my designs too stiff and formal, so giving me a wider variety of fonts to choose from is a big help.” Furthermore, all staff in the design department immediately started using Adobe Capture CC to smoothly create color themes and patterns based on photographs shot on a smartphone. Mr. Mori is currently looking into Adobe Dimension CC as a 3D tool that allows graphic designers to easily composite 2D and 3D assets to Alpen Group is also looking at Adobe Dimension CC create photorealistic images. as a 3D tool that allows graphic designers to easily composite 2D and 3D assets to create photorealistic “Our team also works on designs for golf balls and basketballs,” says Mr. Mori. “If we can make 3D designs, images. it’s easier for us to convey the idea to people without design knowledge, and it becomes easier for us to picture how it will look on a three-dimensional object. We’re considering moving to the All Apps plan so that we can use Adobe Dimension CC.” SOLUTION AT A GLANCE Alpen Group is currently looking into how it can use more of the functions included in Adobe Creative Cloud. Adobe Creative Cloud for teams, including: “Alpen Group does simple video production in-house, but we typically did the editing on editing software Apps: Adobe Illustrator CC, Adobe installed on specific hardware,” says Mr. Tao. “We’re planning to deploy the Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps Photoshop CC, Adobe Capture CC plan to some designers so that we can start using CC and CC, Services: Adobe Typekit, Adobe Creative which have excellent video editing functions.” Cloud Libraries

For more information www.adobe.com/creativecloud/business/teams.html

Adobe Systems Incorporated 345 Park Avenue Adobe, the Adobe logo, Creative Cloud, Illustrator, and Photoshop are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of San Jose, CA 95110-2704 their respective owners. USA www.adobe.com © 2018 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. 8/18