MAY volume 55/number 9 contents COVERSTORY Apparel congratulates its 2014 Innovators for their moxie, creativity and good old-fashioned elbow grease — because, let’s face it, turning innovation into reality means getting your hands dirty! This year’s award winners moved the industry forward in a host of truly unique ways.

BY JORDAN K. SPEER, JESSICA BINNS AND DEENA M. AMA TO-MCCOY Cover photography courtesy of Aeropostale Inc.

INNOVATOR PAGE INNOVATOR PAGE adidas USA ...... 17 J. America Wholesale Blanks . . . .32 Aeropostale Inc...... 37 J.C. Penney ...... 15 Bauer Performance Sports Ltd. . . . 29 Junk Food Clothing ...... 20 Belk ...... 11 Kohl's ...... 35 Black Diamond Equipment ...... 27 Mamiye Brothers Inc...... 35 Brooks Running ...... 22 Mitchells ...... 16 Buffalo Jeans Inc...... 26 Nasty Gal ...... 34 Cobra Puma Golf ...... 14 Newtimes Group ...... 18 Eileen Fisher ...... 18 O'Neill (Part of LaJolla Group) . . . . .9 Fannypants ...... 25 Ortiz Industry ...... 33 Fashion Avenue Sweater Knits . . .24 Perform Group LLC ...... 28 Halston ...... 10 Sport Obermeyer ...... 36 Indochino ...... 30 U.S. Special Operations Command . .10 Industrial Revolution II ...... 12 WS & Co...... 31

TOP INNOVATOR SPONSORS BY JORDAN K. SPEER, JESSICA BINNS AND DEENA M. AMATO-MCCOY

Apparel congratulates its 2014 Innovators for their moxie, creativity and good old- fashioned elbow grease — because, let’s face it, turning innovation into reality means getting your hands dirty! This year’s award winners moved the industry forward in a host of truly unique ways.

It’s all here: From a hoodie that doubles as a drink holder to yoga pants that address the challenge of a leaky bladder, from the power of an 18-year-old social media trendsetter to making inventory available across channels. With fast-paced advances in technology of all types, there’s never been a better time to push the limits of innovation.

8 MAY 2014 • www.apparelmag.com O’Neill Clothing (part of LaJolla Group) Irvine, Calif. | www.oneillclothing .com NOMINATED BY: Reflektion | www.reflektion.com

t’s now a global beach lifestyle apparel company, but O’Neill of the increased relevance of the custom merchandised assort- IClothing hasn’t forgotten its small-store roots, which began ment, says Neukomm. in 1952 when Jack O’Neill first glued together pieces of neo- Results? An immediate uptick in revenue per visit, con- prene to make vests for surfers. The company’s goal is still the version rate, average order size and page views compared to same: to treat each customer who comes to its store — online traffic not going through the platform. “Overall engagement or to a brick-and-mortar retailer — as a unique individual, has improved by every traditional KPI,” says Neukomm. Take- with staff trained to pull together product assortments that home message? Digital channels as a whole need to be dynam- cater to their needs. ically customized, not just e-commerce. So, if you’re a guy or gal dropping in at Steamer Lane, (O’Neill has also used Reflektion to optimize its web site the most hazardous surfing spot in Santa Cruz, Calif., and you for mobile, a key channel for a company whose online cus- head into a store seeking the latest in performance board- tomers are typically 14-24 years old. Now, visits from any shorts, you’re going to find staff to assist you and be able to device offer a targeted shopping experience that is opti- go directly to the products you want. When you hop online, mized for the size and capabilities of its display.) you’d like to encounter the same. Based on initial positive results, O’Neill replaced its cat- “Unfortunately, we were limited in what we could do with egory pages with personalized product assortments, and the online experience,” says Daniel Neukomm, CEO of O’Neill. implemented Reflektion’s visual site search, which actively “We wanted to duplicate that store experience and offer engages shoppers with personalized product results while each visitor an individualized product assortment — one that they are typing. takes into account everything from the shopper’s own style to After a few months, the conversion rate had increased by how the temperature outside is going to affect what they 50 percent and, by the time the 2013 holiday season rolled will buy, whether it’s shorts or long-sleeved t-shirts. We needed around, O’Neill had placed 100 percent of its traffic through a way to gain that kind of insight into customers and prod- the platform. Neukomm says he was initially most amazed by uct trends online, without a large capital expenditure or a large how quickly the company implemented the tool (in just three investment of time.” days), allowing the company to better serve its online shop- In addition to better serving its online customers, the com- pers with targeted recommendations and dynamic dis- pany wanted to feed the insights gleaned from online inter- counting, but he is looking forward to how it will assist from actions into predictive analytics that could offer guidance on a line-planning perspective as well. After all, O'Neill is still emerging trends to retailers selling O’Neill’s products, predominantly a wholesale business. By matching data on which make up 90 percent of the company’s sales. product relevancy for consumer types to retailer profiles and Enter Reflektion, a technology company that helps com- the demographics they service, Neukomm hopes to help retail- panies detect trends and predicts in real-time what each ers tweak their buys to increase sell through. customer is most likely to buy next. In July 2013, O’Neill tested And beyond that? “Further down the road, we will be able the solution by sending 5 percent of its traffic through Reflek- to integrate predictive analytics gleaned from web traffic behav- tion’s predictive analytics platform to provide personalized ioral patterns and be able to capture the true value of web — product recommendations on product pages. which is how the other 97 percent of consumers that don’t It’s like having your own personal shopping assistant: convert behave — so that we can better support our traditional the solution uses data from each customer’s previous inter- wholesale business.” actions and combines it with demographic data such as cus- Neukomm says that even typically transactional tools, such tomer location, age, and prior purchases to formulate as search, can provide tremendous insight into product engage- recommendations. ment if enhanced by Reflektion’s machine-learning predic- That surf enthusiast headed to Santa Cruz? He’s going to tive dynamics. “This tool allows us to glean continually refined see board shorts, not the latest line of summer dresses, which insight on how various consumer types engage with multi- has made oneillclothing.com’s pages “more sticky” because ple product sets. This in turn helps us to better equip our retail- ers with guidance on merchandising assortments. O’Neill Clothing experienced an immediate uptick in revenue per “All very cool stuff,” he concludes. visit, conversion rate, average order size and page views when it started using personalization technology from Reflektion. — Jordan K. Speer

www.apparelmag.com • MAY 2014 9 TOP INNOVATORS Halston New York, N.Y. | www.halston.com NOMINATED BY: RLM | www.ronlynn.com

alston has come a long way since its Studio 54 heyday when holders which products have been selling well so far and sug- Hfounder Roy Halston Frowick’s fashions were de rigueur in gesting a replenishment order. 1970s discotheques. In 2013 the brand began opening a bevy of “RepSpark really helps to facilitate the discussion of the account,” brick-and-mortar stores, including a flagship on Madison Avenue, Timm says. “It’s easy to see different shots of each style, and if with plans to expand its physical presence. someone misses an appointment, the account exec can pre-lay Despite its move back into retail, Halston still looks to whole- out an order for the client, and say ‘Here are my recommenda- sale accounts for a significant share of its revenue. To that end, tions, what do you think?’” the company became the first apparel brand to integrate RLM’s RepSpark customer orders flow into RLM ERP where they ERP software with the RepSpark selling tool, which it used to man- are reviewed in a “relatively seamless process” before final approval. age all non-EDI-based wholesale orders. Interfaces between RLM This ensures that typos are caught and eliminated so that 1,000 and RepSpark ensure that customer master data as well as images units aren’t ordered when 20 were intended, Timm explains. are shared between the two systems. While integrating RepSpark with RLM ERP was fairly straight- Like many apparel brands, Halston operates on a wholly out- forward, says Timm, Halston encountered minor challenges along sourced model for all of its technology systems. RLM ERP enables the way. For example, Timm's team had to engineer some tweaks a consistent data model across different applications, and as Halston to ensure that when a product style is no longer available in RLM, transitioned onto the RLM platform by the end of 2011, the com- it also doesn't show up as a style option in RepSpark. pany wanted to take a long-term view of how data is structured. After years of integrating systems across the enterprise, Hal- “Our sales executives are able to work with accounts at spe- ston expects to reap the benefits of all of its hard work in 2014. cialty stores that may or may not come to market, as well as inter- “This year focus is on taking advantage of that integration and national distributors,” says Bryan Timm, COO, Halston. Describing determining how we can enhance processes to drive efficiency RepSpark as more of an auxiliary than primary tool, Timm notes and make better decisions,” says Timm. that the software aids in driving incremental sales orders. For — Jessica Binns example, RepSpark enables Halston’s dozen sales reps to provide recommendations, showing its 250 specialty wholesale account

U.S. Special Operations Command MacDill Air F orce Base, Florida | www.socom.mil NOMINATED BY: Polartec® | www.polartec.com

he U.S. Special Operations Command ing external and internal conditions. T(USSOCOM) must operate under con- “U.S. Special Operations is always look- ditions that are much different from a gen- ing for game changing technologies to eral outdoor enthusiast. Unlike a skier or enhance the battlefield efficacy of our oper- mountain climber who is typically engaged ators who have to be able to work effec- in those activities for enjoyment, and can tively in any global environmental extreme,” progress at his or her leisure, the U.S. Spe- says a spokesperson for USSOCOM. cial Ops are involved in time-sensitive and One of the ongoing challenges in cre- often dangerous missions. As such, they ating garments for cold-weather conditions Polartec® Alpha® insulation developed with cannot stop and put on layers, or shed lay- is developing materials that are breathe- USSOCOM was tested by U.S. Special Ops under the harshest of conditions — including ers, due to changes in the weather, espe- able yet also moisture-resistant. Typical jumping in a freezing lake in Kodiak, Alaska. cially as they are usually wearing body armor puffy garments that require “down-proof” and load-carrying harnesses, and do not or high-density woven layers create a vapor Typically USSOCOM leverages com- have the luxury of stopping to take them barrier that, although it works well in sta- mercially off-the-shelf technology, but in on or off. It’s a scenario that calls for a highly tic conditions, traps moisture inside the seeking a solution to this problem it versatile garment that can adapt to chang- garment during even minimal activity. approached Polartec, working with the

10 MAY 2014 • www.apparelmag.com TOP INNOVATORS company in the upfront development of a struction conceptions, and after multiple lab also be dyed, lending it a unique aesthetic new form of insulation that would be 1) tests, process trials and “some of the harsh- feature that other insulations do not have. lightweight; 2) packable; 3) breathable; 4) est field testing” with the U.S. Special Ops Within the ranks of Special Operations weather resistant; and 5) warm. One of the themselves — including jumping in a freez- Command, Alpha has been a huge success, particular challenges of many recent deploy- ing lake in Kodiak, Alaska so that their body says USSOCOM’s spokesperson. “Alpha ments has been the high heat garments are temperatures plummeted, and then walk- has proven its worth in field trials and now subject to in-storage facilities in overseas ing until the garments were dry — the knit in combat deployments around the globe. field environments prior to being deployed fabric that is now called Alpha® “proved It is light, warm, breathable and dries faster to colder/higher altitude environments. its worth.” It was added to the PCU (the U.S. than our baseline materials. It has increased USSOCOM was seeking an insulation that Special Ops eight-layer Protective Com- the cold weather capabilities of our oper- would not be affected by this high heat, bat Uniform) and is now also being used ators, while reducing weight and increas- and it also wanted to minimize the nega- in commercial applications as well. ing the compressibility of our garments tive effects of laundering. Polartec Alpha eliminated the potential using an approach that challenged the con- In developing the new insulation, the of fiber migration, allowing garment mak- ventional thinking of insulation.” team at Polartec pulled together various ers to use breathable fabric choices. Because — Jordan K. Speer options that resulted in 18 different con- of its fabric structure, Polartec Alpha can

Belk Charlotte, N.C. | www.belk.com NOMINATED BY: Manhattan Associates | www .manh.com

he evolution of an omnichannel shop- Fortnum, the retailer’s senior vice presi- their fulfillment strategy in a way that will Tping experience has changed the game dent of supply chain. “It is our goal to meet satisfy customer demand, yet still keep a lid for retailers, and as a result, many have had that expectation.” on operating costs. To support this goal, last to modify ordering and fulfillment practices One aspect of keeping shoppers happy year the company began making invest- to keep shoppers happy and returning. To is to ensure they can find the merchan- ments totaling approximately $700 mil- ensure that its loyal shoppers get the excep- dise they want while shopping, and then lion over a three-year period. tional service they have come to expect — make certain orders can be fulfilled in a These investments were allocated to from browsing all the way through pro- timely manner. With inventory remaining technology initiatives that will strengthen curement of merchandise — Belk transi- one of retail’s largest assets — and capital corporate infrastructure, and provide tools tioned its fulfillment strategy into an integrated investments — merchants must optimize needed to maintain a strong competitive system that is flexible enough to leverage inventory regardless of where it resides in the enterprise. Belk is a Charlotte, N.C.-based depart- ment store that operates an omnichannel operation consisting of digital channels, as well as 300 stores in 16 states. The 126- year-old company has built its success on the concept of “transparency,” a charac- teristic that the company says has helped it cultivate trusting relationships with its shoppers. “Our customer remains in the forefront of our service initiatives, and she expects a transparent, seamless shopping experience across all of our channels,” said Debbie

Belk has transitioned its supply chain to a flexible fulfillment model to improve its ability to get merchandise into the hands of its shopper, regardless of the channel she visits.

www.apparelmag.com • MAY 2014 11 TOP INNOVATORS position in the evolving retail environment. ciates can place an order for shoppers dur- seemed like out-of-stock situations because Among these initiatives are supply chain ing their store visits, and merchandise of a lack of insight into inventory,” she said. programs that align distribution capabili- can be delivered directly to their homes. “It is an entry-point metric of success, ties to maximize sales and service; and a Shoppers can conduct the same process but we know it has contributed to improved comprehensive omnichannel initiative. online or through mobile devices. sales, to date.” More specifically, its transition to a “flexi- The key to network fulfillment was to Looking ahead, Belk plans to make fur- ble fulfillment” omnichannel supply chain move beyond dedicated warehouse ship- ther enhancements to its fulfillment strat- strategy became a priority. ments and include fulfillment stores and egy. At the top of the list: expanding to a “We needed to leverage our inventory supplier partners into the mix. As orders total of 50 fulfillment stores by the end of across a broader footprint, making avail- are placed in digital channels by shop- the year. “There is a fair amount of com- able stock accessible to digital shoppers, as pers or in-store by store associates, they plexity within the flexible fulfillment pro- well as to store-level associates,” she are filtered into the retailer’s order man- gram, due to the many moving parts that explained. “We also wanted to become agement system from Manhattan Associ- must be managed. But upholding customer more flexible in getting merchandise into ates. The software manages the company’s service is a core brand strategy,” Fort- the hands of our shopper, regardless of the enterprise inventory in connection with a num said. channel she visited.” set of business tools to determine if the “That said, we consider this a journey. Historically, online shoppers only had order will be fulfilled from one of two ded- We will continue with new program tests access to inventory available in fulfill- icated fulfillment centers, one of Belk’s 19 to learn how we can optimize our network ment centers. By integrating an omnichan- fulfillment stores, or drop-shipped directly differently, and continue to deliver supe- nel inventory management system that has from manufacturer partners. rior customer service.” access to enterprise-wide inventory levels, Since launching the flexible fulfillment — Deena M. Amato-McCoy these orders can now be fulfilled by dedi- program in September 2013, “we have saved cated stores as well. Meanwhile, store asso- sales that would have been lost due to what Industrial Revolution II Port-au-Prince, Haiti | www.irii.com NOMINATED BY: The Eighth Floor | www.theeighthfloor.com

hreads 4 Thought, Boxercraft, Arcade Fire and OSP Group are Tjust a few of the customers placing production with Industrial Revolution II (IRII), and if you asked them why they chose the Port- au-Prince, Haiti-based apparel factory, they’d surely point to its high quality knit tops and bottoms, competitive pricing and prox- imity to North American markets, but there’s another reason these companies are drawn to IRII: because of its social mission. IRII was born in part out of frustration with the failure of tra- ditional aid programs to deliver relief following the 2010 earth- quake in Haiti, says co-founder and CEO Rob Broggi, but the seeds of it had been planted five years previously, when CEO of Diesel Canada Joey Adler — already working in Haiti with the non-profit organization ONEXONE that she founded — was traveling in IRII’s business model is built on giving back to the community where Africa and realized that philanthropy alone was not sustainable it operates. For most workers at the Port-au-Prince, Haiti, factory, the as a means of moving the continent forward. A visit to a fully auto- job is their first formal employment. mated, state-of-the-art, vertical apparel factory in Rwanda gave In the vein of companies such as TOMS — which gives away her the idea for IRII. “Basically, I realized that … we were the one pair of shoes to those in need for every pair it sells — IRII is industry that put tens of millions of people to work in the poor- focusing on changing the approach to profitability by making social est areas of the world,” says Adler. “We were not really being advancement as much a focus of its business as delivering high called to action. If we simply saw the opportunity ... to invest back quality products and services. That “2” in the name? “It signifies [into those regions] where we derived so much value … in sus- … a revolution where the benefits of such a large and profitable tainable, human ways that promote dignity — well, that was the industry accrue to all participants in the sector’s success, not just epiphany.” a few at the top of the chain,” says Broggi.

12 MAY 2014 • www.apparelmag.com TOP INNOVATORS

To that end, IRII provides extensive training for unemployed Haitians to gain a variety of sewing skills so that they can become valuable and productive employees at the 35-000-square-foot fac- tory, which is stocked with top-of-the-line sewing equipment and even a cutting-edge digital garment printer from Kormit Digital. Workers — most of whom have never before had formal employ- ment —are paid above minimum wage, with the ability to earn significantly more based on productivity and quality goals. The factory, which has the capacity to produce up to 5 million units annually, is modern and safe, says Broggi, with an on-site clinic that staffs a full-time doctor. “We believe our factory sets a new standard, and we hope our leading example will raise the bar for working conditions across the industry,” he adds. Everyone involved in IRII — which is backed by investors includ- ing Adler; Richard Coles, an apparel manufacturer with multiple Former President Bill Clinton gets a first-hand look at the work going factories in the Caribbean; actor Matt Damon; and fashion icon on at Industrial Revolution II. Donna Karan — was involved in humanitarian and philanthropic work in Haiti prior to starting the garment factory, says Broggi. engineering plans for a greenfield factory in Croix-de-Bouquets, “We all felt that we could approach the funding of important Haiti, which will be LEED-certified and will use solar and wind social and environmental projects by creating a competitive and power to achieve full energy independence. Ultimately, IRII hopes thriving business which would invest a significant percent of its to serve as the center of economic growth within Haiti, develop- profits into these community programs, investing back into the ing a clothing line to be sold directly to the public, as well as “fran- place from where we are deriving economic benefits.” IRII’s mis- chising” the business model to other geographic regions. sion is to donate 50 percent of profits to its workers, their families “For us, this project comes from our soul. It is a profound and the local community. While not yet profitable — the factory passion and so important for us. … We are trying to change an just opened in September — program partners are already lined industry with love, not by highlighting the negatives but rather up in the areas of healthcare, education and vocational training. promoting [its] great potential,” says Adler. “The only way we can IRII’s goal is to grow to six times its current size, attracting a change the world and rid it of abject poverty is to put people to cluster of associated businesses to the region, and from there work.” expanding into vertically related new businesses, such as textile — Jordan K. Speer mills. With that goal in mind, it has invested in architectural and

Cobra PUMA Golf Carlsbad, Calif. | www.cobrapumagolf.com NOMINATED BY: Jesta I.S. | www.jestais.com

iger Woods. Rory McIlroy. Jesper Parnevik. sories. Company-wide, PUMA distributes “We probably have upwards of 10,000 TLexi Thompson. Besides their excep- products across 120 countries, and its offer- possible configurations between heads, tional talent, these professional golfers are ings are vast. However, today’s shopper shafts, grips, colors and other accessories,” known for their distinct fashion style on is changing the game, and upping the ante said John Brabants, IT director, Cobra the course. Fans and golf enthusiasts alike for its favorite brands. PUMA Golf. “As younger players begin are getting in on the trend, and with the Today’s consumers demand a shop- making a name for themselves, they want help of a customization tool from Cobra ping experience and merchandise that is to stand out.” PUMA Golf, shoppers are fulfilling their tailored to their specific, personal needs Cobra PUMA Golf is making this hap- dreams of fashionably hitting the green and wants. Cobra PUMA Golf shoppers pen with a customization tool from Jesta with their own spin on style, from apparel already create personalized apparel and I.S. that allows shoppers to create their own to customized, affordable golf clubs. footwear, and the company is now offer- signature set of golf clubs. Because PUMA’s One of the world’s leading sports brands, ing its shoppers an opportunity to design North American operations were already PUMA is known for its colorful designs personalized golf clubs, configured from using Jesta, the implementation of the ven- and innovative development and mar- an inventory of hundreds of customizable dor’s Custom Configuration software was keting of footwear, apparel and acces- components. a natural progression for the golf brand.

14 MAY 2014 • www.apparelmag.com TOP INNOVATORS

The process begins over the phone with gestions are based on a live view into inven- around of merchandise, lowering turn- a customer service agent who walks shop- tory availability. around time to a mere 24 hours, he added. pers through their component options. With “The software is connected to sales order To further streamline this service, Cobra a live view into inventory, the agent is able software, which allows us to create custom PUMA Golf is opening a new West Coast- to inform the shopper of component avail- orders,” Brabants explained. “All customized based assembly facility. “It will be stocking ability and replenishment timelines asso- orders filter into our Carlsbad, Calif.-based product, such as inventory and raw mate- ciated with any out-of-stock items. Behind headquarters and custom warehouse. Here, rials, and aid in assembly of fashions and the scenes, the software runs a complex orders are sent to the shop floor, put together support just-in-time shipments,” he said. matrix of “what-if” scenarios that react and shipped out.” The 150,000-square-foot depot is cur- specifically according to a shopper’s evolv- After three years of using the soft- rently ramping up operations and will be ing component selections, and all sug- ware, the company is speeding up turn- fully functional by summer. — Deena M. Amato-McCoy J.C. Penney Plano, Texas | www.jcp.com

NOMINATED BY: Bureau Veritas | www.bureauveritas.com/cps

oday’s consumer does not shop based Ton price alone. She only gives her loy- alty to brands that deliver value — a com- bination of price, service, and most importantly, product quality. JCPenney’s founder, James Cash Pen- ney Jr., introduced the company’s Gold Standard program 112 years ago as a way to convey its commitment to quality to its customer base. Fast-forward more than a century later, and the legendary depart- ment store chain’s internal labs and qual- ity control operations still continue to set the tone for the retail industry, overall. “This commitment is just as strong today as it was 112 years ago,” reported Michael Hannaford, vice president of product integrity, JCPenney. “The company’s Gold Standard program has become a vital strategy for us today, especially in such a highly com- ible pace, a trend that has transformed J.C. Penney is getting a holistic view of its today’s shoppers into the most tech-savvy quality operational results using the petitive marketplace.” OneSource platform from Bureau Vertias, But over the years, different issues arose ever. “As shoppers become more digitally- which is allowing for improved supplier that took a toll on quality assurance efforts. savvy and demand an always-on relation- inspections, better information collection — and better decision making. The early 1990s saw the industry move ship, their expectations have intensified,” toward a mantra of “cheaper, faster, bet- he said. “We need to deliver on that.” Add in the growing number of sup- ter” when it came to product manufac- Operating costs and federal regulatory plier partners that retailers incorporate into turing. Simultaneously, costs related to requirements continue to increase, impos- their supply chains, and issues regarding materials, energy, labor, transportation and ing even more pressure on merchandise the optimization of product quality fur- other variables continued to rise, as the suppliers and retailers alike. For example, ther intensify. For example, JCPenney pur- requirements for compliance and regula- retailers have been working to adhere to chases merchandise from approximately tions around social, environmental, chem- the Consumer Product Safety Improve- 2,700 domestic and foreign suppliers, many ical and product safety issues grew tighter. ment Act (CPSIA), which limits the amount of which have done business with the com- As the new millennium crept up, digi- of lead and phthalates allowed in children's pany for many years. In addition to the team tal technology began evolving at an incred- products. located at the Plano, Texas-based home

www.apparelmag.com • MAY 2014 15 TOP INNOVATORS office, JCPenney maintains buying and qual- allowing for increased efficiencies. Specif- ter decisions to ensure we are raising the ity assurance offices in 11 foreign countries. ically, the quality control teams use the bar across all product categories.” “As more regulations and protocols are solution to run reports based on filters they Looking ahead, the retailer is working mandated, we realized it would be better enter into the system, then the platform on an upstream quality process that focuses to have a partner that was more knowl- delivers a consolidated view of JCPenney’s on prevention over inspection. JCPenney edgeable about changes, and could keep quality operational results, and all factory just completed a pilot that embedded this us on point with protocols related to tests, audits, product testing and inspections. process in specific suppliers’ factories in audits and inspections,” Hannaford explained. “It delivers a holistic view of all those effort to further drive the culture of qual- “The climate is more demanding and requires things, and using a scorecard, we can filter ity to a more grassroots level. more industry-wide testing and reporting.” on suppliers’ status in specific areas,” he “We are making sure our supplier part- JCPenney began a search for a tech- explained. “We can drill down to finite infor- ners are looking at our standards, and nology partner that shared the same val- mation, and report further on informa- embedding them into their internal ues and quality standards, so that both tion we need more insight into.” processes,” he said. companies could work together to ensure Since adding the solution in 2012, JCPen- Currently, there are 24 supplier part- the chain could meet both domestic and ney has reported marked improvements ners engaged in the pilot, and they repre- global requirements. JCPenney partnered on inspections, and it is collecting better sent a cross-section of merchandise categories, with Bureau Veritas to uphold its quality information during audits and testing. including home goods, and apparel for men, operations, and began integrating the com- “These results help us facilitate more effec- women and children. JCPenney hopes to pany’s OneSource software platform to tive global compliance and quality processes,” rollout the program across its supplier part- meet its goals. Hannaford said. “We are looking at items ner base in October. The web-based technology is designed in more detail. Our team internally ana- — Deena M. Amato-McCoy to capture data in new and different ways, lyzes information, and helps us make bet-

Mitchells Westpor t, Conn. | www.mitchellstores.com NOMINATED BY: ThoughtWorks | www.thoughtworks.com

rom the very start — in an 800-square-foot former plumbing As technology began to change the way customers shop, Mitchells Fsupply store in Westport, Conn., — Mitchells has been all about strove to recreate the same high attention to detail and customer the customer experience. Ed and Norma Mitchell, who opened engagement in digital format that it provided to its customers — the store in 1958, wanted to “hug” the customer, and one of the which include more than 500 CEOs and heads of state — in well-known founding stories of the business is that Norma served store. Mitchells wanted to extend the environment of customer coffee each day to help customers feel at home. More than 50 years intimacy that has defined its operations from the very start to the on, although it is larger now — but still independent and fam- digital world, and it turned to ThoughtWorks to help develop a ily-owned — Mitchells has worked to maintain that same spirit. platform that would enable true one-to-one, as well as one-to- Today, the coffee pot Norma brought to work each day has been many, marketing. The result is that Mitchells’ sales associates now retired, but customers can enjoy lattes and M&M’s, while children flock to the “Kiddie Corner.” Operated by the second and third generations of the family, Mitchells has grown — to 25,000 square feet — and the retailer has added stores to its portfolio. In 1995, it acquired Richards of Greenwich, a luxury men’s retailer, which the company expanded in both square footage and scope; it now includes a women’s department. In 2005, it acquired Marshs of Huntington, to which it also added space and departments, and most recently, in 2009, it added the Wilkes Bashford stores of San Francisco and Palo Alto to the mix and with that purchase formed “The Mitchells Family of Stores.”

Sales associates curate individual style recommendations more efficiently on a new platform developed for Mitchells by ThoughtWorks, which takes the high-touch, personalized nature of its clienteling digital.

16 MAY 2014 • www.apparelmag.com TOP INNOVATORS

curate individual style recommendations with personalized com- — 85 percent in key categories, says Mitchell-Namdar. Three other munications for their clients — overall store traffic has increased, employees create product descriptions so that sales associates can and there has been a tremendous pick-up in sales. quickly hone in on the merchandise that best suits their clientele. The new platform built for Mitchells allows sales associates “We had no trouble getting sales associates to adopt the to more easily access robust customer information, such as pref- platform,” says Mitchell-Namdar, noting that employees were erences and purchase history, along with photos (called “m-pix”) already taking photos on their mobile phones and sending them and product information, such as designer, size and inventory to customers. Now, they can do the same thing in a much more details, so that they can customize offerings to their clients more efficient, larger-scale and high-quality way, he says. Photos are easily. The platform has automated the labor-intensive process of tied to inventory, so when there are no more of a particular item searching for items that customers like and then reaching out to the photos are automatically deleted. the customer. “It’s a digital extension of a relationship,” says Mitchells hasn’t performed any metrics yet, but it’s clear the Andrew Mitchell-Namdar, vice president of marketing and cre- platform is working. Mitchell-Namdar recently saw a customer ative services. “For example, if you receive new Dolce & Gabbana purchase three Zegna suits, and was told by the sales associate merchandise, you can easily search to see which of your customers that it was a result of m-pix. He received a photo, liked the suit, like this brand, and then send them an email with photos of the came into the store to buy it, and picked up two more while he specific items you think they’ll like.” was there. “The system really deepens the relationship between In addition to this highly targeted, curated outreach via the associate and the customer,” he says, noting that dates such email, the platform also provide sales associates with visibility into as birthdays and anniversaries can be built in to customer profiles inventory across the stores, and enables them to share that insight to extend that connection even further. with their customers while they are right there in the store. “It’s Next up for the retailer? Adding e-commerce to the retailer’s a virtual closet for our customers,” says Mitchell-Namdar, who information-rich web site. That’s the next step, says Mitchell- adds that it really gives the retailer a way to expand the reach of Namdar. Then, when customers receive emails from sales asso- its inventory. ciates, they’ll be able to go directly to the web site and make a To give its sales associates access to those rich images, the com- purchase. pany hired three photographers who since December have pho- — Jordan K. Speer tographed almost 15,000 SKUs, or, about 50 percent of inventory adidas USA Portland, Ore. | www.adidas.com

NOMINATED BY: Creative Realities | www.cri.com

ersonal touchscreen devices are giving love of the striped sneakers), shoppers can The huge interactive touch displays fea- Pshoppers more access to information customize many details of footwear and ture digital “look books” to inspire shop- than ever before. In some cases, shoppers track tops, including the adidas logo; they pers to create customized merchandise armed with mobile gadgets have more can even personalize with their own names. based on adidas’ most current seasonal knowledge than store associates. Com- To find the most innovative way to bring offering. Equipped with touchscreen tech- panies such as adidas are leveraging this this experience to the brick-and-mortar store, nology, these digital displays allow shop- trend to expand the store-level shopping adidas tapped the expertise of Creative Real- pers to explore, create and purchase their experience for both consumers and asso- ities, a fully integrated experiential design personalized merchandise, and share it with ciates. By featuring interactive in-store firm that creates unique, interactive con- friends over social media. Sales associates touchscreen shopping tools designed to sumer experiences. The team worked to are also armed with tablet devices to build inspire its shoppers, more consumers are deliver the brand’s customizable offering one-on-one engagement with shoppers browsing — and helping design — the through a life-size interactive digital screen. before, during or after their experience. newest merchandise lines with the sim- Partnering with adidas’ digital agency, All content updates can be done remotely ple swipe of a finger. Creative Realities helped design and develop and automatically within 24 to 48 hours, In developing its touchscreen tool, adi- the user experience, as well as handled the enabling available merchandise and assort- das was eager to expand its online “mi adi- back-end operations, systems integration, ments to be updated quickly and efficiently. das” customization program to its and installation hardware. When adidas — Deena M. Amato-McCoy brick-and-mortar shoppers. With the online was ready to go live, the manufacturer chose program, “mi adidas” (a phrase made pop- to launch the technology with retail part- ular in the ‘80s Run D.M.C. song about their ner Footaction.

www.apparelmag.com • MAY 2014 17 TOP INNOVATORS Newtimes Group Kowloon, Hong Kong | www.newtimesgroup.com

NOMINATED BY: Core Solutions | www.coresolutions.com

ewtimes Group got its start in 1971 as an exporter of various and create more efficiency and visibility in its order, supplier and Nproducts made in Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China to quality management. The company implemented Core Solutions’ South America and Central America, but it grew substantially extended supply chain management system, CBX, including mod- starting about 10 years ago when it became a buying agent for U.S. ules for supplier management, sourcing, order management, prod- manufacturers, and during the past decade, the company has uct development, logistics and finance. The project was implemented become one of the world’s largest sourcing, product development in three phases, starting with PLM, moving next to order man- and supply chain managers, for more than 100 retailers and brands agement and quality and concluding with WIP. in the United States, Europe and Japan, including Ralph Lauren, One of the key elements of the project was adapting the CBX Nordstrom, Nike, American Eagle, VF Corporation, Victoria's system to cater to the separate workflows of its 100+ customers. Secret and Limited Brands. Another was bringing Newtimes’ sourcing, trading and manu- The company expanded to include more than 40 sourcing offices facturing into one multi-party collaboration platform that focused and quality assurance hubs throughout Asia, the Indian subcon- on the production status of the order and provided full work-in- tinent and the Middle East. As it gained more customers and loca- progress tracking. tions, the scale of its operations became too large to continue on Because CBX extends beyond PLM to cover a broader range of the path of managing each customer ‘manually’ via a tangle of supply chain processes, it has allowed Newtimes to shorten lead Excel spreadsheets, with each customer having its own separate times and streamline processes throughout the supply chain, workflow, and spreadsheets managing functions ranging from not simply in the product development stages. Customers can now fabric and wash instructions, sample tracking and fit, to exception place more complex orders that involve multiple colors, styles and reports and sales analysis. more unique requirements without dragging out the lifecycle. You’ve heard the story before. With Excel, version control, Alex Angelchik, Newtimes’ CEO commented, “Prior to the updates and data rollup were cumbersome, making reporting dif- system’s implementation, we did things the traditional way — ficult and giving management minimal visibility into operations with spreadsheets and emails. CBX Sourcing changed all that. It and little in the way of analytics capability. On a daily basis, the gives our people time to think strategically about what they are company devoted significant human resources to rooting through doing.” Excel and then calling, emailing or faxing customers with answers — Jordan K. Speer to thousands of their questions related to product development. To resolve these issues, Newtimes turned to Core Solutions to help automate its sourcing and product development processes Eileen Fisher Irvington, N.Y. | www.eileenfisher.com

NOMINATED BY: Sky IT Group | www.skyitgroup.com

s the retail industry continues to embrace omnichannel strategies, the new Abusiness model for success is to maintain lean inventories, but still satisfy customer demand. Reliant on feedback from consumers and industry part- ners alike when making business decisions, Eileen Fisher taps its analyt- ics platform to verify, support, and even challenge its instincts regarding inventory positioning and production. This insight is one characteristic (of many) that makes Eileen Fisher an innovative company. Eileen Fisher always had an eye for fashionable and comfortable apparel. She parlayed this eye for fashion into a private company that designs and sells women’s fashions created from organic and natural fabrics. Eileen Fisher’s new reporting solution gives the company insight into which products are — and are not — selling among retail customers and their company-owned stores.

18 MAY 2014 • www.apparelmag.com TOP INNOVATORS

The 30-year-old company has seen how Before making the transition to a new dimension and store location. Using the the turbulence caused by the environment, reporting platform, Eileen Fisher needed solution’s sales reporting module, Eileen economy and other elements continues to to find the right technology partner — one Fisher can monitor product performance impact the apparel industry. As a result, that could deliver a solution that pro- on a more granular basis based on criteria the company considers its consumer feed- vided accessibility, flexibility and scalabil- such as style, fabric and classification. back a valuable source of information when ity. The brand also wanted a proven solution “We have the ability to view compara- navigating among disruptive factors, espe- that could be easily adopted and hosted. tive product performance across our cially as it plans its inventory production Ideally, it also wanted an apparel-focused accounts,” he explained. “On-screen inquiries and allocation. By keeping open lines of solution and technology provider. These or report outputs can show top-line style communication with its consumers and prerequisites would support more stream- performance, or we can drill down to the industry partners, it has built its brand into lined reporting and analytics related to mer- door-level within a given market. It sup- a 60-store chain that operates across 15 chandise sales performance across the ports the work of the planning department, states, Canada, and the United Kingdom. company’s retail customers, as well as within wholesale sales, merchandising and in- The brand is also sold nationwide through its own stores. store merchandising areas.” upscale department and specialty stores, SKYPAD, from SKY I.T. Group, fit the Since going live in fall 2012, the com- including Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue bill. “SKY I.T. was willing and able to part- pany has access to more insightful data, and Neiman Marcus. ner with us and meet our specific needs,” and is producing more detailed reports, With such diverse lines of business, the said Nicholls. “Their operating model of in a “simple, efficient and timely manner,” brand’s biggest challenge was “finding a service, data collection, and reporting solu- Nicholls reported. “We’ve also managed standardized, streamlined way to collect, tions matched our needs, and enables to eliminate internal, manual efforts to cleanse and compile data from our retail us to easily filter and analyze the data in source and populate our previous report- partners,” explained Todd Nicholls, the multiple ways.” ing tool.” company’s business applications director. The software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based Looking ahead, Eileen Fisher plans to “Our previous [reporting] system was solution provides Eileen Fisher with insight build a financial reporting module within not flexible or dynamic enough to view the into which products are — and are not — SKYPAD that will simplify data collection data in a way that allowed us to make selling among retail customers and their and reporting efforts. informed decisions, or better develop our company-owned stores, and they can see — Deena M. Amato-McCoy business strategies.” results based on product attributes, time

Junk Food Clothing Los Angeles, Calif. | www .junkfoodclothing .com NOMINATED BY: Self

hen you talk about meeting demand at the moment it occurs, WJunk Food Clothing is really on to something. Until recently, you’d find the company’s witty t-shirts on its web store and in top retailers around the globe, including Bloomingdale’s and Urban Outfitters, but recently, the “vintage” t-shirt company partnered with eBay’s Red Laser and PayPal divisions to create “occasion- based” pop-up digital stores nationwide (in Westfield malls) around occasions such as movie releases, holidays and the Super Bowl, from which customers could purchase t-shirts using QR codes. After all, when do you most want a t-shirt featuring the new movie you just watched? Why, just as you’re exiting the theater, of course. eBay powered the back-end mobile e-commerce so that customers could easily engage with the Scan To Buy walls. Junk Food, of course, created the t-shirts, which were print-to-order and shipped within 48 hours. The stores were back-lit films with QR codes tied to product on the art, and the company Junk Food is driving sales — and customer engagement — with used light-boxes on walls and even turned sides of mall direc- digital pop-up stores and other interactive creations, such as t-shirts tories into pop-up stores. The pop-ups have been very success- embedded with QR codes in the graphics.

20 MAY 2014 • www.apparelmag.com TOP INNOVATORS ful in driving both sales and engagement with the brand: press Junk Food has found other unique ways of interacting with its published about the walls alone received more than 800 million customers and tying its brand to events and causes. As part of the impressions, says Andrei Najjar, vice president of marketing and 2012 elections, for example, the company partnered with Rock business development. the Vote to create a scanable t-shirt from which people could reg- The technology driving the digital stores is truly disruptive, and ister to vote directly, via QR codes embedded in the graphics. for multiple reasons, says Najjar. From a sustainability perspec- As part of the launch, the company partnered with Virgin Amer- tive, it is ecologically sound, reducing the amount of space needed ica to charter an inaugural flight from San Francisco to Wash- from a full-size store to simply a wall or other space onto which ington, D.C., turning the airplane into a flying voter registration a digital image can be projected; it also allows the company to cre- booth. Engagement was amplified tremendously by back-end tie- ate new “stores” weekly without so much as setting up a POS or ins to social media sites including Facebook, Twitter and Insta- knocking down a wall. That’s also a huge cost savings, as is the gram, says Najjar. elimination of the need for personnel to staff a store. Addition- More recently, the program has evolved into “Scan to Give” ally, the projects entail no inventory risk, says Najjar, because tees shirts, whereby Junk Food has partnered with such causes as Meals are printed on demand. For the customer, the digital stores offer on Wheels and United Way to allow people to give back by an endless aisle, with limitless assortments. scanning the graphics on the tees,” he says. Some of its digital stores push the interaction opportunities Even as it pushes the envelope on disruptive technologies, Junk further. A pop-up created in partnership with the NFL and Bloom- Food has not lost sight of more ‘traditional’ channels. A heavy ingdale’s for this year’s Super Bowl allowed users to vote for their investment in its e-commerce will see results soon with an upcom- favorite team via a Bloomingdale’s window display. The window ing relaunch of its website, and last month, the company added was essentially a large iPad that allowed users to choose their win- to its omnichannel strategy — with the opening of its very first ning team through touch technology, and also to ‘try on’ hel- brick-and-mortar flagship store, in Venice, California. mets through augmented reality technology, says Najjar. As the — Jordan K. Speer company pushes forward with these types of channels, he says, future digital stores will include technologies that allow consumers to virtually interact even more deeply with the pop-up. Brooks Running Seattle, W ash. | www.brooksrunning.com NOMINATED BY: Infor go.infor.com/fashion

t’s a mantra oft-repeated throughout the apparel Iand footwear industry: we’re not a technol- ogy company, we’re a clothing company or shoe business. The same is true for Brooks Running, makers of high-performance run- ning gear loved by sprinters, marathoners and garden-variety running devotees alike. So when the Seattle-based brand opted to invest in technology-enabled solutions, the 25-strong IT team recommitted to Infor’s M3 for Fashion ERP and eSales e-commerce plat- form, and selected PTC’s FlexPLM, Salesforce’s CRM, Logility Voyager’s supply chain planning and forecasting software, and Demandware’s B2C e-commerce platform. Brooks Running is using a host of advanced technology solutions to Brooks operates Infor’s eSales for its wholesale accounts with make its enterprise as high performing as its shoes and apparel. specialty retailers. “Our retailers use this system to enter reorders M3 for Fashion is a particularly attractive ERP platform, says online; they consistently tell us the system is easier to use than Harris, because the software is localized in all of the countries in others they work with,” says Gina Harris, director of IT. The com- which Brooks currently operates — and where it plans to expand. pany uses the Demandware e-commerce platform for B2C in North What’s more, M3 helps Brooks keep things simple. “Our philos- America, with plans underway to expand operations to EMEA. ophy is to stay as vanilla as possible, adapting our processes to the

22 MAY 2014 • www.apparelmag.com TOP INNOVATORS system and minimizing customizations that can often make it productivity, efficiency and visibility throughout the enterprise, expensive and complicated to upgrade,” she explains. The com- Harris notes, especially as business needs evolve. pany is in the process of moving its European operations onto M3 With the Salesforce deployment in 2011, Brooks achieved its so that a single, centralized ERP platform is supporting the goal of centralizing customer profile information, thus increas- entire global enterprise. ing accessibility and offering real-time access to customer con- Migrating to FlexPLM was perhaps a bigger challenge; Brooks tacts and interactions. More recently, Brooks enhanced the solution had survived on spreadsheets for a long time, but knew the inef- by importing current and historical order data from M3 and by ficiencies were starting to add up. “Our footwear and apparel creating dashboards. product teams were struggling with many challenges — chas- As Brooks grows, having in-depth EDI expertise and 24/365 ing data, managing handoffs, version control for Excel spread- monitoring processing is critical, so the company outsourced to SPS sheets,” Harris explains. “Our intent was to implement a solution Commerce, selected for its leadership in the retail industry and global that would scale with our growth, improve visibility through- service offering, says Harris. “EDI is a commodity service — oth- out the product teams, enhance efficiency, provide a single ers do it better. We want to maintain our internal focus on tech- version of the truth, and improve our speed to market.” Flex- nologies that differentiate Brooks in the market.” PLM has proven to be an “excellent choice,” especially as Brooks’ — Jessica Binns product lines expand. Brooks is also ditching spreadsheets for Logility’s best-of-breed supply chain planning and forecasting software, Voyager, to improve

Fashion Avenue Sweater Knits New York, N.Y. NOMINATED BY: NGC Softw are | www.ngcsoftware.com

etailers have long followed the business value. For Fashion Avenue, the first step Rmantra, “location, location, location.” to achieving this goal was to focus on how For manufacturers, however, the focus is its merchandise is created. After careful “product, product, product.” To ensure that evaluation, the company shifted its focus customer satisfaction remains its top pri- to “eliminating non-essential responsi- ority, Fashion Avenue Sweater Knits added bilities from the creative team and pass- supply chain management (SCM) and prod- ing that work up or down stream,” he uct lifecycle management (PLM) systems explained. to improve efficiency and better service One area that needed immediate atten- its customers. tion was internal collaboration. Historically, New York City-based Fashion Avenue the company relied on manual, repetitive Sweater Knits, a leading importer of qual- processes that made workload control and ity children’s and women’s apparel, is a pri- collaboration a constant struggle. vately-held company that supplies “Processes were unique to individuals merchandise to leading retailers, including rather than to departments or the orga- Wal-Mart, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Belk and dress- nization, as a whole,” said Mallis. “Work- barn. Regardless of the brands they choose, loads could not be managed, and we had all shoppers are in search of value and qual- no tools to understand where we stood on Fashion Avenue’s solution from NGC ity. “Consumers have many options, and specific styles or orders." encourages collaboration among its design they are much more aware of different prod- At the core of this issue was the com- and production teams and delivers end-to- end visibility to all users. uct types,” said Austin Mallis, the manu- pany’s inability to share data in a seam- facturer’s vice president of operations. “This less, effective manner due to its disparate company walls and make the data avail- forces us to ensure our product will sat- lines of business. Operating in these silos able for all to search,” he explained. isfy the consumer.” made information requests difficult, and This required the company to deploy a However, due to the rising costs of forced users to conduct laborious, time- technology solution that would encourage production, suppliers industrywide are consuming research to acquire data needed collaboration among its design and pro- hard-pressed to improve efficiencies enter- to make business decisions. Fashion Avenue duction teams, and deliver end-to-end vis- prise-wide without sacrificing quality and began exploring how to “open up these ibility to all users.

24 MAY 2014 • www.apparelmag.com TOP INNOVATORS

“We wanted associates to focus on their the solution’s collaboration tools, Mallis propose solutions. I like to keep operations day-to-day responsibilities and not get said. “This has been a big win because as basic as possible. This implementation caught up in data-gathering projects,” Mallis the user can access relevant information in allowed us to achieve this.” said. “We also needed a technology provider the same platform the conversation is occur- Overall, the software has delivered a that understood our business, and the chal- ring, rather than multi-task across two or measurable return on investment by stream- lenges we would face incorporating a solu- three locations, such as the web, Outlook lining workflow and improving collabo- tion into our day-to-day business processes.” or Excel.” ration, creating better task management, After more evaluation, Fashion Avenue This process has reduced the volume of and supporting faster speed-to-market: all was drawn to NGC. The vendor’s PLM/SCM email and daily information requests by 40 areas that help to decrease product devel- tool presents a single, collaborative plat- percent, impacting the company’s overall opment time. form that standardizes all PLM and SCM efficiency. “PLM and SCM are most effective when processes so Fashion Avenue can capture The solution has also improved oper- integrated in an end-to-end process,” said all production, quality control and supply ations across Fashion Avenue’s Shanghai Mallis. “For us to be successful, we need chain operations data, and deliver end-to- office. “By eliminating public spreadsheet software that takes us from start to finish end visibility. updates, we reduced a large amount of in the product lifecycle. NGC’s solution The solution is a web-based platform that down time and setup,” he said. allows us to do that.” supports an entire suite of solutions, and Fashion Avenue has also integrated ven- The company continues to evaluate how allows dedicated users to access, input and dors into the process, a move that allows to best utilize its data, and drive future suc- track data as it is entered. Workflow calen- them to access development information, cesses. As the solution helps the com- dars and exception management tools ensure and log conversation in the collaboration pany break down barriers between accountability throughout design and pro- tool. “These companies will begin to share departments, it also supports Fashion duction processes, allowing users to stay on production responsibilities for the first time Avenue’s future growth and direction. top of current, future and past due deadlines during our fall 2014 production cycle,” he “PLM provides a platform for contin- and improve task management. reported. uous improvement,” Mallis added. “We’re “It follows workflow department by While there have been many benefits always listening to the needs of our users department, and information is electroni- over the past two years, Mallis is most to understand what they’re trying to accom- cally passed along throughout the com- impressed by how the solution has sim- plish. PLM has helped us establish a more pany, a process that was previously plified business processes. “Prior to PLM, creative, collaborative environment where unavailable,” Mallis said. we had many different processes in place we can continually challenge ourselves to Since implementing the software in Jan- to achieve the same goal,” he explained. do better and accomplish those goals.” uary 2012, Fashion Avenue has transitioned “By eliminating these different processes, — Deena M. Amato-McCoy part of its email system into the PLM using we can now more easily find issues and Fannypants Chantilly, Va. | www.fannypants.com NOMINATED BY: Self

et’s face it: a leaky bladder isn’t only a discovered that other women were report- Lbyproduct of advancing age. It hap- ing the same issue as well. “When I started pens to 25 percent of women over the looking for undergarments [that] could pro- age of 18, according to the Urologic Nurs- vide some comfort and assurance for women, ing journal, and female athletes can expe- I found there was a limited choice of col- rience the occasional “oops,” too — not to ors, styles and fabrics,” she notes. Fannypants panties — and now yoga pants mention the legions of women recover- The Fannypants brand started with — have been designed to address a very ing from surgery or childbirth and deal- underwear designed to be different: func- specific need: the problem of a leaky ing with incontinence. Whatever the cause, tional and fashionable. Parker stresses that bladder. it’s a problem that demands a solution. the company focuses on “making a dif- Each pair of Fannypants undies features That’s what prompted the creation of ference in women’s lives with fun colors, a four-layer moisture-trapping system: a Fannypants, the brainchild of Sophia Parker, feminine styles and designs typical of clas- layer of microfiber, followed by a euca- who experienced some leakage while down- sic undergarments while still building in lyptus core that traps and locks moisture, ward dogging it up during yoga class and much-needed protection for daily use.” another layer of microfiber and a water-

www.apparelmag.com • MAY 2014 25 TOP INNOVATORS proof gusset lining that keeps moisture from means to our customers is Fannypants gar- Fannypants’ biggest business comes leaking onto outer garments. When cus- ments last longer and can stand up to greater through its wholesale operations, selling tomers see the panties, Parker says, they’re wear and tear,” explains Parker, who says to catalogs and online stores, hospital gift pleasantly surprised by what Fannypants Fannypants fabrics are sourced strictly from shops, lingerie retail stores and through offers, such as the seamless designs and the United States and Canada, while the Amazon.com, in addition to selling direct removable pads to allow for a fresh change garments are manufactured in those coun- to consumers through its own e-commerce whenever it’s needed. tries in addition to South America. site. Parker says the company is eyeing new Naturally, Fannypants has fine-tuned Today, Fannypants has expanded from channels in specialized niches such as out- the design as new fabric technologies have its core underwear products to yoga pants doors and recreational sports shops, travel come to market. The company chooses 100 and tank tops, and Parker says customers are outlets, women’s specialty retailers and percent biodegradable performance yarns begging for new garment lines, such as mater- lifestyle stores. that deliver moisture management, com- nity wear and expanded sizes (the Smart- — Jessica Binns fort and antimicrobial control. “What this Capri runs from small to 2XL, for example).

Buffalo Jeans Montreal, Canada | www.buffalojeans.com NOMINATED BY: Momentis | www.momentis.com

eadquartered in Montreal, Buffalo Jeans has expanded its hum- Hble beginnings into a veritable fashion and denim empire. To keep pace with explosive growth since 2007, driven by major whole- sale partnerships with Macy’s, Dillard’s, Lord & Taylor, Hudson’s Bay Company, J.C. Penney and Sears Canada, Buffalo has automated systems and processes with a robust suite of Momentis software. IT director Stephen White says automating processes has been critical to the company’s expansion. “One of our goals here is not to hire more bodies and have people do extra work, but to grow through automation,” he explains. Momentis modules enable everything from sourcing and order entry to allocation and product lifecycle management. The Momentis platform has enabled Buffalo Jeans to eliminate duplicate data entry. Products sold in Buffalo’s wholesale and retail channels are updated automatically in each respective system through multiple interfaces. Buffalo manages all sourcing and product development within the Momentis application, feeding the data into several systems. Working on the Momentis platform also benefits Buffalo’s fac- tory partners. “It makes the life of our suppliers easier because Automating processes and eliminating duplicate data entry through of the consistency of information they’re getting,” he notes. the use of Momentis have been critical for Buffalo Jeans in expanding its business. When Buffalo Jeans staff travel worldwide to finalize their lines, they rely on quick access to tech packs and file servers, all agement. Six different entities within Buffalo buy product from located at their Montreal headquarters. Among other challenges the same manufacturers. Whereas in the old Excel days, employ- with managing international relationships, says White, are the ees would have to manually create purchase orders for factories time difference (Asian factories want access to servers while and sales orders for wholesalers, RLS will automate this entire Buffalo is backing them up at night) and sluggish connectivity. process, importing style information from the product develop- “We put a server in Hong Kong, replicate the data that’s in our ment platform. “Merchandisers and buyers will now have access Montreal server so that people are working on both systems at the to a consolidated view of all divisional buys,” notes White. “There’s same time, and through high-speed internet it’s all seamless,” a huge time and efficiency savings, and less and less confusion White explains. in terms of where to find this information.” This summer Buffalo Jeans is rolling out Retail Line Speed, — Jessica Binns another Momentis module that enables greater supply chain man-

26 MAY 2014 • www.apparelmag.com TOP INNOVATORS Black Diamond Equipment Salt Lak e City, Utah | www.blackdiamondequipment.com NOMINATED BY: Centric Softw are | www.centricsoftware.com

kiers and mountain-climbers alike are lured to “black diamond” in the United States as well as in 50 other countries, where more Strails with a sense of excitement and adrenaline, and they are than 50 percent of its distribution occurs. always worth talking about once completed. Black Diamond Equip- Centric Software’s Centric 8 PLM solution fit the bill. Because ment has built a strong reputation on creating high-perfor- Black Diamond needed to meet the global distribution require- mance products that enthusiasts look for when tackling these ments of its specialty retailers, the company did not have the exhilarating runs. With the help of a product lifecycle manage- luxury of initially learning and growing in the domestic market, ment (PLM) system, the com- then going international. Instead, pany is ready to take on its own it prepared for an aggressive newest endeavor: expanding its global rollout — a process that apparel business on a global basis. caused complexities ranging The Black Diamond name from measurement and fit issues is synonymous with performance, to regulatory compliance. innovation, durability and safety, To address these challenges, and has created a niche in orig- Black Diamond began think- inal, functional outdoor apparel ing like a technology start-up. and equipment across the climb- First, it employed its apparel ing, skiing and mountain sports team, a small collaborative group categories. Black Diamond also of functional experts who could has a reputation for bringing work autonomously within the innovative high-performance, corporate structure, as well as high-quality and highly techni- strategically with operations, cal products to market, espe- marketing and sales to lever- cially those that meet “World’s age programs. First” standards. For example, To expand globally, Black Diamond needed advanced PLM software Next, Black Diamond built Black Diamond recently became that would provide documentation, tracking and advanced quality best practices into vendor man- management for all apparel lines, regardless of category or sport. the first global launch partner agement, material planning, for Cohaesive Garment Technology Inc., a company that embeds color merchandising, design language, product fit and corpo- functional components into the fabric of a garment. It is these rate responsibility programs. “Within a four-month timeframe, types of partnerships that add integrity to Black Diamond’s inno- we were able to complete gathering, implementation and train- vative brand. ing,” said Jeff Nash, the supplier’s vice president of engineer- As the company set its sights on global expansion, it needed ing support services. to extend this reputation to its apparel lines. This endeavor did By April 2013, Centric’s PLM was implemented across the pose some difficulties. While Black Diamond’s staff was comprised entire apparel category. “It’s all about effective communication of world-class experts in the fields of hard goods’ engineering, and scaling, and the software gave us a great head-start,” he manufacturing and quality testing, the company had no apparel said. “PLM forms the systems and data parts of best practices.” expertise in-house. The PLM software creates a master data set, which drives To gain a foothold in its global apparel endeavors, it needed to performance. Working with one version of data allows the com- create a solid apparel team, then give them access to a solution pany to better plan and get closer to market. Specifically, the that would manage merchandise production, and produce results software’s data integrity helped the supplier make accurate, quickly. For Black Diamond, the ideal solution was advanced PLM data-driven decisions across operations such as fit, sizing, color software that could provide documentation, tracking and advanced merchandising, allocation of garments to factories, price quality management for all of the company’s apparel lines, regard- negotiation, and construction details, as well as allowed it to less of the category or sport. quickly scale its business. It also supports materials require- Because the supplier creates technical garments that use high- ments planning (MRP) software, which integrates all of the sup- performance materials, the software also needed to support Black plier’s planning resources. This helps Black Diamond ensure Diamond’s rigorous requirements for all merchandise. Finally, the on-time deliveries, minimize excess liability, and streamline solution also needed to manage a global operation, including communication of technical specifications to vendors, which the distribution requirements of its worldwide specialty retailers speeds prototype development.

www.apparelmag.com • MAY 2014 27 TOP INNOVATORS

“The unified approach allows for consistency between facto- sustainable approach to materials and product development, ries, and therefore, consistency in product quality,” Nash explained. can use the software to audit and track a series of compliance issues Black Diamond saw immediate results. In its fall 2013 men’s across its new apparel programs. These range from chemical man- collection, the company developed and marketed collections across agement to sustainability of resources at the raw materials level. softshell, synthetic insulation and fleece categories, using an inter- “The auditing function, which covers areas including color mer- nal product creation staff of four. Its spring 2014 men’s collection, chandising, raw materials, corporate responsibility, fit and ven- which encompassed technical climbing and sportswear, was dor management, is an innovative aspect of the software that Black created with an internal team of six. For fall 2014, its internal 10- Diamond values,” said Nash. person team created a men’s collection, including softshell, syn- Looking ahead, Black Diamond is considering how to “cen- thetic insulation, fleece, hardshell and down, as well as a full tralize as many functions from the other Black Diamond brands women’s collection across the same categories. as possible onto the PLM platform,” he said. Looking ahead to its spring 2015 collection, the supplier is plan- Specifically, the apparel team’s near-term goal is to build upon ning to create a complete women’s collection, including technical the system’s vendor management, product sourcing and mater- knits, using an internal product creation staff of 15. This same team ial planning modules. “Long-term integration goals include line is working on the fall 2015 collection, which will introduce both planning, materials and color management, corporate responsi- men’s and women’s ski outerwear and mid-layer collections. bility and vendor management,” he added. Centric also played a role in building Black Diamond’s cor- — Deena M. Amato-McCoy porate responsibility programs. The company, which takes a

Perform Group LLC York, Pa. | www.performgroupllc.com NOMINATED BY: Yunique Solutions | www.yuniquesolutions.com

ccording to Martha Graham, great dancers poor visibility into our day-to-day product Aare not great because of technique, they are development process between depart- great because of passion. Perform Group, LLC ments,” said Phil Weaver, the company’s upholds a similar philosophy, “Your Perfor- director of IT. mance is Our Passion,” thanks to truly dedi- Besides having minimal insight into oper- cated associates who are focused on exceeding ations, this manual configuration was labor customer expectations. intensive and time-consuming. Eager to Like a dancer who is always working toward increase enterprise visibility and stream- her personal best performance, Perform Group line the management of merchandise design shares the same regard for product develop- and production, the Perform Group ment — a move that prompted the company began evaluating solutions to auto- to add a product lifecycle management (PLM) mate its operations. solution that allows it to create high quality gar- Overall, Perform ments in a shorter timeframe. Group wanted a solu- The costume manufacturer was purchased tion that would help the by Tighe King in 1969, and since then Perform company produce the Group, LLC has grown into a global leader that highest quality garments provides high-quality performance apparel, possible, and turn them around from leotards, tights, dance shoes and street in shortened timeframes. At a granular level wear to warm-ups and gifts, across the dance however, the company had a thorough list of and gymnastics categories. As the company’s prerequisites for success. breadth increased, it became apparent that Per- For example, the supplier wanted to better form Group needed a more efficient way to manage fabrics, trims and accessories, as well manage product development lifecycles. as streamline production processes. It also Armed with multiple disparate spreadsheets needed to eliminate redundant data and erro- supported by a proprietary AS/400 operating neous information that multiple, disparately Perform Group needed a solution to allow it to system, “we struggled with how we gathered managed data sources were causing. By merg- create its dance apparel product development information, and had ing information into a centralized data set, in a shorter timeframe.

28 MAY 2014 • www.apparelmag.com TOP INNOVATORS the supplier could reduce development cycle time by eliminating many redundant processes. A “single version of the truth” would also deliver visibility to decision- makers, ensuring higher profitability. Perform Group also had a set of tech- nological criteria. Because the company manufactures and sources its own styles, it needed a flexible solution. “Many of the solutions we evaluated would have forced us to change the way we conduct business,” Weaver said. Weaver wanted something built on the latest Microsoft technology stack, “a factor pany’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) Among Perform Group’s goals for a PLM system made it easy for users to collab- solution: the ability to better manage fabrics, that assured best-in-class performance, trims and accessories, as well as streamline reliability and scalability, and could grow oratively work together. production processes. with our business,” he said. Meanwhile, the technology’s two-way in some instances, we would enter the Another must was a partner that worked interactive collaboration tool ensures pro- same information five or six times,” Weaver exclusively in the apparel industry. Yunique duction changes are communicated imme- reported. Solutions fit the bill. diately throughout the supply chain — a Perform Group hopes to see additional YuniquePLM is completely web-based, process that aids in avoiding costly errors. improvements, especially regarding busi- “which eliminates desk-side administra- The supplier is also utilizing the solu- ness partners. By giving them access to tion, and is accessible from any platform, tion’s advanced business analytics tool, the PLM system, it hopes to bolster exter- including mobile,” Weaver explained. “which provides us with end-to-end vis- nal collaboration efforts. “This function- It is also a features-rich packaged solu- ibility and flexibility across data sources, ality will help us to eliminate inconsistent tion, which offers the company much more even those outside of our PLM system,” emails and paper trails,” he concluded. flexibility over its production operations. he explained. Seamless integration with pattern design The company realized benefits imme- — Deena M. Amato-McCoy solution, Accumark, Adobe Illusrator diately after going live last August, espe- graphic design software, and the com- cially across data entry. “Prior to PLM, Bauer Performance Sports Exeter, N.H. | www.bauerperformancespor ts.com NOMINATED BY: Attune Consulting | www.attuneconsulting .com

ulti-channel brands recognize that offering personalized experiences will drive Msuccess. Some companies are taking this one step further and offering tailored, customized merchandise, a move that helps companies differentiate themselves in the marketplace and drive customer loyalty. By leveraging its recent brand acquisi- tion, Bauer Performance Sports is expanding personalized merchandise, an offering that is raising the bar on service. Bauer Performance Sports is a leading developer and manufacturer of ice hockey, roller hockey, lacrosse, baseball and softball sports equipment and related apparel. Called the most recognized and strongest brand in the ice hockey equipment indus- try, Bauer, which reported approximately $400 million in revenue in fiscal 2013, holds the top market share position in both ice and roller hockey. Merchandise marketed under the Bauer, Mission, Maverik, Cascade, Inaria and Combat brand names is dis- tributed by sales representatives and independent distributors, globally. Focusing on building its leadership position and growing market share across all product categories keeps Bauer committed to innovation. Its latest innovation is bol- stering its customized merchandise with a speedy turnaround.

www.apparelmag.com • MAY 2014 29 TOP INNOVATORS

“We always offered customized merchandise for the hockey For example, Bauer began integrating the Cascade and Maverik category, but with the acquisition of the Cascade brand, we wanted brands onto its SAP AFS solution in October 2012, with a goal to expand our presence across lacrosse,” said Paul Dachsteiner, of getting both brands integrated within a six-month window. vice president of information services. Among the operations that would be streamlined between brands Historically, Bauer offered the opportunity to customize and were sales and order management, reconciliations, financials, dis- monogram uniforms and hockey sticks, including color and curve, tribution and inventory management. The biggest addition would and ice hockey skates, from flexible tendon guards to cus- be the addition of Cascade’s Liverpool, N.Y.-based manufactur- tomized tongue inserts. The summer 2012 acquisition of Cas- ing center. cade allows Bauer to add lacrosse helmets to the mix — and Since integrating the Cascade brand and the 48-hour lacrosse offer an unprecedented 48-hour turnaround. helmet quick-turnaround customized manufacturing service, “we “Cascade is the top lacrosse helmet brand worldwide, and their have been able to add efficiency, scale the business and increase 48-hour customized U.S.-based manufacturing is something we our volume, which were the biggest wins for us,” he said. “Once never had before,” he explained. “Bringing the two brands together we transitioned Cascade onto the SAP platform, within 60 days is allowing us to leverage synergies and integrate the service we added efficiency and controls, and continue to scale and improve into our high-performance sports platform.” volume.” This effort required the company to integrate the two com- Realizing this is a journey, Bauer is always looking to make panies together on one enterprise platform. Historically, Bauer additional improvements. “There is no finish line when it comes has used SAP AFS, an e-business solution for the apparel and to improving efficiency,” Dachsteiner said. “Now that we have footwear industry, since 1999. But Bauer’s commitment to this stabilized business, we continue to scale, and continue to explore platform doesn’t stop the company when they evaluate acquisi- new areas to improve.” tion opportunities. One of the top priorities is the enhancement of its material “When we acquire new companies we also inherit their resource planning (MRP) system, a production planning and inven- operating platform, so our first step is to see if it makes sense to tory control solution used to manage its manufacturing processes. connect our platforms or convert them,” Dachsteiner said. “If they “We want to improve communications and collaboration in regard can ‘talk,’ great. Our primary goal is to create a great product for to creating merchandise and processing orders,” he added. The our athletes. Once we have that in place, we’ll figure out how to company did not reveal a timeline for these initiatives. leverage synergies systematically.” — Deena M. Amato-McCoy Indochino Vancouver, BC, Canada | www.indochino.com NOMINATED BY: Self

f you need a suit for the wedding of your wife’s best Ifriend — which she’s been reminding you to get for weeks — and the wedding is tomorrow, well, I’m afraid you’re out of luck, my friend. Indochino is not for you, and unless you are near a 24-hour custom tailor in Hong Kong, you will likely have to settle for an off-the-rack number vs. a custom-made suit for the gala event. But if you’ve got a few weeks to spare — about four — then Indochino just might be a perfect fit, no pun intended. CEO Kyle Vucko co-founded the Van- couver, Canada online custom men’s wear company in 2007 to Indochino started online, filling a niche in the marketplace for high- quality made-to-measure suits, and now it offers the same service address a need he saw for made-to-measure suits for the aver- through its “Traveling Tailor” retail pop-up stores. age man — in other words, a stylish, well-fitting suit for less than $500. about 90 percent in North America, with the balance spread out Given the market it is targeting, the majority of Indochino cus- “pretty much across the globe,” he says. tomers are first-time custom-clothing buyers. “Indochino has How does it work? Customers choose from an array of suit- made something available to them that wasn’t available before,” ing fabrications and designs and then follow a unique 10-minute says Vucko. To date, the company has about 120,000 customers, self-measurement process that can be done from the comfort of

30 MAY 2014 • www.apparelmag.com TOP INNOVATORS their own homes, and that doesn’t require a tailor — just a tape work with an in-store style guide. The first event was “wildly suc- measure and a “good friend,” as the web site explains. “We really cessful,” says Vucko, and so the company built a team around it hold your hand,” says Vucko, of the online videos that take you and turned that first foray into five events in 2012, 12 events in through the process. 2013, and is looking to hit around 25 this year. After Indochino receives the order, it converts those measure- The pop-up store doesn’t feel like one, says Vucko. Indochino ments into individual patterns via a proprietary algorithmic grad- builds out a fully functional store that has an “Apple-esque aes- ing system. From these patterns, and the fabrics selected by thetic” and is designed to suit the shopping habits of guys, Indochino’s design team, suits are manufactured by factory focusing on convenience and personalization. The pop-up store partners in China. The suits are quality checked, packaged and travels to urban locations around North America, typically stick- shipped directly to the consumer from Shanghai, where Indochino ing around for a period of 10 days to one month. maintains a second location. Customers work with a style guide who is equipped with an By going directly to the factory and cutting out the middleman, iPod touch and custom app to complete the 14-point measure- and because it offers a custom-made and -ordered product that ment system and build a custom suit. The app syncs directly requires a fraction of the inventory of a traditional apparel busi- with the Indochino back-end, creating a seamless transition from ness, Indochino reduces its risk and increases its cash flow — and offline data capture and personalization to online production. is able to pass its lower costs on to its customers, says Vucko. Sur- As for the future of Indochino, Vucko is excited about the oppor- prise perk: the company provides $75 for alterations, should you tunities that technology opens up. “We’re still playing with the need to take your suit to a local tailor for adjustment after it arrives. length [of time we stay in a city], size [of each store], how to best Indochino will also remake the suit for you, or provide a full refund. integrate mobile, online, offline. We’re trying to figure out the As its business expanded, Indochino heard from some of its optimum mix. I don’t know where that will take us, but I know customers that they wanted to see and feel the fabrics in person there are changes and evolutions ahead, and I’m looking forward and receive styling advice, so in 2011, Indochino added to its busi- to them,” he concludes. ness with an offline “Traveling Tailor” retail pop-up store in Van- — Jordan K. Speer couver that offered guys an opportunity to touch the fabrics and WS & Co. Toronto, Ontario, Canada | www .wsandcompan y.com NOMINATED BY: Cursive PR | www.cursivepr.com

S& Co. began as a small contracting company in 1998, founded Wby Chak Cheng after he arrived in Canada from Hong Kong. In the years since, the company’s high-quality product has attracted a wide range of customers, including Roots Canada, Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), Holt Renfrew, Tailgate Clothing, Billy Reid, Todd Snyder, Preloved, Bonobos and J.Crew, as well as niche players such as Best Made Company, J Press and Noble Denim. It also has produced Olympic apparel for Roots and HBC. Over the past five years, WS has transformed its image from When she took the helm of WS & Co., Kathy Cheng saw that the contractor to manufacturer of high-quality Made-in-North-Amer- business had a huge opportunity it was not capitalizing on: its cachet as a Made-in-North-America label. ica apparel. The evolution began in 2009, when Cheng’s daugh- ter, Kathy, officially joined WS as the president and new face of aftermath of the 2008 recession, my father and I felt it was impor- the company, although she had unofficially been part of the busi- tant to give back to Canada, the country that gave us so many ness from the start, spending weekends and summer holidays at opportunities.” the factory as a child. As she took hold of the reins of the busi- In her new role, Cheng saw that WS had a huge opportunity ness, she says, she was saddened to see so many highly skilled it was not reaping to its fullest: Made-in-North-America manu- craftspeople being forced out of the textile industry because of the facturing. “I saw a gap in the marketplace for quality, made-in- decline in production in North America. North America apparel in a time when people were becoming “I was inspired by these incredibly talented people who had more and more concerned about where their clothing was com- been mastering their craft at our factory since I was 12 years old, ing from,” she says. and I wanted to ensure they could continue to hone their skills Additionally, she realized, even as the industry had contin- and provide for their families. Simultaneously, living in the ued to move offshore, the need for faster fashion and smaller orders

www.apparelmag.com • MAY 2014 31 TOP INNOVATORS

had increased. WS had a great advantage in being able to offer In an effort to offer a platform for these designers to bring their shorter lead times than its offshore counterparts; offering lower products to market — and to expand the business further — the minimums would open the door to a new group of customers. company recently introduced a novelty knit in-stock fabric pro- Plus, she knew their product struck a chord. She would often gram, which offers trending fabrications that can be custom receive calls from the end customer, inquiring about buying more dyed in small quantities. The program has been a huge success, of the company’s apparel. says Cheng, with products featured in publications including “The demand was there, we just needed to harness the momen- GQ and Fashion Magazine. tum.” It was time for WS to shed its image as a traditional con- In repositioning the brand, Cheng — who in 2013, was inau- tractor and reposition itself as a Made-in-Canada private-label gurated into WXN’s list of the Top 100 Most Powerful Women business. Cheng streamlined the product selection and established in Canada — has also focused on sales and marketing initia- a network of distributors that could get the product to con- tives, working with partner Cursive to develop an interactive web- sumers who were asking for handcrafted apparel made on site, engage with social media platforms and create new marketing North American soil. campaigns that include social media contests and giveaways. “All The result? Redwood Classics Apparel, an in-stock program of our messaging relates to the Made-in-North America factor. that offers fashion-inspired everyday wear that’s made locally. Whereas it was once a topic that people shied away from due to Since it was introduced, Redwood Classics sales have almost dou- concerns over pricing, discourse around locally made apparel bled. “Most importantly, [the program] has been instrumental has become not only relevant but imperative. in normalizing the factory’s overall business, keeping our pro- “We now have an opportunity to speak directly to our audi- duction floor humming when the custom private-label side of the ence, to allow the authenticity of the garment to shine through business is slow,” she says. not only in the actual wearing experience, but in the authenticity As part of the company’s renewed focus on its manufactur- of the brand's purpose,” she concludes. ing provenance, Cheng looks to support North American pro- — Jordan K. Speer duction by helping to foster the careers of emerging fashion talent.

J. America Wholesale Blanks Fowlerville, MI | www.jamericablanks.com

NOMINATED BY: Self

e’ve all heard of Google Glass, but J. everyone wants to have one, either for a cus- WAmerica has put its own twist on the tomer, a friend or for themselves,” he says. ‘wearables’ market, with a hoodie that lets The Huzu was created by two guys in you wear your beverage. Yes, you heard South Carolina, but they had a difficult time that right. J. America’s new patented Huzu bringing it to market, says Zimmerman. J. TAILGATE Hoodie puts a new spin on America saw the potential, and struck a an American classic by combining a hooded licensing deal. “We felt the style had a unique- sweatshirt with an insulated neoprene ness to it that also was a good fit for all of pocket that allows you keep your drink cold our divisions. So far it is playing out nicely.” (and vertical!), and your hands free — to The Huzu is constructed of 9 oz. 60/40 join the stadium wave, cheer on your team fleece with a built-in neoprene pocket inside or throw a football with friends while you’re the pouch pocket — and an attached metal J. America is putting a new spin on an tailgating. When not using your sweatshirt bottle or can opener! It comes in black, char- American classic with a hoodie that doubles as a drink holder, the pocket doubles as a coal heather and oxford, in sizes small – 3XL. as a drink holder. velcroed padded security pouch to store J. America was founded in 1992 as a valuables such as your cell phone, MP3 provider of decorated sportswear to the Dick's Sporting Goods, Wal-Mart, Meijer's player or wallet, says Steve Zimmerman, resort and collegiate markets. It began with and Tractor Supply Company. J. America national sales director. a few t-shirts and sweatshirts but has grown Wholesale Blanks is one of five divisions of How popular is the hoodie? If it’s any into a branded lifestyle collection, with a the company. Three others offer decorated indication, the company has not been able focus on “vintage” themes, and more than apparel; the company also has a sourcing to keep it in stock for the past six months. 50 styles. The company continues to serve arm headquartered in Hong Kong. “It is quite the show stopper at trade shows, college bookstores and resort destination — Jordan K. Speer where everyone has a comment and most retailers, as well as the likes of JC Penney,

32 MAY 2014 • www.apparelmag.com TOP INNOVATORS

Ortiz Industry Los Angeles, Calif. | www .ortizindustr y.com NOMINATED BY: Self

f you’ve ever worried about getting a bit damp in the underarms Ion your morning bicycle commute to the office or fretted over the considerable added burden (ahem) of shimmying into shapewear to smooth lumps and bumps beneath your curve-hugging pen- cil skirt, then Ortiz Industry’s collections are for you. Apparel veterans Claire Ortiz and Heather Park — who have a combined 45+ years of experience between them — tapped their vast knowledge gleaned on the job with the likes of Nike and Brand Jordan to develop a line of separates designed to be highly func- tional and as comfortable as athletic wear yet classic in style. Geared toward today’s urban commuter and active professional, Ortiz Industry’s office-friendly garments are made with proprietary materials packed with practical features such as moisture and odor control, 360-degree stretch and recovery, and UV protection, to name a few. “The world of apparel is no longer just fashion and trends,” says Ortiz, co-founder and CEO. “Constructing a garment around Ortiz’ line of separates is designed to be highly functional and as a constantly moving body is truly engineering, and that’s the most comfortable as athletic wear, yet office-friendly. difficult thing to do as a designer.” Indeed, designers approach their work differently when the literally designing very close to season,” Ortiz says of close rela- materials at hand have functional components. “Our rule is: if it tionships with vendors such as Men Chuen, a knitting facility head- doesn’t add function, take it off,” Ortiz points out. “We’re not quartered in Taipei. Lean manufacturing, as well as lean development, going to do bows, we don’t do show ponies, we don’t do con- saves time, money and energy and gets the product to consumer cept cars. We do real garments for real people.” more quickly than traditional processes. Streamlined, intuitive, intrinsic and integrated are how Ortiz And as a start-up, Ortiz Industry embraces the lean concept in describes the brand’s design mantra. The company favors patterns personnel, where each person on the seven-member staff wears that offer three-dimensional functionality versus ones with myr- four or five hats because of a company philosophy that everyone iad cut pieces and lining and seams — there’s entirely too much should be constantly learning and developing knowledge outside going on. “We always challenge ourselves and our designers to of their core skills, Ortiz adds. create products where you’re thinking more three dimensionally,” Though the company manufactures in Asia, Ortiz says she explains Ortiz. “The body is a three-dimensional, round thing, not looked at producing in the United States “from day one,” describ- a flat pattern piece.” ing stateside manufacturing as her “dream.” Going back to that pencil skirt for a moment: Ortiz Industry’s “We want to bring apparel manufacturing back to the U.S.,” Monday knit skirt comes with an integrated compression layer says Ortiz. “We boast Silicon Valley as leaders in global technol- built right in, eliminating the need for Spanx or some such sepa- ogy, why can’t we be the same in every industry?” rate shapewear garment. Because … why not? After all, shapewear The problem, of course, is that apparel manufacturing histor- is “like a standard” today, observes Ortiz, so why not bring the ically has been considered a blue-collar job. But given where tech- best of the office-standard pencil skirt and the girl’s-best-friend nology is heading and what it’s bringing to the garment manufacturing body-slimmer together in one convenient garment? (Also, this sector, the new era of apparel production is white collar, techni- way you never have to worry about your shapewear showing.) cal and advanced — in other words, it’s a career, says Ortiz. “They’re The patent-pending design features many of the brand’s standard no longer sewing factories, today they’re innovation labs,” she tricks of the trade — laser cutting, sonic seam welding — that adds. “It takes fairly knowledgeable people to run them. I think ensure the skirt holds up through dozens of wash cycles, retain- we’re at the beginning of a changing of the guard.” ing its shape and function. Ortiz hopes the guard is changing, too, in the global popula- Ortiz Industry’s vendor partners in Hong Kong, Thailand tion’s fitness and activity level. The much-ballyhooed obesity prob- and Taiwan are essential to ensuring not only a tightly con- lem in the United States is spreading to Europe and even cropping trolled supply chain but also a strict six-month concept-to-con- up in parts of Asia. “Everyone wants to be able to exercise in some sumer timeline. “Because of our materials partnerships, we’re way but who really has time?” Ortiz says. With purpose-built

www.apparelmag.com • MAY 2014 33 TOP INNOVATORS apparel, commuters can burn some calories by biking or skate- longer have to explain things to them,” Ortiz notes. “Millennials boarding or scooting to work without worrying about having to don’t know any other world except technology.” And they expect freshen up with a shower or tend to wrinkled clothing before they cutting-edge tech in every aspect of their lives. park their backsides in their office chairs. Ortiz Industry just might be the exact opposite of fast fashion The time is right for a brand such as Ortiz Industry, which offi- (“we call ourselves old-school visionaries,” Ortiz notes), and the cially launched at the end of March and will roll out three collec- brand is searching for permanence in a culture cluttered with fleet- tions annually in addition to its seasonless Daily line. Today’s ing fads. “Hopefully we’re going to do something that is of value customer is savvier and more socially conscious than ever, stay- and not just be another little clothing brand looking to be cool,” ing informed through smartphones, social media and everything she says. “We’re looking to improve some lives and be a part of in between. “Because consumers understand and are well versed the future.” in technology because of all the other products they have, we no — Jessica Binns NastyGal Los Angeles, Calif. | www .nastygal.com NOMINATED BY: California Fashion Association www.calfashion.org astyGal prides itself on being the “online style destination for Nbadass girls” and indeed, it takes a pretty badass girl, too, like CEO Sophia Amoruso, to launch a clothing business in 2006 at the tender age of 22 when she had no real business experience to speak of. What began as an eBay store selling vintage fashions had morphed by 2012 into one of Inc. Magazine’s “Fastest Grow- ing Retailers” with revenue for the online-only business approach- ing $100 million that year — a significant achievement for a company whose standalone website only has been around since 2008. NastyGal’s pinpoint focus on vintage styles and fast fashion for the 15- to 20-year-old female demographic is a huge part of the retailer’s success, says Ilse Metchek, president of the Califor- nia Fashion Association, largely because Amoruso created the business as a reflection of her own taste. “That singular image is not going to vary as long as Sophia is the owner,” Metchek explains. NastyGal wins customers for its vintage styles and fast fashion — “It doesn’t vary based on what style Women’s Wear Daily or peer and the responsive design and easy navigability of its web site. groups dictates. That’s unique to this website.” It also helps that NastyGal’s culture helps to create not just take center stage for our announcements as customers realize the customers but devotees, drawing in fans with newsletters in the urgency in acting fast. Nevertheless, many customers still prefer early days and now editorially-focused blogs and inspirational to view the full-size versions of our exceptional product photog- Instagram pics for its 1 million+ followers. As an online-only out- raphy from a desktop monitor.” let, NastyGal highly prioritizes the customer experience and always Customer who crave seeing their much-loved fashions full- seeks out new ways to improve. “To that end, we have built size will be thrilled when NastyGal follows in the footsteps of com- both a responsive website and a native iPhone/iPad applica- panies such as Bonobos and opens up physical stores, as Amoruso tion,” says Dave Thomas, CTO, making shopping and the check- revealed it would do at SXSW this year. The first store will be out process as simple and intuitive as possible. located in L.A. where the company is headquartered. And the NastyGal topped the 100 companies evaluated in The Search company’s first forays into private-label apparel and accessories Agency’s Mobile Scorecard Report for web-exclusive retailers with — because who doesn’t love better margins and greater creative a leading score of 4.680 out of 5, noted for its use of responsive and manufacturing control? — should go a long way toward fill- design and keeping the most important things (search box, ing up its 527,000-square-foot warehouse space in the Louisville, sign-in, cart and app store download prompts) easily findable at Ky., area. NastyGal needed just 200,000 sq. ft. of the building when the top of the screen. it signed the lease in 2012 with the agreement to gradually use the “Mobile is a significant channel today and a key strategic pri- remaining space over the next 10 years. ority,” Thomas explains. “Mobile web and native iOS channels — Jessica Binns

34 MAY 2014 • www.apparelmag.com TOP INNOVATORS Kohl’s Menomonee Falls, WI | www.kohls.com NOMINATED BY: Digby | www.digby.com

t’s the new tool in driving traffic to stores: the almighty smart- “We've also communicated broader marketing initiatives like Iphone. When Kohl’s Department Stores went looking for a cre- when we sponsored the American Music Awards last year,” he ative way to get shoppers through its doors, the company expanded adds. Contextual relevance is an especially important part of Kohl’s on its three-year mobile marketing program by partnering with marketing plan because customers receive offers when they’re Digby a year ago to leverage its Localpoint platform and launch close to a store and thus best primed and positioned to act on a hyperlocal marketing initiative. Kohl’s sought to enhance the mobile offers. Duncan notes that while Kohl’s cannot guarantee customer experience by delivering loyal mobile app users per- that customers will receive a different promotion each time they sonalized offers that are contextually relevant, too. The retailer visit a store, the retailer strives to remain “current and unique.” was attracted to Digby’s robust geotargeting capabilities and appre- The interaction with customers doesn’t simply end at the ini- ciated how simple it was to integrate the technology into its exist- tial offer once shoppers are close to a Kohl’s store. The retailer can ing IT environment. connect with shoppers via the app throughout their store visit all Kohl’s empowered its entire omnichannel strategy by inte- the way through the end of the shopping experience. grating reporting, location management, analytics and cam- Like any initiative, the hyperlocal marketing campaign has paign management into its IT infrastructure. The retailer is pursuing yielded its share of hits and misses, says Duncan, but Kohl’s its omnichannel strategy by engaging with customers across chan- continues to “try and find the messaging cadence and deliver nels, from online to offline to mobile, to offer purchase incentives the right message at the right time for our customers.” including its popular “Friends & Family” promotion, local store- — Jessica Binns specific campaigns, general promotions, and Kohl's Cash reminders, to encourage store visits, says vice president of strategic market- ing, Chris Duncan. Mamiye Brothers New York, N.Y. |www.mamiye.com NOMINATED BY: Simparel | www.simparel.com

amiye Brothers relies on smart tech- Wallflower Jeans) are distributed to a wide cess. One of those choices included the Mnology decisions to take advantage of range of customers representing approxi- upgrade of its aforementioned ERP system, opportunities in an ever-changing and com- mately 13,000 retail stores in the United which was a 15-year-old legacy solution. petitive omnichannel business environ- States, and around the globe. It managed all of the company’s product ment. Its decision to add a cloud-based The company also has a history of being lines, but the solution provided a very nar- enterprise resource planning (ERP) system an early adopter of a variety of technol- row view of the apparel supply chain and to support an increasingly expanding global ogy solutions, another characteristic that struggled to manage the entire lifecycle operation is case in point. supports its reputation of being a techno- of product. This aging software also had Mamiye Brothers’ operating philoso- logical innovator. Mamiye technological limited capability to expand as Mamiye’s phy is to provide business-oriented tech- prowess started with its early adoption of business processes changed. nology and positive encouragement to cloud technology, and the platform’s sup- Further, legacy-based, hard-coded apparel its staff, which allows them to meet their port of email, telephone operations and a ERP solutions can become expensive pro- challenges, says David Cropper, the com- basic ERP system. gramming nightmares when changes are pany’s CIO. “We didn’t do it because it was the required, or in some cases, when those It is a business vision that has helped latest fad. Our focus needs to be on busi- upgrades simply cannot accommodate oper- the company distinguish itself as a premier ness, not the mundane, often tedious tasks ations. This forced Mamiye to resort to designer, manufacturer and marketer of of running a complex data center,” Crop- “bolting on” software packages when cus- children’s, tween and teen fashion apparel per said. “It set a tone and direction aimed tomization was needed. Over time, how- brands for infants, girls, boys, juniors, squarely at focusing on what’s important.” ever, “it became a highly customized solution and young contemporary. Its brands (Flap- Mamiye’s software selections are often with many ‘bolt-ons’ that were costly and doodles, Guess Kids, Kensie, Little Me and made as a catalyst needed to achieve suc- difficult to manage,” said Cropper.

www.apparelmag.com • MAY 2014 35 TOP INNOVATORS

As Mamiye branched out to service This configurable, cloud-based solution Pop-Market, a leading wholesale com- the juniors and missy verticals, the resulted in a quick implementation, more merce and connection marketplace. “The company knew it needed to transition agility across operations, and a low total move will improve our sales team’s capa- from this “bolt-on” strategy to more cost of ownership. It also allowed the com- bility to reach and relate to our customers, flexible, state-of-the-art technology. pany to seamlessly integrate other mission- and make it easier for them to do busi- After evaluating several options, Mamiye critical software, such as business analytics ness with us,” Cropper said. “Overall, selected the Simparel Enterprise Solu- and online/mobile wholesale sales automa- these additions are opening up a new busi- tion, an apparel industry-specific ERP tion tools. ness channel for Mamiye.” software solution that spans a wide It was also paramount in helping Mamiye Cropper also credits Mamiye’s innov- range of traditional apparel software expand outside of the traditional wholesale ative reputation to the support and encour- categories, and features a new, unified model to take advantage of other distribu- agement of its management team. “Our software model. Designed on a scal- tion channels. For example, Mamiye has sig- solutions portfolio is achieving require- able software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, nificantly expanded its global capabilities, ments, such as flexibility, adaptability and the solution encompasses all business “which is a key strategy, given the saturated so forth, but most importantly, they processes that go into apparel manu- U.S.-based market,” Cropper explained. empower our users,” he added. “I believe facturing, including product lifecycle To understand what is happening across this sets us apart from many others in the management (PLM), supply chain man- its business, both domestically and overseas, apparel industry.” agement (SCM), warehouse manage- the company recently deployed an analytics — Deena M. Amato-McCoy ment (WMS), sales order management dashboard from Aptclarity, which provides (SOM), enterprise resource planning management with current and future insights (ERP), electronic data interchange (EDI), needed to improve business decisions. manufacturing and material resource As Mamiye moves into new distribu- planning (MRP) and financial resource tion opportunities, the company is cur- management (FIN). rently deploying a range of solutions from Sport Obermeyer Aspen, Colo. | www .obermeyer.com NOMINATED BY: NGC | www.ngcsoftware.com

lpine skiing aficionados will easily recognize the Sport Ober- Ameyer name. The family-run apparel business, helmed by CEO and co-founder Klaus Obermeyer for the past 67 years, has blos- somed over time, gaining footholds in most of the major skiing countries (Switzerland, Russia) and establishing strong relation- ships with both major outdoor retailers such as REI as well as smaller specialty stores. But as the company grew, it struggled beneath the burden of legacy systems and processes that couldn’t serve the business’s evolving needs. COO Gregory Bannister took a long hard look at the company, analyzing everything from soup to nuts, and rec- ommended to Klaus that Sport Obermeyer upgrade to NGC’s inte- grated suite of ERP, PLM and supply chain management sourcing. In other words, go big, or go home. “I told Klaus, ‘you’ve either got to do this really, really fast or not at all,’” explains Bannister. “‘If you don’t do it at all, you’re going to have years of problems because the systems are so bad.’” In some instances, “systems” might be an overstatement — or at the very least, a considerable stretch. For example, informa-

Among the benefits of its new suite of solutions from NGC, the ski-wear brand is now collaborating more intuitively with its factory partners and is getting product to stores much faster.

36 MAY 2014 • www.apparelmag.com TOP INNOVATORS

tion on supply chain activities previously boiled down to con- Describing the four-month NGC implementation as “bru- versations between three or four key people, all conducted via tally fast by anyone’s standards,” Bannister says upfront training email. There was no transparent way to know what was being said was key to the project’s success. He spent hours on end writing in those supply chain emails, which the production manager more policies than procedures, covering everything from how to described as “a disaster.” interact with customers to guidelines for managing discounts. “We’d been having problems with on-time shipping, and every- Despite the risk of undertaking such a monumental imple- one was blaming the factory, but it was an internally self-induced mentation in so short a time span, Sport Obermeyer realized results problem,” explains Bannister. “You’re making the factory nervous quickly, even outpacing conservative forecasts. The company with all kinds of requests that aren’t centralized and accrued by got its investments back on the NGC system largely due to how the production manager.” fast it was implemented and the “things we corrected in a short Sport Obermeyer’s legacy PLM software didn’t talk to other amount of time,” Bannister notes. “I kept revising my ROI because systems and seemed to exist only to host tech packs. The legacy even though we were spending money, we were saving money so ERP was a homegrown affair that also didn’t integrate with any- fast and the time to achieve ROI kept going down, down, down. thing else. “Initially I was forecasting 28 months for ROI, but we achieved Costing and purchase orders were both handled via spread- it in less than 20 months,” he adds. sheets. Employees who wanted to perform margin analysis, for Whereas previously Sport Obermeyer’s costs weren’t man- example, were unable to because, Bannister explains, “you couldn’t aged in a single, central location, consolidating those costs has helped trust any of the costs in the old system.” the firm understand what exactly its costs are, and “attack margin The company’s warehouse operations previously were all man- in a lot of areas where we didn’t have enough,” says Bannister. ual, a considerable undertaking that generated mountains of doc- Perhaps the most transformative experience has been with sup- umentation. “We had three kitchen table-sized tables stacked high ply chain management. Since going live on the SCM software, with paperwork,” says Bannister. Now Sport Obermeyer’s ware- Sport Obermeyer not only collaborates more intuitively with its house is fully automated with a WMS, RF barcode readers and opti- factories in El Salvador, Bangladesh and China but also is now two mized picking and packing, but getting employees to think “systemically” months ahead in shipping compared to last year, which is “absolutely instead of with “human emotion” has been a big change. huge,” Bannister notes. “That means we can get product into stores “Putting in new systems is the easy part,” Bannister explains. sooner and our reorder sell-through is going to be better.” “It’s the process changes and retraining that’s the hard part.” — Jessica Binns Aeropostale New York, N.Y. | www.aeropostale.com

NOMINATED BY: Yunique Solutions | www.yuniquesolutions.com loggers are becoming an important part of many brands’ Bmarketing budgets, increasingly seen as savvy and strate- gic partners in authentically reaching target demographics. That’s what teen retailer Aeropostale had in mind when it reached out to trendsetter Bethany Mota, the 18-year-old dimpled darling of YouTube, with millions of faithful fans and followers across Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and the social video site. Aeropostale’s work with the effervescently girly Mota (in her brand logo, the “O” in Mota is a mashup of a heart and a peace sign) began with a section of its website dedicated to a curated selection of “Bethany’s Faves.” “We hosted a few meetups in our stores and saw the impact right away,” says Barbara Fevelo-Hoad, senior vice president of production and technical design. “Thousands of girls came to meet her, and it Tasked with delivering the Bethany Mota inaugural special collection (pictured here) in time for the critical holiday season, Aeropostale turned to product development specialist YuniquePLM to enhance collaboration across multiple teams.

www.apparelmag.com • MAY 2014 37 TOP INNOVATORS seemed like a natural fit for the brand to With its PLM system from Yunique, Aeropostale have her design a collection.” Aeropostale says Mota herself designed can go from concept to delivery in less than the capsules, sold online and in stores, three months. instead of simply providing input and guid- ance. Tasked with delivering the inaugural on the YuniquePLM platform enabled Fevelo-Head, who notes that Aeropostale special collection in time for the critical hol- the brand to go from concept to delivery in is able to “chase product very easily” when iday season, Aeropostale turned to prod- less than three months, and Fevelo-Hoard particular items suddenly spike in popu- uct development specialist YuniquePLM credits the “internal synergy” as well as the larity post-tweet. to enhance collaboration across multiple unified, centralized platform for contributing Among the bestsellers are the collec- teams. The brand has been on the platform to the capsule’s success, especially as pieces tion’s many t-shirts, bedecked with phrases (with its Aero and Bethany Mota collec- from the collection are manufactured in such as “is it friday yet?,” “Salt Hair Don’t tions) for the past seven months and Ann both hemispheres. Care,” and “The Sass Is Real!” Items that E. Joyce, Aeropostale’s senior vice presi- Naturally, the Bethany Mota collec- sell out can be replenished with new ship- dent and CIO, says Yunique simply pos- tion is heavily promoted on social platforms ments in less than 30 days. sesses a deep understanding of both retail and Aeropostale decided to let the blogger While Aeropostale is mum on future and product development — “and how announce any capsule-related news on her collaborations with Mota, the company is to bring that into technology.” channels first — because her tween and very pleased with the success of the cap- Aeropostale worked diligently to estab- teen-heavy fanbase is most enthused when sule, even using the collection to spring- lish a cross-functional product develop- they hear directly from their idol, after all. board into new social platforms. The brand ment team and transition members from Whenever Mota makes an announcement, ventured onto SnapChat in early April with their previous siloed processes to one fully her designated hashtag #moremota begins Mota’s new summer video. aligned and automated process. Working trending worldwide immediately, says — Jessica Binns

38 MAY 2014 • www.apparelmag.com