TOPINNOVATORS

ince the dawn of retail, the ultimate goal of giving the S customer what she wants has not changed, but the path toward it has. So, too, has the

concern for the stakeholders on 2017 that journey. There’s the customer, of course, but also the people who design and create the prod- ucts, the factory workers who produce the products, and all of the other work- ers who pack and drive INNOVATORS and deliver and sell. There are, too, the people who live in the communities where all of these functions take place, whose health and livelihoods may be directly or indirectly con- nected to these businesses. This year’s crop of Innovators, like those before it, are harnessing the power of technology to im- prove their businesses and serve the consumer, yet each year, the players seem to be more capable of, and thus more interested in, taking a more holistic view of their supply chains. With increasing visibility into everything enabled by automated and connected systems as well as business intel- ligence, the possibilities for col- laborating with partners, identifying consumer desires and speeding the whole lifecycle increase. From sustainability and artificial intelligence to automating work- flows, doubling down on fit tech- nology and perfecting patterns, this year’s innovative cohort shows that there’s no wrong way to move your business forward and rise above the competition — even as the stakes get higher every day.

By Jordan K. Speer & Jessica Binns.

10 MAY 2017 apparelmag.com TOPINNOVATORS The Black Tux Gardena, Calif. | www.theblacktux.com ’s SELF-NOMINATED hink back to the last time Netflix.) Place your order, and T you rented a tuxedo. Was your garment arrives 14 days TOP it senior prom? Your wedding? prior to your event so you A corporate event? Is the mere have time for a free exchange opening this month. thought of that experience if necessary. After your event, Business has grown so generating a spark of anxiety, place it back in the bag and quickly that the company has what with the multiple trips to box it arrived in, and ship it moved from producing gar- the tux shop to get fitted, an- back, free of charge. ments twice a year to buying INNOVATORS other to pick it up and another For those who prefer more monthly. It services all of its to return it? And what about traditional measuring meth- customers from one distribu- the style and fit? Did you feel ods, the company will send tion center just outside Los like a sharp-dressed man, or you a tape measure, or you Angeles, but it is running out more like you’d raided your can go to your tailor, and sub- of space, and looking to ex- father’s closet? You don’t have mit those measurements. Or, pand, potentially to another to answer that. you can request its brand new DC on the East Coast. Last year, But you’re nodding your home try-on option, which it invested a couple million in head. You know what I’m talk- will allow you to see how a technology, much of it from ing about. In 2013, after a ter- looks and feels before SDI Industries, to upgrade rible experience renting tux- you rent (but only Tuesday its current 65,000-square-foot edos for Andrew Blackmon’s through Thursday, and only DC. It is now fully automated, wedding, longtime friends six weeks in advance of your with each garment individu- Blackmon and Patrick Coyne event, to reduce the likeli- ally tracked via RFID through- saw an opportunity to spruce you’re using this option out inbound and outbound up the traditional tuxedo and to avoid paying). processes. suit rental business. They ran Today, its online store As its name might suggest, their idea through startup in- represents the majority of its the majority of its inventory is cubator MuckerLab of Mucker business, but that may change black, but the company makes Capital and out popped The soon, says Mike Klepfer, vice sure to keep -forward Black Tux, an online tux rental president, operations, as Black choices on hand for those cus- shop that removes the drudg- Tux just inked a partnership tomers who are a little farther ery from the rental process with Nordstrom to allow cus- out on the edge. Its black and and also outfits its customers tomers to access Black Tux white and red split tartan tux- in stylish high-end tuxedos directly from its stores. The edo, which makes the edge and — the equivalent of first of these opened in March look like the middle (see for a $1,200+ garment in a retail at Nordstrom’s Mission Viejo, yourself), has been very popu- store. Black Tux uses 100 per- Calif., store. Business is grow- lar, while its Midnight Blue cent Italian merino wool in its ing rapidly, spreading through tuxedo has been its best-sell- suiting, 100 percent cotton for word of mouth, through cross- ing non-black suit this season. its shirting, and real leather for marketing with retail partners Every suit is available in clas- its . — which also includes the sic and slim fit and has mul- The ordering process wedding registries of Crate- tiple options for pants’ length. couldn’t be simpler. Go on- and-Barrel and The Knot — Next up, the company is line, enter some basic informa- and through media spots, in- considering a retail model for tion about your height, weight cluding a recent GQ feature. those customers who want to and build, and a sophisticated Black-Tux also has four of its keep their garments. In short, algorithm will tell you what own showrooms in Chicago, says Klepfer, “we want to of- size you should be. (Black Tux Dallas, LA and New York City fer people what they want.” snagged its data scientist from and a fifth in San Francisco — Jordan K. Speer

apparelmag.com MAY 2017 11 TOPINNOVATORS FOSSIL Group Richardson, Texas | www.fossil.com NOMINATED BY: Dassault Systemes | www.3ds.com ver the past 33 years, FOSSIL solution, so the company issued an from start to finish, eliminating any O has grown immensely. It began RFP in 2011, narrowed the search “rogue development.” The company by importing brands before starting to two contenders, and eventually has about 900 licensed users on the to develop its own brands and prod- chose Dassault. One of the primary system, including internal designers ucts. It also purchased a couple of reasons for that decision, says Bol- and vendor partners. Swiss brands. In the late ‘90s, linger, was that Dassault agreed to FOSSIL started the project in the company began licensing watch integrate Adobe Illustrator into its February 2013, with two planned and jewelry lines, starting with Ar- platform, enabling FOSSIL’s design go-lives, and finished in July 2016, mani and expanding significantly group to drag and drop directly into with the Adobe portion one of the from there to include brands such the PLM system without having to last things to go live. “It was a lot as Michael Kors, Burberry, Tory re-enter data. of work on Dassault’s end,” he says. Burch and DKNY. “Designers don’t want to do data It’s been less than a year, but the “Over time, the company grew entry, and we didn’t want a layer of benefits are unmistakable. One of as an amalgamation of all of these re-interpretation,” said Bollinger. “So the most significant is that FOS- brands,” says Steve Street, senior Dassault created the link between SIL now has a clear understand- vice president, global operations Adobe and its PLM system, and it’s ing of its design-to-hit ratio, and and supply chain, with the major- amazing,” he says. By having Illustra- because it can measure it, is able ity (around 80 percent) of FOSSIL’s tor integrated from the beginning, all to improve it. For example, for business in . That’s split projects are maintained in the system one watch brand, it has improved about evenly between owned from an eight- or nine-to-one and licensed brands, he says. design-to-hit rate to a five-to- “Essentially, for decades, one design-to-hit rate. Said each subgroup of each brand differently, it has reduced by had its own way of tracking about 45 percent the number and keeping up with the prod- of designs it creates, while uct development process,” increasing the percentage of says Street. designs it adopts. It’s a familiar tale: Emails “That is a very big im- and spreadsheets ruled the pact,” says Bollinger. “We day, so the company ended up have less sampling. On one with many ways of handling of our larger brands, for ex- product development, both by ample, that kind of reduction brand and by category (leath- in sampling would translate ers, shoes, jewelry, watches, to about 300 fewer designs etc.). “We had a million ways per brand, and we typically of doing the same thing,” do about three samples per quips Brad Bollinger, vice design, so that’s getting close president of product develop- to 1,000 fewer samples per ment, licensed brands. brand per year.” In short, FOSSIL was los- FOSSIL has also reduced ing a lot of time, energy and cycle time, in large part due to money to redundancy and that reduction in hit ratio, but inefficiency, and it needed to also because of greater trans- integrate and unify its product parency and collaboration. development processes. “In short,” says Bollinger, “we It thought the answer to its have one tool, one process and problems could be found in a one truth.” product lifecycle management — Jordan K. Speer

12 MAY 2017 apparelmag.com TOPINNOVATORS American Eagle Outfitters Pittsburgh, Pa. | www.ae.com NOMINATED BY: Reflexis | www.reflexisinc.com hen it comes to prod- “What’s great about it is W uct launches, marketing the teams get a holistic view and other store-level events, of communications,” says retailers invest a lot of mon- Horn, because it includes ey to research, brand, pack- both the business drivers and age and market. Yet many of the specific tasks or projects these big projects lose steam that need to be completed when it comes to executing during the week or month. at the store level. The tasks At AEO, the company has that are necessary to execute moved to a three-month cal- are often ineffectively com- endar. “For the first time municated with tools such as ever, store managers can see emails, conference calls and what is going to happen in handwritten notes. their business and schedule American Eagle Outfitters to it,” says Horn. has found a solution. For Additionally store and dis- the retailer — which operates trict managers can add store- 1,026 stores in the United specific items, such as associ- States, Canada and Mexico, ate availability, PTO requests and is in 176 international or market mall-specific events locations via license partners to inform the home office, — the goal is for “every cus- says Horn. tomer to leave happier than To simplify things further, when they came in,” says El- AEO developed a daily plan- len Horn, lead, store commu- ner screen to provide a “one- nications. That requires giv- shot” snapshot of the busi- ing store managers the ability ness, a “huge win” for SMs, to put the customer first. she says, who can now log in To do that, American Ea- to this unified dashboard, see gle Outfitters (AEO) needed to provide information what they need to do, and then get back on the sales to its store managers (SMs) in one place and one ver- floor without digging around for a lot of information. sion so they did not spend valuable consumer-facing Previously, SMs spent approximately two hours every time searching through forwarded and unprioritized day sifting through communications — and that didn’t emails. To get a handle on store communications, even include execution; that was just figuring out what AEO implemented the Task Manager™ solution from needed to be done, quips Horn. Since using Task Man- Reflexis. ager, that process has been reduced to about 15 to 20 What’s more, AEO dug deep into the solution to minutes. take advantage of some of its more useful features, Other benefits of the solution: AEO has seen an ap- including its store-specific calendar, which allowed proximate 70 percent increase in completed projects the company to communicate in a holistic way with- year over year because it can track what’s been com- out burdening individual stores with specific tasks or pleted vs. what hasn’t, and communications have been communications that were not relevant to that spe- reduced by 30 percent. cific location. Next up, AEO is looking into the solution’s mobility How does AEO use the tool? From the home office, feature. It has iPads in all of its stores and wants to bring it loads information into the systems such as floor sets, the app onto the devices so that store managers can op- pay days, holidays and specific market events such as erate on the go, without having to leave the sales floor, tax-free weekends, and then pushes that information out enabling them to better service customers. to the appropriate stores on a time-relevant schedule. — Jordan K. Speer

apparelmag.com MAY 2017 13 TOPINNOVATORS Canada Goose Toronto, Ontario, Canada | www.canadagoose.com NOMINATED BY: NGC t a time when both the retail expansion in Europe, which includes A and luxury worlds have seen e-commerce sites for France and the better days, Canada Goose is among United Kingdom (in addition to web the few bright spots in the industry stores for the United States and Can- (insert bird-related phoenix-rising ada) — all of which pulled in total metaphor here). e-commerce sales of $33 million for Steeped in Arctic heritage and fiscal 2016 amid $290.8 million in known for outfitting film crews work- revenue overall. ing in extreme conditions and loca- Canada Goose, which filed for an tions, Toronto-based Canada Goose IPO on Feb. 15, 2017, prides itself on boasts an enthusiastic celebrity fol- being a vertically integrated compa- lowing. A-listers from David Beck- ny. One third of its products are pro- ham to Scarlett Johansson have em- duced in company-owned manufac- braced Canada Goose’s down-filled, turing facilities, and there are plans to the outerwear brand keep product fur-trimmed , elevating the bring even more production capacity development lean and efficient. brand profile and sealing its status as back in house from third-party part- And with its sights set on broad- one of winter’s most coveted prod- ners in order to increase profits. ening its product assortment, Can- ucts. Yet outside of Canada, where To manage growth and set the ada Goose has a vested interest in brand awareness is 76 percent, many stage for the future, Canada Goose running a tight ship. Based on cus- consumers still don’t know about the turned to NGC’s Extended PLM plat- tomer feedback, according to its IPO makers of luxury down ; just 16 form, which combines fashion PLM filing, the brand is looking to move percent of survey respondents in the with supply chain management into categories such as , United States are aware of the brand. tools. From costing and vendor/sup- fleece, bedding, travel accessories There’s plenty of room for growth, plier management to product testing, and knitwear to become a daily part and markets such as Germany, Italy production tracking and quality con- of its customers’ lives. and Scandinavia are prime targets for trol, the end-to-end solution helps — Jessica Binns The Buckle Kearney, Neb. | www.buckle.com NOMINATED BY: SheerID | www.sheerID.com uckle is a proud champion of the military, and shows B its support in many ways, including by sending care packages to soldiers overseas. Additionally, a percent- age of the proceeds from select merchandise goes to military members and military non-profits. Since 2016, combined donations have totaled more than $95,500. In its stores, the denim and casual apparel retailer shows its appreciation by offering a discount to mem- bers of the military. To ensure customer eligibility, the sales associate checks the military ID at the register and issues the discount. As an increasing number of Buckle customers began company needed a secure and efficient method of han- to shop online, the retailer wanted to enable military cus- dling ID verification. tomers to benefit from the discount both in-stores and That’s where SheerID comes in. The eligibility verifica- online. In order to offer the military discount online, the tion software provider allowed Buckle to offer discounts

14 MAY 2017 apparelmag.com TOPINNOVATORS without interrupting the customer experience. After ini- found that offering the discount online has enabled mil- tially verifying a customer’s military credentials online, itary customers to easily reap its benefits, making verifi- a 10 percent discount is applied to the online purchase cation across all channels possible. and all purchases thereafter, each time the customer (or Since implementation, the company has received a lot his or her dependents, who also qualify for the discount) of positive feedback from customers about the offering. shops online. Cassie McDonald, project manager for the “SheerID takes care of troubleshooting any problems that program, said that 41 percent of verified guests who use a guest might encounter throughout the verification pro- the military discount are active duty, while 45 percent are cess. With SheerID, we’ve been able to verify more than veterans, and the remainder are dependents. 37,000 military personnel. In short, it’s a win-win for ev- According to Diane Applegate, vice president of eryone involved,” Applegate said. supply chain and merchandise operations, Buckle has — Jordan K. Speer CareZips Atlanta, Ga. | www.carezips.com SELF-NOMINATED or former University of Georgia ting patients in and out of garments. F student Though Dye developed the pants Molly Dye, necessity really was the with hospice and caregiving facility mother of invention. Faced with patients in mind, the use case has ex- watching her Alzheimer’s-stricken panded to include dialysis patients, mother endure the indignity of hav- wound care and wheelchair-enabled ing a caregiver change her in individuals. Given that roughly a skilled nursing facility in 2006, 10,000 people in the United States Dye decided there had to be a better have turned 65 years old every day way. For her mother, for the care- since Jan. 1 this year, products such giver and for herself. as CareZips are poised to become an She paints a vivid picture of the important part of the lives of aging, scene: the tall, svelte English-as-a- and disabled, Americans, notes Dye. second-language caregiver strain- Healthcare textiles company En- ing her back leaning over to wrangle compass Group produces CareZips lina. Dye says the next move would Dye’s “large” mother, who — half pants through a NAFTA-approved be securing contracts with major falling out of the bed — didn’t under- factory in Mexico and ships the medical equipment companies such stand the staffer’s stilted commands. product from its facility in Mc- as McKesson as well as corporate Chaos with a side of humiliation. Donough, Ga., an hour south of At- adult care communities that would A light bulb went off in Dye’s lanta. Initially Encompass made two buy the product outright and then head. “If I can open the pants fron- fabric recommendations: the win- charge the patients’ families. In that tally and eliminate the front seam, ning one — 82 percent polyester, 21 scenario, nurses wield enormous in- then you can access the patient’s ab- percent rayon and 7 percent fluence when they see how CareZips domen frontally,” she says, describ- — beat out a 65 percent polyester/35 elevates patient care. Once you win ing how she rushed home to dust off percent cotton blend that wrinkles a over the nurse, says Dye, the nurse her decades-old sewing machine to lot and is harsh on the skin, explains will go a long way toward convinc- experiment with patterns. And thus Dye. Indeed, a nurse at a North Caro- ing upper management. CareZips was born. lina veterans facility found that the Since its launch nearly three CareZips pants, carried in four fabric was so soft that it was lessen- years ago, the patented CareZips de- colors and seven unisex sizes, are ing skin tears, according to Dye. sign has stayed about 90 percent the wonderfully simple and employ Currently, major retailers such as same, says Dye, though one impor- three zippers — one each on the Amazon, Walgreens and Walmart tant iteration moved the side zippers outside of each leg and a third that carry CareZips online, but the start- forward so that patients weren’t roll- runs from one interior knee to the up also sells to veterans’ centers in ing onto the zipper heads (ouch!). other — that ease the burden of get- Michigan, Missouri and North Caro- — Jessica Binns

apparelmag.com MAY 2017 15 TOPINNOVATORS Crunch Fitness New York, N.Y. | www.crunch.com NOMINATED BY: Cegid | www.cegid.com standards, which then put our credit card processing at risk,” Neff points out. “PCI compliance has gotten re- ally strict these days and as a level 2 merchant, we need to prove our plat- forms are secure every quarter.” The next obstacle? Struggling to maintain hosted applications. Self- hosting always sounds great in the beginning, says Neff, but ends up costing you more in the end. “The days of hosting your own applica- tions and taking up real estate in large data centers with expensive servers are over for most small and mid-size companies,” he explains, adding that cloud technology’s dra- matically decreasing cost makes it a “no brainer.” And last but not least, Crunch was missing out on valuable insights into customers’ buying habits. “We were only capturing half of the sales jour- ney of our members,” Neff says. “We ycling while belting out karaoke. Neff. “Crunch apparel had always could tell how much a member pur- C Feeling the burn while bounc- been primarily branded pieces but chased for a membership or personal ing around in spring-based low- we’ve seen a need for performance training, but not necessarily that they impact . From pole dancing gear and athleisure, so we’ve bought water and a nutrition bar ev- like a pro to flying through the air brought in brands like Under Ar- ery day they worked out.” with the greatest of ease, workouts mour and Onzie,” he adds. To address all of these issues, at Crunch Fitness range from the The company’s business model Crunch deployed Cegid’s Yourcegid average to the ambitious to the ex- deviates from the usual retail norm. Retail Y2 platform, particularly en- otically imaginative. The New York “Our primary business is running ticed by the system’s purchase order City-based chain of fitness clubs health clubs so our managers are not creation and management process. includes more than 145 Crunch Fit- true retailers,” Neff explains. “Our “It was important to have a system ness locations nationwide plus 32 true retailers live in our corporate tell us when and what we should be premium Crunch Signature facili- headquarters and have the knowl- ordering and how often,” says Neff, ties featuring yoga and spin studios, edge to run this area of our business.” adding that previously Crunch re- live DJs, child care and more. Recently, Crunch needed to up- lied on its stores to tell headquarters To enhance the all-around fit- grade its retail platform for three which merchandise was needed. ness experience, Crunch sells ap- primary reasons: payment security, Yourcegid Retail Y2 has enabled the parel including men’s and cloud convenience and customer fitness chain to tighten margins and women’s sports — among data. With the Jan. 15, 2017 SHA-2 manage store inventory through a its bestsellers — as well as high- security compliance deadline loom- central cloud-based system instead growth products such as women’s ing, Crunch had to act quickly or of relying on manual POs submitted capris and crop tops, a direct result suffer the consequences. “Our prior by stores. of the athleisure trend, says vice applications were not going to up- And because the platform - president of member services Mike date their platform to meet these tures the entire journey of the

16 MAY 2017 apparelmag.com TOPINNOVATORS

Crunch customer, the company stead of relying on two disparate ed. Says Neff, “Moving to cloud al- now has the data it needs to develop retail systems, now Crunch has just lowed us to save thousands per year compelling loyalty programs to in- one. One of its old systems ran lo- in data center costs related to host- crease customer spend. cally on a single computer at indi- ing our own application as well as But the move to the cloud has vidual club locations and on a “few the peace of mind in knowing all is been perhaps the most transforma- occasions” the entire database was being backed up.” tive aspect of the deployment. In- lost when the computer got corrupt- — Jessica Binns NYDJ Vernon, Calif. | www.nydj.com NOMINATED BY: LaForce | www.laforce.nyc hen you’re already solving one of a woman’s biggest W pain points when getting dressed — looking one size smaller — what’s left for denim brand NYDJ to do? According to president and CEO Lisa Collier, the an- swer lies in creating products that deliver even more benefits and borrowing from athleisure to make that happen. “Athleisure is nothing more than comfort and ease of use,” she explains, adding that athletic and out- door activities are influencing the technologies that are finding their way into a new generation of denim. NYDJ — the no. 1 selling women’s denim brand in department stores, offering more than 66 sizes from petite and plus to missy, tall and maternity — is al- ways on the hunt for new fabric technologies and innovations that can solve problems for its custom- ers. Through a partnership with Prosperity Mills, the brand discovered the Fiber J fabric that powers its new Future Fit technology — and received exclusiv- ity on the material. “At denim shows, everyone talks about THERMO- LITE and COOLMAX because everyone has their own version of it,” Collier explains. “Fiber J is not broadly sdale, Ariz., and Garden City, N.Y. In an effort to fur- available in the market. There aren’t a lot of linear com- ther engage with customers directly, the brand recently pression technical fibers out there.” began hosting shoppable Facebook Live segments to For now, “no one but the sports industry” offers lin- talk up its products and innovations and even featured ear compression that creates a sleek shape while remain- Emme — routinely credited as the original plus model ing comfortable, so NYDJ is wading into new territory. — to promote awareness of its sizing inclusivity. While “We’ve also expanded into adding uplift technology, the customer wants to know why a certain pair of which makes the consumer look like they’ve been to the could work for her, she doesn’t necessarily want to hear gym and they haven’t,” Collier adds. about the nitty-gritty technical details, Collier adds. Working with a new fabric involves more than a NYDJ sees a major opportunity to grow international- few tweaks and nuances in the manufacturing pro- ly as well as in specialty boutiques. As a premium brand cess. “There are more variables to deal with, from with price points in excess of $100, it would benefit washing and determining shrinkage to perfecting pat- from the service levels that an intimate boutique would terns up front and achieving the precise sewing and offer. And because NYDJ uses vanity sizing, a shopper needle tension,” explains Collier. “It requires a lot may not know to size down and thus might walk away more preproduction.” with a negative experience — something that high-touch Though NYDJ primarily is a wholesale brand, it op- service could alleviate. erates an e-commerce website and two stores in Scott- — Jessica Binns

apparelmag.com MAY 2017 17 TOPINNOVATORS Xero Shoes Broomfield, Colo. | www.xeroshoes.com SELF-NOMINATED ow many of us long to run bare- en’s own experiences getting in- slightly higher educated, slightly high- H foot and carefree, the wind at jured while sprinting. That led him er income, somewhat iconoclastic.” our backs and possibility stretching to barefoot running, which led him Among Xero Shoes’ new launches out before us? How many of us want to want to produce a that re- this year are an ultra-lightweight travel to avoid the pain and health compli- produced the barefoot experience as , Genesis, and a women’s casual cations of landing on a rusty nail or closely as possible, because, after all, canvas shoe, Lena. It’s also launching shard of glass? For those folks who there are some surfaces that are not a men’s and women’s performance checked both of those boxes, Xero amenable to bare feet. multi-use shoe called Prio and the Shoes hits that sweet spot in the Xero shoes are lightweight, so they DayLite hiking (which weighs middle with shoes that allow your do not interfere with your gait; they just 10.2 ounces), both of which fea- feet to bend, flex, move and feel the are flexible enough to let your feet ture functional instep tensioners world with enough protection to bend and move and grip the ground (meaning the webbing isn’t sewn to make them safe and comfortable. and they are durable, says Sashen. the upper), which locks your midfoot Xero Shoes is a lightweight, natu- Their patented FeelTrue® soles are in place so that your toes can function ral movement footwear brand that designed to provide the perfect mix freely. Other new offerings: the Boaty offers as well as performance of protection and “ground feedback” McBoat shoe and the Coalton, a mini- and casual closed-toe shoes. To un- that your brain needs for proper and malist take on the familiar Chukka. derstand just how lightweight these efficient movement, he says. As innovative as the company is in shoes are, says founder and CEO Ste- Launched in 2010, the company product development, it’s also forg- ven Sashen, consider that “three pairs has “proven [its] concept directly” — ing a new path in marketing by us- of our Z-Trail sport sandals weigh less initially selling only a do-it-yourself ing what Sashen calls the “Wild West than one pair from a big competitor. sandal-making kit, and then launch- world” of equity crowdfunding. “Xero shoes are built to let your ing ready-to-wear in 2013 — selling The $28.5-million company is feet move naturally,” he says, with almost 150,000 pairs to customers growing quickly, and needs to keep up features including wide toe boxes to in 94 countries who previously had with demand. “We outsold inventory let your toes spread and relax, non- only seen the shoes online or on for the past two years,” says Sashen. elevated heels for proper posture and someone else’s feet. “It used to be that retailers would pre- low-to-the-ground “stack height” for To describe its typical customer, book big orders, now they are expect- balance and agility. Sashen says, “Think Whole Foods. … ing us to carry the inventory.” The company grew out of - It’s Millennials-plus, 65 percent men, But Xero’s approach is unique, in that it is an already established company using crowdfunding not only to generate capital but to raise an army of influencers. “We’re in that awkward ‘teen-age’ phase where we have a very robust and sophisticated team, plan and model but at the same time we’re on the cusp of having proven the con- cept at retail and online. Rather than argue about financing, let’s go to the people who keep coming back,” he says. “This is a whole new approach. We want our customers to be owners and share in the future of Xero Shoes. We’re making the customer part of the story,” he concludes. — Jordan K. Speer

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App_FullPage_temp.indd 1 4/14/17 10:17 AM TOPINNOVATORS EVISU Osaka, Japan | www.evisu.com NOMINATED BY: Albert | www.albert.ai hile many retailers are still just considering the W possibilities and potential of artificial intelligence, forward-thinking brands such as Japan’s luxury denim- centric label EVISU are actively taking advantage. When EVISU was founded in 1991, it made waves in the international denim scene with its Japanese sel- vedge denims adorned with hand-painted seagull logos on the back pockets. Today, EVISU has evolved into a lifestyle brand offering a wide range of products from men’s and women’s jeans, t-, sweats and knits to underwear, eyewear and more. Six years ago EVISU launched the brand globally, ini- tially targeting the United States. However, the company pulled back its efforts to focus on Asia but decided to give the U.S. another shot six months ago. The United States is too big of a market to bypass so EVISU had to figure out how to break in. Running digital marketing campaigns across chan- nels is no easy feat for an e-commerce brand seeking a very specific and defined customer. EVISU was looking to not only get attention from customers who hadn’t while it learned about EVISU’s channels and competitors. heard of the brand, but it also needed shoppers to spend Before Albert, EVISU only had one person focusing an average of $400 on jeans. on Google AdWords and doing on-site merchandis- At the time, EVISU also had a very small online team, ing — and was “always in the weeds.” Now the com- and managing all its digital marketing needs — specifi- pany can take a step back and be more surgical in its cally search engine marketing and social channels — approach rather than following a one-size-fits-all model was an overwhelming task. to decision-making and strategy, considering that Albert Before switching to an AI platform, EVISU relied on handles AdWords now. global marketing campaigns, with a distinct lack of spe- Albert’s approach to audience identification is dif- cific geo-targeting. The brand had very little success on ferent from a traditional marketer’s. For Albert, it’s less social media, spending more on ad campaigns than it about identifying entirely new buyer personas, in the was converting in sales. traditional sense, and more about isolating the indi- The brand also failed to gain any traction in terms vidual customer behaviors, traits and patterns that lead of sales from Facebook in North America, which now to increased conversions. He then starts acting on those accounts for a double-digit percentage of total North by creating micro-segments that generate very targeted American online sales. campaigns for those audiences meant to lead them to- To improve its digital marketing program, EVISU ward certain outcomes, such as sales conversion. turned to Albert from marketing automation provider For example, EVISU now knows that return browsers Adgorithms, an artificial intelligence marketing plat- convert in higher numbers than new ones. When Albert form that removes many of the complexities of modern discovered this, he created a campaign dedicated to driving marketing. Albert tests a seemingly infinite combination customers back to the site, which increased direct conver- of ad graphics and text throughout the channels of your sions by 25 percent. What’s more, shoppers from New York choosing, discarding the ones that fail to resonate with City, Los Angeles, Irvine, Calif., and Pittsburgh were the online users and improving his learnings along the way. highest-converting users in the United States. Albert also For EVISU, setting up Albert was as easy as setting a bud- discovered that users who engaged with “jackets” generated get and granting Albert administrative access to its market- 54 percent higher ROI than those engaging with “jeans.” ing channels, such as Google AdWords and Facebook. From On Facebook, people who listed their occupation as there, Albert took about a month to get up and running “engineer” engaged 300 percent more with EVISU’s ads

20 MAY 2017 apparelmag.com TOPINNOVATORS than other users. Even time of day mattered: Albert un- Working with Albert has empowered EVISU to shift its covered a sweet spot for EVISU — between 7 p.m. and 8 focus away from the nitty gritty of the manual execution p.m. — when average order value jumped 125 percent. and management of digital and toward merchandising Pre-Albert, EVISU had no idea that there was growing and creative. Going forward, EVISU wants to diversify interest in Germany and France, but after a global campaign its creative and approach to targeting online shoppers in to test the waters with ads in German and French, the re- North America with advertising based on their region. tailer saw a spike in traffic and conversions. That experi- For example, a consumer in New York might soon see ment helped EVISU increase sales from nearly zero in those a different ad than a shopper in San Francisco based on countries, and today sales in Germany and France account weather and trends in each area. for 10 percent to 15 percent of total online sales in Europe. — Jessica Binns Fashion Avenue Knits New York, N.Y. | www.fakny.com NOMINATED BY: Simparel uring ugly-sweater season tially stalled — “we didn’t D around the holidays, chances see the benefit of the im- are you’ve worn one of Fashion Av- plementation,” says Mal- enue Knits Sweaters’ intentionally lis — as its transactional hideous creations to an office Christ- volume increased and mas party or some such festive oc- Fashion Avenue found it- casion. “We’ve had a lot of success self shipping more styles with the ugly Christmas — and processing more pur- we’ve become one of the go-to pro- chase orders, it was time viders” for retail clients including for decision-makers Amazon, Walmart and rue21, says to review the com- Austin Mallis, vice president of pany’s processes. operations for the 30-year-old New Attracted by York City-based private-label sweat- Simparel ERP’s er and sports wear company. user-friendly Fashion Avenue has developed a and stream- “nice-sized business” around ugly lined interface, sweaters, one of the new areas of Fashion Av- growth enabled in recent years by a enue went live focus on results-driven technology with the plat- get paid as well.” rollouts. “With the implementation form on Jan. 1, Mallis points out of PLM starting in 2012, we’ve been 2017. “In the that Simparel’s platform able to transform our development first 75 days, we rewrote how we do requires a lot of set-up work on the process to focus on a lot more styles things operationally from order en- front end so that you “build out the and SKUs that cater to broader mar- try, purchase order entry, style mas- software to your specifications.” kets which we weren’t able to do be- ter, and picking and packing,” Mallis That necessitated “due diligence” fore,” Mallis notes. explains. All of the company’s third- with the EDI point person, he says, The company set its sights on party warehouse partners — which so that workflows were created based overhauling ERP; its previous sys- previously ran their own disparate on EDI and style masters. Though tem “got us to where we needed to workflows — are using Simparel ERP that “heavy lifting” took more time be for long enough” but by the begin- now, too, and have taken over the re- than Fashion Avenue anticipated, it ning of 2015, Fashion Avenue began ceiving process, which is a “big man- allowed the company to be up and its search for a new platform to help hour save for us,” adds Mallis. “It’s running quickly once it went live. manage growth into areas such as more up to date because they use it as Which means more ugly sweaters, juniors, kids and men’s apparel and the system of record. It’s in their best coming to a retailer near you. accessories. Though the search ini- interest to receive ASAP so they can — Jessica Binns

apparelmag.com MAY 2017 21 TOPINNOVATORS 3.1 Phillip Lim New York, N.Y. | www.31philliplim.com NOMINATED BY: RLM Apparel Software | www.ronlynn.com hen Phillip Lim and Wen “We also integrated our financial termine our raw materials require- W Zhou founded the epony- package in RLM, so we were re- ments, which is a critical com- mous brand in 2005, they wanted quired to convert our financial sys- ponent to easily purchasing our to create an approachable designer tems and evaluate our operational fabrics and trims.” Additionally, experience, says Zhou, who is also and accounting processes to ensure the ability to integrate to its cur- CEO of the company. “We wanted that they would link up.” The plat- rent 3PL model was a critical step to offer a luxurious product at an form was implemented in its DCs to creating efficiencies in its supply accessible price point.” That mis- in Italy, the United States and Asia, chain, she says. sion tapped into a gap in the mar- and it was also integrated to Joor for The visibility of information in ketplace for high design that didn’t its showroom order taking. the system has created efficiencies break the bank, and this year marks The system has provided many throughout its supply chain, while the opening of its 17th store, add- benefits. For example, says Zhou, eliminating duplicate and manual ing to a network of more than 450 “RLM allows us to accurately de- entry has enabled the company to points of distribution in move through the season- more than 50 countries. al lifecycle of its styles That’s a large enter- with speed and accuracy, prise to manage, and al- she says. “[Having] inte- though 3.1 Phillip Lim gration points to external had an ERP system in systems has positioned place, it had several limi- us to expand upon these tations, says Zhou. For capabilities, which was a example, workflows were previous limitation.” done outside of the sys- Overall, RLM fit seam- tem in Excel, which re- lessly into Phillip Lim’s quired manual entry and company-wide technol- was prone to error. Get- ogy initiative to shift to ting all of its data into cloud-based resources. the system was critical to “Shifting our workloads creating efficiencies in its to cloud-based targets has collaborative process, she minimized our technol- says. Phillip Lim chose to ogy footprint and enabled implement an ERP sys- us to be more flexible tem from RLM that would in the solutions we pro- allow it to bring all of its vide,” says Zhou. While it data onto one platform. is not feasible to shift ev- The changeover pro- ery element of its process cess was completed to the cloud, the brand within a four-month developed a hybrid model timeline, wherein work- using on-premise resourc- flows from its legacy sys- es and cloud-based solu- tem were retrofitted into tions in conjunction with the new solution, says RLM to handle images. Zhou. “This included “This maximizes perfor- integration points to our mance for users inside POS systems as well as and outside of the corpo- custom developed soft- rate network infrastruc- ware elements from our ture,” Zhou concludes. legacy system,” she says. — Jordan K. Speer

22 MAY 2017 apparelmag.com

TOPINNOVATORS

Hostetter sees big potential in the Ellie Kai business, because once the company Boston, Mass. | www.elliekai.com wins a customer, she’s going to keep coming back for the killer combo of NOMINATED BY: Alvanon | www.alvanon.com good fit and customization. Indeed, llie Kai is the brainchild of Liz primarily through company reps via return rates are incredibly low — E Hostetter, who accidentally in-person styling sessions, and on- just 5.1 percent — a success that found herself in the fashion indus- line at elliekai.com. In just the past Hostetter attributes in large part to try after moving to Hong Kong and two years, the business has grown Ellie Kai’s participation in Alvanon’s struggling to find clothes she liked by 68 percent to $6 million and has Wang Mentorship Program, which and that fit. She had a few pieces shipped more than 50,000 custom- provided invaluable assistance in custom tailored to her style and size ized garments. The company has strengthening its capabilities with (Hostetter is 5’11”), and on a visit grown its sales network to 100 sales statistical sizing data, technical de- home to the United States a woman consultants, two showrooms and sign tools and training in areas such stopped her and asked where she more than 20,000 clients across the as production, supply chain issues, had bought her . “I sort of made United States. fit, marketing and sales. “Our return it myself,” Hostetter replied. “Oh, This is how it works: Clients try on rates were cut in half within a year of I wish I could do that,” replied the fit samples — 24 styles, each in sizes working with Alvanon. My goal is to admirer. That’s when the lightbulb 00 through 16 — to find out which hit 3 percent this year, 2 percent next went off: “Women know what they size/style combinations work for year,” she says. like and what fits, and they want to them, and then customize the garment There’s another reason Hostetter replicate those things, but with some further by selecting desired fabric (all is confident in the business: copi- customization,” she says. prints are designed in house) and other ous communication between cus- Hostetter instinctively and im- attributes such as neckline and sleeve tomers and its critically important mediately knew she was onto some- length. Ellie Kai’s core designs are network of sales consultants. Ellie thing. “I had no doubt the concept extremely thoughtful, incorporating Kai takes advantage of its one-to- would make sense. I repeatedly style elements such as an extra panel one interactions to learn exactly heard from women, ‘I hate going to in its , to protect against what they want. That feedback fuels the mall.’ ‘I wish I had this in anoth- revealing too much in a gust of wind, the design of smaller capsule col- er color.’ ‘Nothing fits me.’ ‘I wish for example, or snaps designed to hold lections that it turns around in just this sleeve were longer.’” a strap in place. In the works is the three weeks inside the broader sea- The difficult part wasn’t the con- development of an algorithm-based sonal collection. “One woman said cept or building a customer base. recommendation engine to further re- to me, ‘I wish I had a halter I could Hostetter knew she had that in the fine the shopping process. wear with a regular bra.’ Why can’t bag. The challenge was de- we do that? We did.” veloping a supply chain Ellie Kai is carrying its — specifically, developing agility into all aspects of its sourcing partners who were business. For example, as it comfortable with small or- enters urban markets where ders. But she got started, and there are challenges with she found an Asian sourcing parking and walk-ups and partner, Brixon, that could space that might present work with her company’s challenges for styling ses- size, and was also focused sions, the company is - on social responsibility and eling a plan to send a short- sustainability, which Hostet- list of fit samples and fabric ter is determined to keep at swatches to offer a uniquely the core of her business. In personalized shopping op- her first year, she made 50 portunity to clients. garments to order. “I thought “Customers need to shop I put a man on the moon,” on their terms,” says Hostet- she quipped. That was 2011. ter, “but fit is the holy grail.” Ellie Kai product is sold — Jordan K. Speer

24 MAY 2017 apparelmag.com TOPINNOVATORS Beyond Yoga Culver City, Calif. | www.beyondyoga.com NOMINATED BY: RLM Apparel Software | www.ronlynn.com eyond Yoga grew out of founder Jodi Guber Bruf- B sky’s passion for the Body Positive movement. She saw a gap in the market for activewear that would allow women of all sizes to feel and look great, so in 2006, she launched a company to meet that need. It was certainly an auspicious time to launch an ac- tivewear company, and Beyond Yoga has experienced “explosive growth,” says Michelle Wahler, co-founder and CEO. “Over the past decade, the activewear indus- try has evolved into a lifestyle, with athleisure becom- ing a staple in how women dress every day.” (It also doesn’t hurt that there are now 37 million U.S. practitioners of yoga as of 2016, up from 20 million just three years previously.) “With women around the world adopting athleisure as the new , we have seen a shift in all of our demographics. Our consumer now spans a broad age range and is truly global in scope. With these changes, we have had to quickly adapt to the modern consumer; that means being mobile-friendly and providing more would “take years and millions of dollars in consulting responsive technology,” she says. “We have also had fees to make the transition” to RLM, the Beyond Yoga to scale our staffing dramatically over the past several team came together and accomplished the migration in years to support the market demand while still remain- a matter of months without consultants, she says. ing nimble enough to quickly adapt.” The benefits of the new ERP system are many: it is What does responsive technology look like? Beyond easy to use, and each page can be exported to Excel, Yoga uses Dropbox as its corporate server and file shar- which makes for “incredibly quick” ad hoc analysis and ing system, G Suite for email, Magento for e-commerce reporting, says Wahler. The order entry process is about and Zendesk for customer care. It uses the Joor b2b 50 percent faster — which will accelerate further with wholesale platform, Pebble Post for international busi- its addition of Joor — and has fewer errors. Visibility ness and Tableau to tackle analytics relative to e-com- into inventory has improved, allowing for more accu- merce and wholesale demands, says Wahler. rate forecasting, and, because the system virtually feeds Two years ago, Beyond Yoga transitioned to an ERP in the company’s wholesale and e-commerce inventory, system from RLM “to really set the table for our contin- “we are able to see everything with a click of a button,” ued growth,” says Wahler. It also implemented RLM’s she says. Tasks that previously ate up one to two days PLM module to manage BOMs, fabric inventory and now require less than 15 minutes. purchasing requirements, and replaced QuickBooks The new system jives well with the company’s goal with RLM’s financial module. to make information virtually available to its employees RLM acts as the company’s centralized hub of infor- anywhere and on any device. “Our employees can work at mation. The cloud-based system allows the company to their desks, outside at picnic tables or in conference rooms feed information seamlessly from design, production, with the exact same capabilities. We think this makes our sales, accounting and e-commerce into one place, in real team stronger, happier and more productive,” she says. time. It is flexible, customizable and scalable, she says. “Athleisure is a competitive space and we know that Wahler says the company rarely develops technol- in order to continue being as successful as we have ogy in-house and prefers to rely on experts. When it been, we always need to be moving forward. This goes finds what it needs, it’s “fast to move, but also cautious for design and fabric innovation, quality and selling, as to minimize disruption,” she says, noting that even the well as the infrastructure to support all of our amazing “smallest hiccup” can reverberate throughout the or- people and customers,” Wahler concludes. ganization. And despite predictions from some that it — Jordan K. Speer

apparelmag.com MAY 2017 25 TOPINNOVATORS Stone Cold Fox Venice, Calif. | www.thestonecoldfox.com NOMINATED BY: Shopgate | www.shopgate.com tone Cold Fox (SCF) is a brand made by women, for S women, to empower women by making them feel sexy and confident — which makes sense, what with a name like Stone Cold Fox. The vintage-inspired ladies’ lifestyle brand was founded in 2009 by Cydney Mor- ris and Dallas Wand, who became friends in 2nd grade, spent summers together at Parsons New School of De- sign and later traveled the globe together, absorbing bits of culture and experience that informed the design and aesthetic of their business. Morris is the mind behind the fabric prints and apparel design, while Wand handles the wholesale and production side of the business. SCF apparel is made exclu- sively in Los Angeles and sold at retailers such as Nordstrom and Revolve and at its own flagship brick-and-mortar store on the iconic Abbott Kinney Boulevard in Venice Beach, but the bulk of its sales come from its online e-commerce site. Another plus: it’s easier to share prod- Last year, with the percentage of online uct socially, she says. “People will talk traffic coming from mobile hitting the 60 about us more. You can show someone a percent mark, the company realized it need- dress more easily on an app.” Gex thinks ed to offer its customers an app. “We already that comes in particularly handy for the had an optimized mobile version,” says Van- very successful bridal niche of its busi- essa Gex, director of e-commerce, “but [with ness, which includes bridesmaids’ dress- respect to] purchasing on the app, it doesn’t es and . compare in terms of convenience,” she says. Since the app’s implementation in SCF is still a small company and did not have the April 2016, the company has experienced a 5.1 percent resources to build and maintain its own app — and who conversion rate, a 147 percent average increase in con- really wants to do that these days anyway, regardless of versions per push notification, and 51x higher conver- your size? It chose Shopgate to launch its mobile An- sion rate on app vs. its mobile website. droid and iOS apps. The mobile commerce platform The opportunity to generate push notifications to provider focused on clean design, user-friendly naviga- communicate new products and sales to its customers tion and personalized communication, helping to bring is a huge benefit. Gex often watches Google Analytics at the delicate lace designs and other fine details of SCF’s these times, and can see the “huge spikes” in activity on apparel to life. Its template-like structure has kept the the app, and then in sales. She can also see “a handful of in-house workload to a minimum, while still allowing customers who will make a purchase every time a push freedom with imagery, fonts, colors and small elements goes out because they don’t want to miss out.” of layout, says Gex, and it integrates seamlessly with its It’s those types of die-hard loyalists that the app is Shopify e-comm platform. really for — that’s about 5 percent of customers, but For customers, the app provides an easy way to they’re a crucial component of its business, both as cus- browse, shop and pay, especially if they already have tomers and brand ambassadors, and the company wants Apple Pay stored on their phones. “I think people are to make sure to give them what they want. Still, it’s care- short on time and to be able to make a purchase in less ful not to be unfair to online customers by offering too than five minutes is one of the best things about it,” says many deals on the app. “We want to make sure all chan- Gex. The app works on all phones, and does not take up nels are getting equal love,” Gex concludes. any memory, she says. — Jordan K. Speer

26 MAY 2017 apparelmag.com Ready to Scale Your Business?

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App_FullPage_temp.indd 1 4/14/17 10:17 AM TOPINNOVATORS Harry Rosen Toronto, Ontario, Canada | www.harryrosen.com NOMINATED BY: Jesta I.S. | www.jestais.com ou’ve seen the headlines: the luxury market as we tailored apparel plus made-to-measure apparel from top Y know it is a thing of the past. For Toronto-based up- design houses, leveraging the customer’s precise mea- scale men’s wear retailer Harry Rosen, there’s increased surements, fabric choice and style preferences. “We want competition, especially as U.S. chains such as Nordstrom to ensure that everyone looks and feels their best in every move into the Canadian market and mono-brand stores garment that they purchase from us,” Jackson explains. are opening with increased frequency in key urban mar- “That’s why we provide complimentary maintenance kets across the country, says CIO Stephen Jackson. and repairs for the lifetime of each tailored garment.” And with their omnipresent smartphones, customers With world-class tailors in all of its stores, the de- are savvier than ever. “Thanks to the increase of infor- ferred sales module helps Harry Rosen deliver on its mation available online, there is a greater awareness of high standards of service. When a sale is processed, the latest trends and key pieces for the season,” Jackson the advisor can discuss with the customer when the continues. “Customers are coming into our stores with garment is needed and this “promise date” gets re- their smartphones knowing exactly what they want. De- corded into the system. The module is tightly inte- cades ago, men were generally less interested in trends grated into the retailer’s Tailor Shop system, which than their female counterparts. But due to the rise of so- helps to manage resources and ensures that the gar- cial media, the playing field is levelling.” ment is delivered on time. Amidst this changing climate, Harry Rosen shifted Harry Rosen established work flow processes to en- from a best-of-breed approach to technology and ad- sure that every step of the purchase journey is man- opted Jesta I.S.’s fully integrated ERP solution, which aged properly. For example, when the promise date includes POS, inventory, finance and reporting. Now in- is set with the customer, the company sends the e- ternal support is far less complex and the company has receipt to the advisor as well as automatically adding just one vendor to deal with instead of four. a calendar entry for the pickup date. This ensures that Mobile POS is one of the standout features, operat- when the customer comes back to try on the garment, ing on HP tablets so that store associates, or “advisors,” the advisor is on hand to greet him and ensure a prop- encounter the same look and feel as the cash wrap. “Ad- er fit and full satisfaction. visors do not need to learn two different systems,” says For made-to-measure garments, the processes in Jackson. “It improves our in-store service by allowing place ensure that the order is placed with the designer, our clients to check out from anywhere in the store, and then Harry Rosen tracks when it is supposed to be thereby elevating the level of service that we can offer.” delivered as well as when it arrives so the advisor can Jesta I.S.’s deferred sales module also has had a sig- confirm the appointment with the customer. nificant impact. Harry Rosen’s business relies heavily on Harry Rosen also created Virtual Harry as a way of ex- tending its world-class in-store expertise and ser- vices to customers who choose to shop at home. A direct conduit to his personal clothing advisor, Virtual Harry enables the shopper to live chat, email or set up an in-store appointment with his advisor of choice. New customers can use Virtual Harry to select a store and pick an in-store advisor for assistance. Customers not comfortable with the online ordering process can order any item of merchandise agreed upon during a consultation — whether by phone, email or live chat — on the spot, with none of the “typical online shopping rigmarole,” says Jackson. “Their personal clothing advisor takes care of the entire ordering process and emails a secure link for easy payment.” So far, Virtual Harry has been a hit with cus- tomers. “We frequently receive positive feed-

28 MAY 2017 apparelmag.com TOPINNOVATORS back that this level of expert advice is literally pro- cation, with powerful filter capabilities based on an vided at a push of a button as well as the convenience unlimited number of product attributes. and time savings that they get through this channel,” “We are excited about what this tool can do for us adds Jackson. in the future, specifically to tie online traffic informa- Harry Rosen is using Jesta I.S. business intelligence tion by product into our analytics so we know not only tools to make smarter decisions. With a fully mobile what people are buying but what they are researching system, buyers can run analytics from anywhere in the and looking at,” says Jackson. world and analyze sales and inventory by size and lo- — Jessica Binns Gerson & Gerson Inc. New York, N.Y. | www.gersonandgerson.com SELF-NOMINATED ometimes, all innovation requires then and there, and the rest, as they S is the collision of two separate say, is history. Although the compa- bodies to send both in a third and ny is famous for its dresses, the team brand new direction, and that’s exact- decided that for HSN, it would lead ly what happened when the 80-year- with an apparel item that would be old girls’ dress manufacturer Gerson a great gift idea, and that it would & Gerson brought on a new vice pres- specifically target grandparents as ident to open opportunities for the buyers. “We wanted something that company. That VP, Mark Mignone, grandmothers would love to buy for has deep experience in retail, a cor- their grandchildren and we decided responding network of connections, on designer swaddles for babies,” and a love of collaboration. When he said Mignone. The swaddles aired came to Gerson & Gerson, Mignone three times in November 2016 and saw possibilities to take the brand sold out; five other pieces in the col- sets in addition to items just for into channels it hadn’t been before. lection were sold online. Product boys and girls. Back in 2013, when he was work- was packaged in beautiful matte gift Because it is a new category for ing at Kaltex (another Innovator boxes. “We wanted the presentation the network, the company was care- winner), Mignone was introduced to be perfect. We wanted the cus- ful to target a particular segment of by Hebe Schecter to the acclaimed tomer to feel great about it,” he says. the population (grandmas) with a designer and HSN celebrity Jeffrey Gerson & Gerson’s introduction particular product (gift items for their Banks, and the two hit it off over su- to TV home shopping was a great grandchildren), but merchandising shi. When he got to Gerson & Gerson, success, but its sleek on air execu- to this segment has its own fine nu- Mignone had an idea: why not take tion belies a tough planning and ances. For example, because grand- children’s wear to HSN? He called numbers game that goes on behind parents don’t typically live with their Banks, and the two started a conver- the scenes, says Mignone. This is a grandchildren and might not be see- sation. That led to a visit from Banks tough business. Your merchandise ing them for a while, the on-air seg- to see the company’s operations and doesn’t get to sit around and lan- ment made sure to remind watchers its apparel. The Toby Award-winning guish on shelves. Time on TV home that children might need a different designer is no stranger to children’s selling networks goes to products size by the time the gift is given. wear. Years ago Banks designed boys’ that can bring in the biggest sales “You have to forecast that the kid wear lines for retailers including Nei- per minute, and producing those will grow. You may have to plan. man Marcus and Lord & Taylor, and numbers requires smart planning We have to get inside the grandmas’ he was wowed by the beautiful de- and careful targeting. “We have to heads. It may take us a while to per- signs and quality of the dresses. Or, educate the consumer that they can fect the merchandising, but HSN has as Mignone puts it, “He looked like a buy children’s clothing on HSN,” he 91 million unique viewers, and we kid in a candy store.” says. The company is already plan- are going to capture a lot of them,” The collaboration between Banks ning its 2017 line, and this year will says Mignone. and the Gerson & Gerson team began reveal some new mother/daughter — Jordan K. Speer

apparelmag.com MAY 2017 29 TOPINNOVATORS thredUP Inc. San Francisco, Calif. | www.thredup.com NOMINATED BY: Mad Street Den | www.madstreetden.com t’s a sign of the times that an on- for a small fee that covers shipping I line secondhand apparel store and processing costs. Once the bag is running a national TV advertis- is received, the company takes it ing campaign — and that there is from there, photographing and pric- a large online secondhand apparel ing items using a proprietary algo- store to begin with. rithm and posting them online. Back in the day, shopping at a sec- Reinhart developed the idea for ondhand store either meant you were the thredUP marketplace in 2008 watching your pennies — due to need when he looked in his closet and or thrift — or that you were seeking couldn’t find anything to wear. It a “vintage” look with clothes from began as a pilot for peer-to-peer somebody’s grandmother’s closet. online sharing of men’s shirts, and And while it’s surely no coinci- is now the world’s largest online dence that the idea for thredUP came marketplace for buying and sell- to co-founder James Reinhart in ing women’s and kids’ secondhand 2008 — smack in the middle of the clothes. Great Recession — its arrival as a big Unlike your traditional neigh- player in the apparel space signals borhood thrift store where you the growing prominence of a number might find a garment that is genu- of other cultural trends, namely, sus- inely vintage (or just horribly old tainability, sharing and simplicity. and unfashionable, and possibly Yes, thredUP is about convenient torn and stained), thredUP sells and affordable access to top brands up-to-the-moment styles, thor- and styles — on thredUP, shoppers oughly vetting its garments to can snag current styles for as much make sure they are on trend and in recommended specifically for the as 90 percent off first-run prices. But perfect shape. “Often you can find customer — no human involved. it’s also about reducing occupied the exact same items you’d find in Beyond that, AI Stylist can deter- space in landfills, easing overfull retail stores, just at much lower mine the reasons behind a custom- closets, saving water, reducing the prices,” says Chris Homer, chief er’s attraction to a garment — i.e., is use of pesticides and dyes, and recy- technology officer. the customer looking at a dress be- cling. And while there are many ap- Still, with hundreds of thou- cause she likes its shape, or its color, parel companies now that are striv- sands of unique items, thredUP’s or its pattern? — during a browsing ing to recycle garments by turning challenge is to show a customer the session and adjust recommendations them into something new, thredUP “right” products in her size, style in real time. offers the opportunity to recycle and price point. Enter AI Stylist, In short, buyers can get what they without changing the garment, just powered by Vue.ai, a unique way of like at a fraction of the cost, and the person who’s wearing it. recommending products based on a sellers can buy new clothes without To empty their bulging closets, customer’s previous purchase histo- guilt, knowing they can resell them. sellers simply request a “Clean Out” ry, style preferences, and the prod- “We’re trying to inspire people to bag from thredUP that arrives with ucts that a customer is browsing. Us- think secondhand first,” says Hom- a free shipping label and that they ing products that the customer has er. “We know that shopping second- can fill and leave on their doorstep added to the cart or previously pur- hand helps the world in some small for pick up. Sellers have the option chased (accessed through the Closet way, and we’re proud to be a part to select “donate,” and turn their feature on the My thredUP page), AI of that. Being a conscious consumer closets into cash for organizations Stylist recommends “Style it with” matters. It matters to you, it matters including Big Brothers Big Sisters products, while the “Recommenda- to us, it matters in the whole big and Feeding America, or they can tions” page on My thredUP always picture of the world.” receive site credit or a cash payout shows a fresh selection of 100 items — Jordan K. Speer

30 MAY 2017 apparelmag.com The next generation of fashion software is here

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■ Customer Experience ■ Financials ■ Supply Chain Management

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infor.com/fashion APPARELTOP OTO 2017 Partner

Copyright ©2017 Infor. www.infor.com. All rights reserved.

32204_UPDATE_Apparel Magazine_Print Ad_8x10_cl.indd 1 4/12/17 10:33 AM Untitled-1 1 4/12/17 1:00 PM TOPINNOVATORS Kaltex Naucalpan de Juarez, Mexico | www.kaltex.com NOMINATED BY: Walter Wilhelm Associates | www.walterwilhelmassoc.com Lectra | www.lectra.com n BDO | www.bdo.com altex is a company on the move. environment means breaking down attract a customer who is much smart- K In business for nearly 100 years, old, established limits, she adds. er than we are,” Schecter explains. Kaltex has built a strong textile and While Kaltex operates more than Kaltex has been working with its apparel business in Mexico, capitaliz- 650 stores in Mexico under the Mi- supplier partners to upgrade its den- ing on that success by establishing an lano, Melody and Home&Fashion im program, which relies on innova- office in New York City as it focuses on brands, it has no plans to open brick- tive fabric blends to create a fashion- new markets and expanding the busi- and-mortar locations in the United forward portfolio. As the focus on ness. Like many companies, Kaltex, a States. Instead, the company is look- product increased, Kaltex looked for vertically integrated enterprise, started ing to its e-commerce business to a PLM platform to streamline and ac- in manufacturing, then got into retail, gather valuable insights into what celerate product development, select- into a brand focus and now is chasing customers want, especially the Mil- ing Lectra’s Fashion PLM solution the consumer. It operates facilities in lennial demographic. “We’re trying to with support from Walter Wilhelm Colombia and runs an apparel manu- Associates. Prior to the Lectra imple- facturing factory in Nicaragua. mentation, the culture at Kaltex was When Kaltex America president very Excel-oriented. The company and CEO Hebe Schecter assumed wanted a system that would include leadership nearly three years ago, she pre-development features, such as set her sights on positioning Kaltex a fabric library cataloging all fabric to be a business disruptor. “We put a specifications, and eventually inter- different strategy in place — not just face with pattern making and marker product innovation but trying to get making tools. close to the consumer,” she says. Now Kaltex leverages Lectra Fash- Part of its approach to getting clos- ion PLM to manage product develop- er to the customer involves improv- ment — and develop products more ing the product, moving from a core accurately — across all brands. “This product to a more fashion-focused is allowing us to analyze better, and offering and embracing the lifestyle- develop less, actually,” Schecter notes. brand trend. For example, says In the near future, Kaltex has Schecter, 21-year-old kids are wearing plans to adopt 3D pattern mak- Carhartt-style jackets for fashion, not ing, which it expects to be a “game as an industrial work wear uniform. changer,” adds Schecter. Succeeding in a new apparel retail — Jessica Binns Future Retail Mumbai, India | www.futureretail.in NOMINATED BY: Infor | www.infor.com uture Retail Limited — similar to a multi-brand big- within some of Future Retail’s 280 Big Bazaar stores in F box chain like Target — started in 2001, and has rapid- more than 100 cities. ly grown to become a top retailer in India with 738 retail “With one specific idea of making Indiathoda aur stylish stores in 221 cities across the country, pulling in annual (a little more stylish), we have made it our mission to pro- revenue of roughly $1.1 billion and serving 295 million vide stylish quality fashion at pocket-friendly prices. Bring- customers in 2016. Fashion comprises about 30 percent ing global trends to Indian homes at inexpensive prices is of the company’s business, represented in 58 Fashion @ what fbb is all about,” says Ashok Dharadhar, chief, retail & Big Bazaar (fbb) standalone stores as well as locations head business processes for Fashion @ Big Bazaar. Custom-

32 MAY 2017 apparelmag.com TOPINNOVATORS ers can shop a range of labels from private brands including work very hard just to collect information from differ- DJ&C, Buffalo, Srishti, Knighthood, Spunk, Pink & Blue and ent stakeholders and present it in the form of reports,” others, plus a special line of Lee Cooper Original fashion Kamdar explains. “Assuming that all the data was cor- exclusive to fbb and Disney merchandise for kids. rectly entered, by the time the report was reviewed, the Managing so many brands and product drops comes information was outdated.” with its fair share of complexity. The company was us- Future Retail wanted to use PLM to streamline business ing Microsoft Office for product data management and processes and gain greater visibility across the business communication between design, category, sourcing and lifecycle, maintain a central database that stores all design vendors. Employees manually maintained all style in- and development data in one place, protect critical intel- formation in Excel spreadsheets, from tech packs and lectual property, and, says Dharadhar, access information sample tracking to first-cost calculations and vendor- for better, faster and more informed decision making. costing comparisons, and design and category teams The Infor Fashion PLM implementation launched relied on emails to share these Excel spreadsheets. “If without customization in August 2015 and went live in the versions of Excel files were not properly maintained, Dec. 2015 as scheduled. Currently used by 250 employees then there was a possibility of different people access- across 34 brands and 11 departments in Mumbai and Ban- ing different versions of tech packs,” says Prasham Ka- galore, PLM has been used to create 17,000 styles over the mdar, managing partner, Ptex Solutions, a strategic PLM past four seasons (from SS 16 to AW 17). partner. “This could potentially lead to errors in sample All brands and departments leverage a centralized making, costing and more.” library of 80 grade rules and 7,000 colors. To further Complicating things further, vendors were sending dai- amplify its effect, PLM is tightly integrated with ap- ly bulk production updates by email, which were then en- plications ranging from master data management and tered into Excel spreadsheets. However, consolidating all Manthan business intelligence to MockShop visual of this data across styles, orders and vendors was a “Her- merchandising and seasonal and bulk calendar man- culean task,” Kamdar adds. “If there were any delays in agement, provided by TNA. fbb now uses mobile apps any orders, the sourcing team would find out very late,” such as Style Creation for designing styles on the go he says. fbb lacked real-time updates of where goods were, and the Line List app for line presentation. whether or not production had started, the status of pack- Future Retail anticipates 20 percent growth this year ing, and whether shipments had reached the warehouse. as it penetrates further into the Indian market and brings Prior to any review meetings, various staff members a wider assortment of products and categories to the In- from various departments tracked down and entered dian consumer. data into Excel in reporting templates. “Teams used to — Jessica Binns Komar City, N.J. | www.komarbrands.com NOMINATED BY: TUKATECH | www.tukatech.com omar, in business since 1908, tion at Komar, says his team appre- K generated $850 million in 2016 ciated TUKATECH’s information sales, and maintains 30 women’s sharing capabilities and “its orien- sleepwear brands, nine tation to technical spec and pattern brands, seven base layer brands and information. 35 children’s sleepwear brands, in “Also, TUKA was already be- addition to factories throughout 12 ing used at a group of factories countries and distribution centers recently acquired by our com- in the United States and Europe. pany so we could see its abilities Last year Komar began a 3D de- first hand,” Steinhart adds. sign pilot with Sri Lanka’s Star Gar- Komar decided to imple- ment using a software suite from ment TUKATECH with one of its TUKATECH, including TUKA3D more straightforward divisions and TUKAcloud. Jeff Steinhart, — sleepwear — where styling president of sourcing and produc- doesn’t change dramatically from u

apparelmag.com MAY 2017 33 TOPINNOVATORS

one season to another, before ex- in turn has reduced product devel- yardage consumption for each ver- panding to additional brands and opment time and cut costs related sion,” Steinhart explains. “We groups. Says Steinhart, “Similar to sample making. “The 3D process could make decisions as to which styling builds a base which can has also allowed us to create addi- option appeared best with the least be used to create a new style with tional e-samples beyond what we yield without putting any fabric or minimal change.” The company has could achieve with physical sam- samples into work.” two to four employees, including ples in the same time period,” ex- While 3D sampling has improved designer, technical designer and a plains Steinhart. “Beyond the cost Komar’s overall process, visualizing pattern maker, on the in-house de- savings, we are improving the qual- very intricate fabric details remains sign team for each brand. ity of our styles by increasing the a challenge. “Small details such as TUKA3D is especially helpful number of feedback loops to make pin tucks or pico edges do not ap- for reviewing all-over prints and for our products exactly as our design pear as realistic as desired,” notes print placement. “Since the prints teams envision.” Steinhart. “The team of skilled 3D can be reviewed in correct scale to Steinhart points to one specific renderers [is] consistently being the garment, the 3D image verifies example of how TUKA3D made a challenged to create ways of over- print size and placement before ac- concrete difference. In working to coming these visual issues.” tual prints are put into work, which place a to-scale print of selvage to Komar gets a 3D sample within is a potential saving of time and selvage umbra stripe, Komar used three to five days, once the design money,” explains Steinhart. TUKA3D to create versions of the team confirms the mocks and the After six months of using TU- print and applied them in garment patterns are sent. For the future, KA3D to improve the look and fit form, placed exactly as intended. Komar is looking at ways to use the of prototype garments, divisions in- “The TUKA system was able to 3D system to provide images for dis- volved in the pilot program have re- show us in 3D how the stripe place- play or store layout presentations duced the number of physical proto ment would appear on the garment, and as a selling tool for sales teams. samples made by 40 percent. This showing several options along with — Jessica Binns Cath Kidston West London, UK | www.cathkidston.com NOMINATED BY: Infor | www.infor.com nown as a modern vintage fashion brand, Britain’s K Cath Kidston has won over fans with its quirky, whim- sical prints, all designed in house. Launched in 1993, to- day the brand spans the globe with 145 total stores at the end of 2016, 125 of which are in Asia. It entered India last year and has its sights set on Latin America. Products range from women’s apparel and children’s wear to acces- sories and home furnishings. To manage growth and evolve the business, Cath Kidston knew the outmoded systems it was using were no longer sufficient for the next phase of growth. Cath Kidston’s business transformation is supported through Infor CloudSuite Fashion, which will deliver enhanced As Cath Kidston is preparing to be fully operational visibility for the brand, tighten processes and reduce in the cloud, all employees will have access to real-time time-consuming manual re-keying of data, which can cre- information and once fully live, the retailer will be the ate costly errors. The cloud-based solution, which will first in the UK to completely operate in the cloud. support all business areas — from PLM, purchasing, mer- “Infor’s investment in, and commitment to building chandise inventory management and financials, to busi- tailored functionality for the fashion and retail indus- ness intelligence and industry-specific analytics — will tries is unparalleled and having reviewed the market, we also help Cath Kidston to reduce its IT footprint, signifi- had no hesitation in selecting Infor Cloudsuite Fashion,” cantly expedite time to market and reduce risk. said Geert Peeters, Cath Kidston COO. “Having a fashion-

34 MAY 2017 apparelmag.com TOPINNOVATORS focused retail solution delivered via the cloud means that ticularly in countries which operate within a more com- we will benefit quickly from having all our key systems plex taxation and regulatory framework, was crucial, totally integrated. Furthermore, its modern, smartphone- and having access to this level of capability, combined esque interface is slick and intuitive to use, which is with the ability to support the dynamics and nuances of hugely beneficial in encouraging user adoption and get- a unique fashion business, means that we have immense ting the most out of the system.” confidence as we move forward in the next chapter of “Working with a provider which could support finan- our growth,” Peeters added. cials on a global basis and provide 24/7 support, par- — Jessica Binns Kenai Sports New Britain, Conn. | www.kenaisports.com SELF-NOMINATED hey say one man’s trash is an- held more long- T other man’s treasure, and that term value. couldn’t be more true of Kenai At about that Sports. This innovative time, they saw brand makes clothing out of trash. the popular vid- Yes, you heard that right. Trash. eo, “The Story of Each day, the company removes or Stuff,” which fo- diverts “tons” of plastic bottles, cell cuses on excess phone cases, keyboards, and organic consumerism and waste such as coconut shells, corn the lifecycle of material goods, and The Hartford Business Journal and husks, soybean shells, and more, the partners saw how this played The Wall Street Journal. from landfills, and then turns it into out in the apparel industry in gen- From a product standpoint, Ke- sportswear. Not only does the com- eral. “People buy more than they nai’s clothing is audited — organic pany eliminate trash from landfills can consume. They donate. They actually means something and the and recycle it into useable items, but throw out. … No matter your politi- company is dedicated to providing it also does all of that here in North cal leanings, landfills are a finite re- a product that truly provides protec- America, providing jobs and helping source. Why not have businesses try tion to the environment as well as to boost the local economy. to conserve that?” comfort to the wearer, says Bogoian. Kenai didn’t enter the market as That, in a nutshell, is how the When it comes to operations, a sportswear brand that wanted to company got its start. the company is every bit as envi- be sustainable. It started with a sus- Kenai has a wide range of custom- ronmentally focused. Its transpar- tainable business model, and built its ers, ranging from college and univer- ent, locally-based supply chain al- company on top of it, says co-founder sity athletic programs to corpora- lows for collaborative relationships and COO Charlie Bogoian. “Sustain- tions, non-profits, and government and makes it easy for consumers ability … defines the product we offices, for which it creates custom- to have confidence in the socially- make for our partners, our role in in- designed performance sportswear conscious nature of the company’s novating the apparel industry, and for their teams, clubs and employ- production, he says. the metrics by which we measure our ees. “Sustainability has become an Kenai has also taken its recy- value in the marketplace.” increasingly important factor for cling efforts to the next level with Kenai wasn’t Bogoian’s first ap- many organizations, and we’ve seen its “closed loop” program, which parel venture. While still in school at signs of that by some of the inquiries allows customers to send garments Babson College, he and his business we’re getting for new garments and back at the end of their useful life partner Phil Tepfer had some early ,” says Bogoian. to be broken down and re-entered success launching a nautical cloth- Kenai’s unique business model into the production process. “A ful- ing company called Sail Proud LLC. hasn’t escaped notice. The com- ly-functional ‘closed loop’ elevates But the entrepreneurial duo realized pany has been featured in publica- the possibilities in sustainable busi- that maintaining their momentum tions including Bloomberg Busi- ness,” he concludes. would require a business model that nessweek, Entrepreneur Magazine, — Jordan K. Speer

apparelmag.com MAY 2017 35 TOPINNOVATORS Toad&Co. Santa Barbara, Calif. | www.toadandco.com NOMINATED BY: Oracle NetSuite Global Business Unit | www.netsuite.com oad&Co., the socially inspired T and sustainably built “trail-to- tavern” apparel brand, has been around for more than 25 years, so if you’re scratching your head, and wondering why it’s not ringing a bell, it might be because the compa- ny changed its name two years ago from Horny Toad. More on that later. Twenty years ago, Toad’s current CEO bought the company from its founder, who launched it in 1991 out of her garage in Telluride, Colo., selling nothing but fleece . In the intervening years, the company has grown significantly, and now oper- ates two retail stores (in Portland, Ore., and Freeport, Maine), a partner store in Golden, Colo., sells direct- to-consumer via its e-commerce site, and wholesale via more than 800 doors nationwide, including at re- tailers such as REI. The brand also has a longtime social mission to help adults with With d2c on the rise and no lon- a 30 percent increase in efficiency disabilities. In 1997 it co-founded ger an insignificant percentage of in order management alone), while PAC, a third-party logistics pro- business, Toad needed to transform the real-time intelligent view into vider that trains and provides jobs its IT systems to allow it to become its KPIs has been invaluable. Toad to adults with developmental dis- a true omnichannel retailer. “The can see how money is being spent, abilities. One hundred percent of consumer is not differentiating be- and how this is tracking to its Toad’s picking and packing is car- tween channels,” says Milazzo. “We goals. It has insight into, for ex- ried out by these workers. It also needed to be able to treat them as ample, the performance of new partnered starting in 2001 with one customer regardless of where styles vs. carryover styles within a the non-profit Search, Inc. to send we interact with them,” she says. season. “It’s much easier to get to adults with disabilities on vaca- In May 2016, the company went that answer by logging into a dash- tions into the great outdoors. live with the core ERP piece of the board,” says Milazzo. Because it The bulk of Toad’s business — Oracle NetSuite Retail Apparel plat- is cloud-based, the system is ex- 70 percent — remains in wholesale, form, including financials, order tremely flexible. but in recent years its direct-to- management, inventory manage- Last month, it added the Suit- consumer (d2c) business has been ment, reporting, point of sale and eCommerce InStore POS solution to chipping away at the overall pie. To- retail apparel-specific processes. It its Freeport store to give sales associ- day, its two brick-and-mortar stores will be live with Suite Commerce ates single views into inventory and represent about 10 percent of rev- Advanced, the e-comm portion, by customers, which allows them to enues and its e-comm business the July of this year. better serve shoppers. “They love all other 20 percent. “Direct-to-consum- One of the system’s features Mi- of its visuals and are finding it very er business is growing north of 40 lazzo most appreciates is its dash- intuitive,” says Milazzo. When the percent, year over year,” says Kelly board, which allows Toad to man- new web site rolls out this summer, Milazzo, vice president of operations. age by exception (it has provided customers, too, will gain one view of

36 MAY 2017 apparelmag.com TOPINNOVATORS inventory, and one view of their pur- can encounter some troubles with up in their spam. As our company chase history, across channels. your email marketing. There are continues to see growth and as the One more thing about that uptick some “digital restrictions” when it world moves to a digital landscape, in e-comm: It was also a big driver comes to trying to reach your con- we needed to evaluate having that behind the name change. You see, sumers — especially, ahem, at work, [word] in our name.” with a name like Horny Toad, you quips Milazzo. “Emails would end — Jordan K. Speer Silver Jeans Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada | www.silverjeans.com NOMINATED BY: Bronto | www.bronto.com ilver Jeans, the denim brand that does $150 million in customers, it discovered that the response improved S sales across the United States, Europe and Southeast with each one. “It’s a compounding effect,” Girardin Asia, has made tremendous strides in digital marketing explains. While one email might generate 1x revenue in recent years. The most amusing example might be its and two emails might yield 2x revenue, four emails will “Love Below the Waist” YouTube web series launched drive 6x revenue. “Part of it is that you’re staying fresh around Valentine’s Day 2017 and depicting two pairs of in people’s memories. You’ve got to hit them up a certain jeans as they embark on their love story. Billed as “sassy, number of times before they recognize your existence.” cheeky and sometimes straight-up ridiculous,” the rom- Silver Jeans also launched automated triggered com is one of Silver Jeans’ more interesting approaches emails, such as a welcome message or an abandoned to digitally engaging with customers. cart email. Messaging varies from offering a discount to But without an overhaul of its digital marketing pro- highlighting various features on the website to promot- gram in 2014, when director of e-commerce Mike Gi- ing Silver Jeans’ denim fit guide. rardin joined the company, Experimenting with A/B something like “Love Below testing has been a learning ex- the Waist” probably wouldn’t perience. For example, Girar- have happened. Prior to his ar- din’s team discovered that de- rival, Silver Jeans was under- spite the conventional wisdom utilizing email as a marketing that short email subject lines vehicle. Girardin describes a are better, “an effective subject marketing program that sent line is unintuitively long,” he out random emails with no explains. On Black Friday, his fixed plan — no consistency, team tested messages simply common threads of messag- promoting an offer versus say- ing segmentation or anything ing something “a little more other than “batch and blast.” interesting” in the subject line. Working with email market- “‘Black Friday’ works a lot bet- ing automation provider Bron- ter,” Girardin notes. “People to, Silver Jeans took the first are searching their email in- basic step of segmenting its au- box for ‘Black Friday,’ so if you dience, separating Canada from don’t use it, they can’t find it.” the United States, for example. So far the marketing efforts Marketing and e-commerce are paying off: from October wanted to send out a “few more 2015 to October 2016, online emails without bothering peo- sales grew 40 percent and ple or causing unsubscribes,” sales are expected to rise by as says Girardin. “We wanted to much as 30 percent this year. test what kind of frequency we Says Girardin, “We’ve gone could get away with.” from doing nothing to doing a As Silver Jeans began whole lot of things.” sending out more emails to — Jessica Binns

apparelmag.com MAY 2017 37 TOPINNOVATORS REI Kent, Wash. | www.rei.com NOMINATED BY: KNAPP Logistics Automation | www.knapp.com ncreasingly, we as a society are when you pull into the parking lot Here’s how it works. KNAPP’s or- “Iasking, ‘what is a purposeful and approach the entrance. “We want der storage and retrieval (OSR) system life?’ Whether you’re a Baby Boomer employees to recognize that they’re brings a donor tote full of product to a or a Millennial, part of answering working for a differentiated com- worker’s goods-to-person station. The that question is, ‘how did I feel pur- pany,” explains Bingle. “We want station’s graphic, intuitive display poseful in the life work that I did?’” you to experience the brand as soon instructs which item to pick and put That’s how REI vice president of as you get out of your car, whether into one of the cardboard boxes that supply chain Rick Bingle describes you’re walking through the outdoor the OSR also brought. not only his passion about his work garden or trails or using the gym.” This is the retail replenishment but that of the many REI employees It’s also the first DC in the coun- side, enabling workers to pick prod- attracted to the brand’s mission of try that’s both certified LEED Plati- uct that is destined for stores. As the encouraging adventure in and stew- num and energy net neutral, thanks cardboard box fills, you a hit button, ardship of the great outdoors. to a rooftop solar array that gener- the box ejects, a new box comes in, The co-op took that mission one ates so much power it actually re- you put a lid on the filled box, add step further with the opening of its turns energy to the grid. the shipping and contents label, newest distribution center in Good- And while all of the sustainabil- and shuttle the box off for shipping. year, Ariz., last year. A future-forward ity efforts and aesthetic elements But the fundamental differen- model of sustainability, the DC was are wonderful, such as the cacti tiator, says Bingle, is the pocket built on four very specific design te- and desert flora that populate the sorter — which enables the direct- nets: brand, culture, sustainability gardens, it’s REI’s new approach to to-consumer portion — also located and technology. Before REI had even material handling and production at the worker’s station. He likens purchased the land, the company that’s truly innovative and attracting it to the technology you find at the gathered all stakeholders, includ- notice. Aiming to achieve something dry cleaners; you press a button, the ing the designer, developer, builder, unique in the industry, says Bingle, rack of clothing flies around, and sustainability experts and mate- REI has enabled omnichannel one- voila! Your garment magically ap- rial handling providers KNAPP and touch production in the Goodyear pears in front of you. DMW&H, to collaborate on a plan DC, bringing together two disparate So that means the worker can that would meet those tenets and systems that, working in tandem, al- pick orders for both stores and for took just 18 months to open the DC. low an employee to pick items for DTC from the same pool of inven- The result is a DC that looks and both store replenishment and direct- tory and at the same station. The feels more like one of REI’s stores to-consumer in one fell swoop. display that tells the worker to pick one item for stores will also include instructions for picking for DTC. And if a customer order includes two or more items, the products are picked more than likely by separate employees with separate pocket sorters and shuttled to a third loca- tion for packaging. There’s no bar- code to scan, saving critical time, and if the employee puts the wrong item in the wrong box, the display will catch the error and force the worker to fix it before continuing. REI partnered with the National Organization on Disability, invit- ing the group to review the goods- to-person stations and getting the

38 MAY 2017 apparelmag.com TOPINNOVATORS thumbs up to actively recruit per- person stations are protected, the Bingle, they can thrive in a picking sons with certain disabilities for inability to hear is no longer com- capacity at a goods-to-person sta- these jobs. For example, says Bin- promising your safety. Your dis- tion. “People with autism have been gle, being deaf in a typical ware- ability has nothing to do with your so cut out of the work environment house is perilous, what with the ability to run one of these stations.” and this technology changes that,” forklifts zipping around and heavy For people with autism, being Bingle adds. “Working with the Na- equipment being moved. “Sound easily distracted is a typical chal- tional Organization on Disability is part of the safety protocol,” ex- lenge. Yet as long as they can master opens new doors to hiring pools.” plains Bingle. “Because goods-to- the very “rote” picking process, says — Jessica Binns PVH Corp. New York, N.Y. | www.pvh.com NOMINATED BY: JDA | www.jda.com VH Corp. is one of largest global apparel compa- P nies, with $8.2 billion in 2016 revenues coming from a diversified portfolio of brands — including CALVIN KLEIN, Tommy Hilfiger, Van Heusen, IZOD, ARROW, Spee- do, Warner’s and Olga, as well as numerous other owned and licensed brands. The company employs approximately 35,000 associates, operating across 40 countries. When you’re operating with so many brands, prod- ucts and people, old-school tech systems simply won’t do. PVH’s planning teams were challenged by Excel- based tools, linked files and manual processes. “Much of the work was being done in disparate sys- tems,” said Ken Duane, CEO, Heritage Brands and North America Wholesale. “The manual process to aggregate quickly produce an executive overview of what is going on regional demand, against capacity, into a global pur- in the business,” says Duane. “Associates are able to shift view, was time consuming.” their focus away from less value-added items such as data PVH has used JDA’s planning and allocation tools for entry, to more strategic thinking and data analysis.” more than 15 years. Last year, it implemented a suite On the wholesale side, Duane said that having a long- of JDA planning solutions that brought end-to-end vis- range forecast at multiple levels has been a “huge win” ibility to the entire supply chain — aligning demand, and gives the company the ability to challenge its own fulfillment and capacity planning. thinking and to be more responsive and flexible with its The enterprise planning module allowed PVH to create orders. On the retail side, he said that PVH’s businesses strong financial plans at the category level and to plan sea- can now refine assortments at the store-cluster level, tak- sonally, providing insight into its margin mix by season. ing into account factors such as climate, customer type, The size-and-pack module, updated allocation modules and store size and volume. He added that PVH is now and launch of JDA AP has enabled PVH to optimize inven- able to adjust future forecasts and inventories to meet tory productivity and localize assortments, Duane says. shifting consumer buying habits as the company adapts Demand planning tools enable PVH to forecast at a to the convergence of the digital and physical worlds. channel level and cluster certain demand groups. It also “We have moved the business forward significantly by allows the company to spot trends sooner and help bet- introducing JDA tools that help us optimize inventory, ter communicate with both its retail and sourcing part- maximize sales and satisfy our consumer,” says Duane. ners. The fulfilment module allows PVH to optimize fill “For example, after the introduction of the Van Heusen rates across channels by providing it with the function- Flex Collar , we saw strong sales in the largest sizes. ality to manage inventories at a more granular level. Having a streamlined and integrated planning tool allowed KPIs, reporting language and processes are more stan- us to quickly adjust future production to ensure our retail dardized because all divisions are operating on the same customers were fully in-stock to support future sales.” platform. “With configurable dashboarding we are able to — Jordan K. Speer

apparelmag.com MAY 2017 39 TOPINNOVATORS VF Jeanswear Greensboro, N.C. | www.vfc.com NOMINATED BY: Browzwear | www.browzwear.com eans are complicated to design, product is much better, and the fit enjoying the process of innovation,” J fit, and manufacture, what with quality is higher,” Pasakarnis says, Pasakarnis notes. “That’s 50 percent all the washing, shrinkage, dry fin- “which leads to increased sales.” of the success.” ishes, embellishments and more. What’s more, there’s better com- While adopting Browzwear has VF Jeanswear knows this all too munication among stakeholders, a changed how the Jeanswear’s mass well, producing large volumes of better record of all design decisions women’s group approaches fit and jeans annually through its Wrangler, stored in the software, and a more pattern development, individual pat- Lee, Riders by Lee, Crafted by Lee, consistent approach to design. tern makers use the software to vary- and Rock & Republic denim brands. As a result of the Browzwear ing degrees. More than 30 pattern 3D patternmaker Margarita Pa- implementation, the Jeanswear makers have been trained in Vstitch- sakarnis says the company part- group has completely redesigned its er for fit development and “approxi- nered with Browzwear in Feb. product development process. The mately 25 percent of us use it for 100 2012 to transform pattern making software’s virtual capabilities mean percent of pattern development,” and product development with that the mass women’s team can use says Pasakarnis. Vstitcher and Lotta 3D design soft- assets before they receive physical “Software is not going to make ware, starting in the mass wom- samples; for example, they may not you a designer. Software is not go- en’s department of the Jeanswear have fabric yardage, but as long as ing to make you a patternmaker,” group. “There are functions in the a swatch is available they can test explains Pasakarnis. “Only in a software that indicate what the and use it virtually before making master’s hand you can create a avatar-model feels virtually,” she any fabric decisions. Adds Pasakar- masterpiece using great tools, and explains. “So we could ask our fit nis, “all that’s needed are images to Vstitcher and Lotta are great tools.” model what she feels in the same begin working in 3D.” With virtual The use of Vstitcher has spread to physical garment and translate that libraries of images, fabrics, trims and men’s, boys’, infants’ and toddlers’, to the virtual pattern.” finishes, her team can begin product and plus sizes for fit development With the move to 3D pattern development earlier than before. in Jeanswear. “We needed to prove making and design, decisions are VF Asia, the China-based group virtual development was possible in made virtually, which means VF that executes the samples, has em- mass women’s and establish a pro- Jeanswear produces fewer physi- braced the virtual development pro- cess before we spread to other de- cal samples. “Appearance of the cess too. “It’s good when people are partments,” adds Pasakarnis. A few small “rush” collections have been sold virtually to buyers. “You cannot create a small collec- tion in five days, because it takes three weeks to make one jean sam- ple. But because we were able to cre- ate it virtually and have the buyer accept it virtually, we were able to create a collection in five days. We would not have been able to present a collection on such short notice oth- erwise,” explains Pasakarnis. VF Jeanswear has a long history with its hometown college, the Uni- versity of North Carolina at Greens- boro (UNCG), regularly recruiting interns and graduates from the De- partment of Consumer, Apparel, and Retail Studies. To better educate ap-

40 MAY 2017 apparelmag.com TOPINNOVATORS parel design students, the company software. “I have trained five faculty has also taught the software directly worked with Browzwear to outfit members who now know the soft- to UNCG students “who learn the all the terminals in the department’s ware and are able to use it in the cur- software so quickly.” computer lab with the 3D design riculum,” explains Pasakarnis, who — Jessica Binns Xcel Brands New York, N.Y. | www.xcelbrands.com NOMINATED BY: NGC Software | www.ngcsoftware.com cel Brands is not your typical ap- 150 doors. Xcel Brands essentially oper- X parel company; it’s not your typi- ates as a vertical retailer without own- cal media company; and it’s not your ing any of the inventory. It doesn’t typical licensing company. When sell the product; rather, its revenues it was launched in 2011, founder come from a percentage of top-line and president Bob D’Loren had sales. Although it collaborates a vision to reimagine shopping, with its retail customers in areas entertainment and social as one such as planning and identify- entity. The result is a brand de- ing trends, Xcel Brands does all velopment and media compa- the design, sourcing and mar- ny engaged in the design, pro- keting work, says D’Loren. duction, licensing, marketing “The retailers take the inven- and direct-to-consumer tory risk.” sales of branded apparel, Recently, taking a page footwear, accessories, jew- from the world of fast elry, home goods and other fashion, Xcel has been consumer products, and in the acquisi- working to achieve faster turnaround tion of dynamic consumer lifestyle brands. times and also to keep a close watch on sales data so it can In its brand portfolio? Isaac Mizrahi, H , C. respond quickly to meet demand. In spring 2016, for ex- Wonder, Judith Ripka and Highline Collective, which ample, the company worked with Lord & Taylor to quickly it promotes through an omnichannel sales strategy that replenish a best-selling that had sold out in days. includes direct-response television, internet, brick-and- When the popular off-the-shoulder Isaac Mizrahi blouse mortar retail, and e-commerce channels. sold out quickly, feedback was immediately sent down the Xcel operates under three : interactive TV supply chain, and were back in stock in six weeks. (creating media broadcasts in nine countries, generating Enabling this quick insight into sales data and quick $350 million in annual sales); specialty retail (which response is the recent implementation of a fully integrat- handles brand extensions into products as diverse as ed suite of solutions, including PLM, ERP, and SCM from BAND-AIDS and tissue boxes, sold at retailers such as NGC Software. Best Buy and Staples); and wholesale. That quick replenishment at Lord & Taylor? “Previous- “Our brands are dynamic, in that we have authentic ly, that would have taken nine to twelve months,” says personalities who drive [connection and interest] via so- D’Loren, adding that implementing this type of technol- cial media. We’re one of the few companies at QVC that ogy for a department store environment is more challeng- can cross-promote on air,” says D’Loren. “Consider Isaac ing than for a vertical retailer such as Zara, which turns Mizrahi, who knits and paints. We launched a line of inventory five to six times per year. NGC worked closely yarn at Michael’s for which he created a DIY video, and with Xcel to make tweaks to the process to get things just then he spoke on his show on QVC on that Monday night. right, he says. “When you’re turning three to four times a That’s powerful.” year, weekly inventory flow becomes critical.” As for the wholesale apparel side of its business, D’Loren With design and sourcing able to respond more describes it as “licensing 4.0.” A far cry from your typical li- quickly to understand and meet customer demand, Xcel censing model, Xcel operates a design-to-retail supply chain Brands is helping its retail partners sell more product at for customers including Hudson’s Bay, Lord & Taylor and full price. most recently, Dillard’s, where it just launched H Halston in — Jordan K. Speer

apparelmag.com MAY 2017 41 TOPINNOVATORS Cosabella Miami, Fla. | www.cosabella.com NOMINATED BY: Albert | www.albert.ai n Mi9 Retail | www.mi9retail.com t’s curious to think that a company I that was forward-thinking enough to have a website and use chat rooms to talk to customers in the mid-’90s didn’t have a digital marketing pro- gram in place in 2013. But that was largely because lingerie brand Cosa- bella, like many companies that start out as wholesalers, struggled with the advent of direct to consumer, says marketing director Courtney Connell. Today the family-owned company is making up for lost time by push- ing the boundaries of digital innova- tion. Since Connell joined Cosabella in late 2013 as e-commerce manager, the company has restructured several departments to streamline digital ac- tivities and replatformed e-commerce with Upshot Commerce, which was acquired by Mi9 Retail. took a few weeks after “ingesting” In the first month after launch- After Cosabella’s double-digit all of Cosabella’s creative to analyze ing Albert on Oct. 1, 2016, ad spend growth began to slow, the company the content and optimize it for new dropped 12 percent while return on cut ties with its ad agency. “We were campaigns. Now Cosabella runs one search and social spend increased by outsourcing every part of our digital “campaign” per country, so in the 50 percent. Black Friday and Cyber program to this agency,” explains United States, for example, Connell Monday campaigns doubled the rev- Connell. “Our in-house team was will give Albert a budget, tell him enue from the year prior. Albert took creating the content but the agency who to target (new customers, loo- social media paid ad revenue from was executing and I was in the mid- kalikes, etc.), and which channels: between 5 percent and 10 percent to dle. It was very inefficient. I saw that search, social and display. From now 30 percent. Conversions coming the people who knew the brand best there, Albert “takes that broad spec- from Facebook jumped 2,000 per- weren’t doing the campaigns.” trum and starts to pare it down,” ex- cent. Albert has produced significant Faced with the options of hiring plains Connell. At first, the process results on just about every level. more in-house marketing employ- was terrifying, she adds, with the Cosabella also is optimizing its ees, finding a new agency or explor- fear/expectation that Albert was go- website by using Ascend from Sen- ing marketing automation via artifi- ing to waste a lot of money. “But he tient Technologies, another AI pro- cial intelligence platforms such as didn’t, and that’s pretty cool.” vider. Ascend enables the retailer to Adgorithms’ Albert — which had Discovering new audiences test different elements of the web- been on Connell’s radar for about 18 means rethinking how to market to site, from the promo header (“Made months — Cosabella opted for AI. them. “Because we’ve noticed these in Italy” vs. “Free Shipping” vs. Albert tests creative content in seem- pockets [of potential customers] “Family Owned”) to button colors to ingly endless combination in search, that we’ve ignored, we’ve changed dropdown menus and photo sizes. social and display channels, incor- our content strategy,” adds Connell. The program splits the website traf- porating his learnings along the way Now Cosabella works with mul- fic between all of the possible com- and optimizing ad spend to deliver tiple types of influencers, pairing binations and once it understands exponential results. campaign photos with bloggers’ im- which candidates for each element Implementation took less than ages to show how different types of are strong, it starts to group them au- a week and, says Connell, Albert women are interpreting the brand. tomatically, says Connell. The result:

42 MAY 2017 apparelmag.com TOPINNOVATORS a 30 percent conversion lift and “a lot that led them to the site. So if they tique. The sales associate isn’t going of work taken off my plate,” she adds. clicked on an ad featuring a blue bra, to show you the exact same product The lingerie brand is also experi- then the first product merchandised she shows to every other customer menting with Sentient’s Aware pro- on the homepage they see should who comes in; she’s going to tailor gram, figuring out the workflows. be that bra — a feature Connell de- the shopping experience to you and One of the program’s out-of-the-box scribes as a “living landing page,” your preferences. capabilities is a discovery tool that which no one else is doing. From Ideally, Cosabella would never refines the product assortment dis- there, Cosabella would evaluate how have a human being merchan- played to a shopper based on the to further merchandise the homep- dise the website ever again. “We product photos she clicks on. But age — would similar colors be fea- just want to upload product and the more intriguing idea that Cosa- tured? Or silhouettes? Or maybe have everything be automatic from bella is working to establish is an something from the same collection? there,” she says. “The whole web- interface between Albert and Aware The goal, says Connell, is to de- site should be living, not just the such that Albert can “tell” Aware liver the kind of experience you’d category page.” what kind of ad visitors clicked on expect in a high-end luxury bou- — Jessica Binns PACT Organic Apparel Boulder, Colo. | www.pactorganic.com SELF-NOMINATED onventional cotton uses about 16 percent of the C world’s insecticides and 7 percent of pesticides, and, according to the World Bank, approximately 20 percent of the world’s industrial water pollution comes from the treatment and dyeing of textiles. The apparel and textile industries also struggle with issues related to child labor and poor working conditions. PACT Organic Apparel is on a mission to change all of that: It’s transforming the way apparel is made by “focusing on the people who make our clothes, and the planet,” says founder and CEO, Brendan Synnott. Synnott is no stranger to the world of social and environmental responsibility. As the founder of Bear Naked Granola cereal and EVOL Frozen Foods, he has been focused on sustainability for some time. In 2009, drawing from his experience in consumer packaged goods (CPG), Synnott turned his eye to the apparel in- dustry and worked to apply those lessons to clothing. “People don’t necessarily think of cotton as an ag- ricultural product. We want to communicate that and let people know there are things they can purchase and be proud of,” he says. With increasing exposure of treacherous working conditions in places around the globe — the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh in 2013 was a particularly big eye opener — “consumers are starting to pay more attention to how clothing is made, and we want to show there is a more sustainable way to do it,” Synnott says. “We want consumers to understand that people don’t have to live with pesticides in their communities and u

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workers don’t have to be subjected to unsafe or brutal launch baby, toddler and women’s and men’s lounge/ working conditions.” PACT Organic works with fair trade sleep wear. “All of these categories place an emphasis manufacturing facilities in India, and its cotton comes on soft and cozy,” says Synnott, “so our super soft cot- from India as well, via Chetna Organic, a fair trade cotton ton should have a great reception.” intervention program that works with small and marginal PACT Organic sells online on its web site (its fastest- farmers to grow organic cotton and to help make farming growing channel), as well as in retailers such as Target, a sustainable and profitable occupation for them. where it launched last year, and in high-end grocery Synnott says the company’s products aren’t just good chains such as Whole Foods, Sprouts and Wegmans. for the planet and workers — they’re much softer and PACT Organic also sells a limited range of its basics on they fit better. If the company’s growth is any indication, Amazon, which it views as a great channel for introduc- consumers agree. In 2016, PACT Organic hit revenues ing the customer to the brand. of about $15 million to $20 million at retail, and this “The point of PACT Organic is that you don’t have year it expects sales to reach $25 million to $30 million. to sacrifice quality and fit to do what’s right for people The company’s best-selling item is its women’s , and planet,” Synnott concludes. and in the second half of the year the company will — Jordan K. Speer Tailored Brands Houston, Texas | www.tailoredbrands.com NOMINATED BY: Kalypso | www.kalypso.com f there’s one overarching legacy that and cotton to cre- I emerges from this market-shaking ate a performance athleisure movement, it’s that con- suit and a perfor- sumers want — correction: demand mance — comfort and performance in every — both “firsts” for area of their lives. It’s not enough for the industry. your alone to offer mois- “These two ture-wicking and odor protection, product categories now your business suit should, too. are a large part of You read that correctly: performance our business and fabrics are making their way into a we knew if we boardroom near you with the advent could achieve of The Men’s Wearhouse’s collabo- this, it would be ration with Kenneth Cole Produc- a game-changer,” tions, resulting in the AWEAR-TECH Nadel says. AWEARNESS Kenneth Cole line of The 37.5 fab- tailored clothing and sportswear that ric technology incorporates 37.5 performance tech- incorporates ac- nology. The Men’s Wearhouse is a tive particles that subsidiary of Tailored Brands. target moisture When The Men’s Wearhouse first while it’s still vapor, blocking it from The result? Products with a hand approached 37.5, the vendor’s prod- becoming the droplets of sweat that “very similar” to the company’s ucts were designed specifically for cause fabrics to stick to your skin — 100-percent wool suits and 100- the sports and active markets, says and to stink. Because 37.5 technology percent cotton dress shirts, says Jarrod Nadel, the retailer’s chief prod- had never before been applied to tai- Nadel. “The 37.5 fiber complements uct development director. “We were lored apparel, The Men’s Wearhouse the wool and cotton, giving the fab- very impressed with the performance had to engineer the AWEAR-TECH ric a resilience along with incredible of their fabrics and their test results suits from the yarn on up, and even elasticity and recovery,” he adds. were extraordinary,” he adds. The incorporated the 37.5 fiber into the What’s more, the deep knowledge challenge, however, was figuring out suit linings and mesh components that both the 37.5 technical team and how to blend the 37.5 fiber with wool seamlessly, Nadel explains. manufacturing partners brought to

44 MAY 2017 apparelmag.com TOPINNOVATORS the table enabled The Men’s Wear- sive product knowledge around the back, a portion of the profits from house to bring the AWEARNESS line AWEARNESS line, which has been AWEAR-TECH apparel will benefit to market quickly and efficiently. very well received and “continues Hire Heroes, which helps veterans Because educating customers to exceed our expectations,” notes re-entering the workforce, and Help about the benefits of performance Nadel. USA, an organization that fights fabrics is half the battle, the retailer And in keeping with the trend homelessness. trained store teams on comprehen- toward creating products that give — Jessica Binns Talbots Hingham, Mass. | www.talbots.com NOMINATED BY: Mad Mobile | www.madmobile.com here comes a point in time, says Tal- T bots’ senior vice president of sales and operations Patrick Walsh, when the GAP-ACT approach to selling — Greet, Approach, Product knowledge, Acces- sorize, Close, Thank by name — just doesn’t quite cut it anymore. The 454-store chain, which celebrates 70 years as a classic women’s heritage brand this year, had fallen onto hard times several years ago, resulting in its $369-million acquisition by Sycamore Partners. “Our struggles were very pub- lic,” notes Walsh. What had worked for a while wasn’t working anymore. That transactional ap- proach to selling in store was no longer engaging customers the way it should. In- stead, says Walsh, Talbots made the con- scious shift to a relationship-based model “to amplify the strength of the brand.” “We know the customer is very social and she’ll stop in sometimes just to say hello,” explains cierge was live in 60 stores; by March about 300 stores Walsh. “She has the luxury of time and resources and were using the platform, and the full-chain rollout was on wants the shopping experience to be a bit more special.” track to conclude by the end of April. Talbots made that pivot with an “eye toward what a Concierge runs on iPad Pros as well as on stores’ Win- clienteling tool could do for us,” adds Walsh. “Technol- dows 10 POS. During testing, 21 store personnel, includ- ogy doesn’t ever do anything. People do.” ing associates and managers, evaluated Surface tablets And after considerable preaching and evangelizing the alongside iPads, and all 21 unanimously preferred the benefits of a clienteling platform to various stakeholders, Apple device. While enabling Concierge for two different Walsh and his team selected Mad Mobile’s Concierge of- operating systems and ensuring a consistent user experi- fering, impressed by its seamless integration with Oracle ence was less than ideal from an IT standpoint, taking Relate retail customer engagement (which Talbots was al- an IT efficiency approach usually doesn’t yield the best ready running as part of its Oracle technology stack, in- results in the end, explains Walsh. Instead, he says, the cluding Xstore POS) and the close-knit co-development focus should be on user adoption and usability. effort between the software company and the Talbots crew. In addition to all the standard clienteling features and The retailer needed just nine months to move from functions, Talbots wanted Concierge to enrich store em- ideation to implementation. Says Walsh, “we were build- ployees’ productivity, too, and created a homepage for their ing the plane as we were flying it.” By October 2016, Con- professional lives — whether associate or manager. The u

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Concierge homepage displays sales information, bench- With the Concierge homepage, Talbots has narrowed marking in a graphic and accessible way how the employ- the list of people who are delivering information and can ee’s store is performing against sales targets. It shows the better track compliance with tasks. In addition, sales per- employee’s progress through her own incentive program, formance has increased and associate turnover is at a five- and links to the rewards page, where she can redeem the year low, notes Walsh. points she has earned for travel, merchandise and more. Talbots did have to think carefully about how to dis- “The Concierge homepage keeps you close to both rupt its red telephone service, which for decades en- the business performance and your own objectives,” abled customers who couldn’t find a product in store Walsh says. to dial up the call center and place a catalogue order. What’s more, the Concierge homepage includes product “It was a substantial business for us,” adds Walsh. Now knowledge, all the brand buzz about the latest styles such Concierge “takes the friction out of the experience,” en- as the spring collection. That’s where Talbots incorporates abling the retailer — with a single credit card swipe and “learn and earn;” by completing learning modules about single receipt — to complete customer orders involving new products, associates can earn reward points that are in-store products as well as items that will be shipped credited to their rewards balance in real time. from another location. “We’re creating demand, not just Next, the homepage features company news, updating fulfilling it, and lifting average order value,” Walsh says. associates on any important goings-on. For example, the Enabling all of this required “a ton of integration,” day before Black Friday, someone in headquarters can re- and was equal parts improving the omnichannel tech- cord and send out a message company-wide so that the store nology and digitizing the associates’ black book, ex- manager doesn’t have to interpret it for staff. It’s pushed out plains Walsh. straight to individual associates. To further refine its omnichannel operations, Talbots Finally, the homepage is where associates receive their plans to launch Oracle Order Broker by year end, which email, which includes things such as selling tasks for the streamlines orders by locating products closest to the day. Suppose it’s the day before Black Friday; that selling buyer. “This will improve delivery times and reduce op- task might include a list of customers the associate hasn’t erational expenses associated with packing two different seen in the past 60 days, so she would build a campaign items from two different locations,” says Walsh. around those shoppers. — Jessica Binns RushOrderTees Philadelphia, Pa. | www.rushordertees.com SELF-NOMINATED ushOrderTees got its start in 2002, R selling screenprinted t-shirts out of a garage. The company’s focus was on learning the process from the ground up in order to determine how it could improve the customer experi- ence when ordering custom apparel. Its founders had no idea that their business would transform the in- dustry, says COO Rob Levin. Today, RushOrderTees offers a wide range of customized product to customers from single shirts for individuals to Fortune 500 companies, with some of the fastest turnaround times available anywhere, he says. ‍“Our mission is to create custom gaged audience. We work every day make it easy for anyone to promote apparel that enables each customer’s to democratize the custom printing their cause, community or brand,” message to reach a wider, more en- process and leverage technology to he says.

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Levin says RushOrderTees got of apparel. It has focused on de- basic Flash application has grown to its start by being the company that velopment to perfect its processes, its current iteration, he explains. took all of the orders that no other so much so that Mike Nemeroff, The company has worked dili- custom-print companies could or founder and CEO, refers to Rush- gently to achieve a fine balance in would take. These were small or- OrderTees as “a technology compa- the design studio — easy enough ders, or those that required fast ny that happens to produce custom for the average user to be able to turnaround, or had complicated re- apparel.” create what they want, but power- quirements, he says. “The DNA of Nemeroff says the company was ful enough for graphic artists to get the business is ‘Just say yes.’” one of the first in the industry to the exacting detail they need. That’s Since then, he explains, the offer an online design studio, and crucial, because its customers range company has become the “go-to” remains one of the leaders when it from an individual student creating apparel printer for customers who comes to enabling a comprehensive a single piece for himself, to some are looking for not just the fastest mobile experience to customers. of the largest and most demanding time to completion, but also the The design studio has been a customers in the world, says Levin. best quality. In just the past three “constantly evolving labor of love,” “Our goal is to make it easy for any- years, RushOrderTees has filled says Levin. After years of feedback, one to make their own custom ap- more than 150,000 orders and testing, and tens of thousands of de- parel online.” printed more than 6 million pieces veloper hours, what started as a very — Jordan K. Speer Nine Line Apparel Savannah, Ga. | www.ninelineapparel.com NOMINATED BY: BigCommerce | www.bigcommerce.com eteran-owned Nine Line Apparel came to V market in 2012 as a new wave of patrio- tism was beginning to take hold in the United States. The startup launched on the concept of patriotically themed t-shirts has grown into a lifestyle brand offering products as diverse as Made-in-America shot , bottle openers and wooden signs, and supports various chari- table organizations (especially wounded veter- ans group) through its Nine Line Foundation. As an online-only company, Nine Line Ap- parel needed a platform that would enable it to scale its business and grow sustainably. To prepare for the future, the startup turned to BigCommerce in 2014 and integrated with third-party providers InStockNotify, Mailchimp, Intuit and another 50 percent year-over-year from 2015 to OnePage Checkout, ShipStation, ShipperHQ, Retention 2016, thanks in part to its creative use of the BigCom- Grid, MailChimp and Unlimited Upsell to expand upon merce platform. BigCommerce’s native capabilities. Despite its America-first mission, Nine Line Apparel “BigCommerce has some great API connections and — like many apparel brands — has found producing gar- apps that allow us to connect our shipping and inventory ments in the United States to be a challenge. software directly to the orders generated,” says co-found- “As a young company that donates a portion of sales to er and COO Myles Burke, a graduate of Savannah College our nonprofit organization for wounded veterans, keeping of Art and Design. “It allows us to not only capture the or- cost as minimal as possible has always been key,” notes der on the front side, but also to alleviate some of the pain Burke. “However, we are taking steps towards working points of back-end fulfillment and order management.” with American-made apparel manufacturers to begin tran- The results? Nine Line Apparel increased its revenue sitioning all of our apparel to 100-percent American made.” nearly 7,000 percent from 2012 to 2015 to $9.4 million Currently, the company makes its hats and hood- u

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ies in the United States, and with the recent purchase at our average consumer, analyzed customer behavior of 300 acres of land for a new Savannah-area head- and feedback, and determined the key demographics quarters that includes plans for a future cut-and-sew that we were missing,” explains Burke. “We focused on facility, Nine Line Apparel is helping to make reshor- not only what our existing customers wanted, but also ing a reality. All apparel is designed and decorated in worked to improve the exposure of our brand to like- Savannah. minded customers that we hadn’t yet reached.” The 2016 presidential campaign presented Nine Line By year’s end, Nine Line Apparel plans to roll out Apparel with the opportunity to align its brand with several campaigns aimed at rewarding customers. the Make America Great Again movement. “We looked — Jessica Binns Hyperlite Mountain Gear Biddeford, Maine | www.hyperlitemountaingear.com SELF-NOMINATED deford, Maine, that has drawn an eclectic group of artisans and small businesses together into a “very cool community.” The company runs an intense production “training cell” that is necessary both because of the spe- cialized techniques required to manufacture with its lightweight Dyneema® fabrics and also because of the lack of trained sewers in the area. “We’ve lost a whole generation of machine operators,” say Schafer. Even so, demand for its products has increased so rapidly that Hyper- lite knew it could not keep up via staffing additions alone. “With growth nearly doubling each year, we knew that we need- ed to deploy the best engineering and systems available to meet de- he core of the backstory for has continued to refine its gear to mand and cost-effectively produce T Hyperlite Mountain Gear is not help users increase their speed, here in the USA,” says Schafer. unlike that of many other business distance and efficiency by achiev- That need led Hyperlite to make launches: dissatisfaction. Founder ing an ideal balance of strength, some changes, first improving the Mike St. Pierre couldn’t find the weight and performance in its layout of its production floor and type of good, durable, lightweight, products — and demand has con- then implementing the Shopfloor design-driven gear for his out- tinued to grow, says director of op- Eye™ real-time shop-floor control door pursuits that he wanted, so erations John Schafer. solution. After just three months, he decided to make it himself. He Hyperlite — as committed to its Hyperlite could see measurable schooled himself in fabrics, tech- Made-in-the-USA production (or, gains in process visibility and con- nologies and production process- to be even more specific, its Made- trol, leading to greater throughput. es, and then started building the in-Maine production) as to its ultra- The Shopfloor solution has been exact minimalist gear he needed. lightweight philosophy — occupies so successful that the company is In the eight years since, with the a space in the one-million-square- now in the process of rolling it out help of a global team of adven- foot historic Biddeford Mills facil- across all of its operations, beyond turer ambassadors, the company ity, a converted textile mill in Bid- just packs.

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This has brought greater efficien- our middle class,” he says. Now founder St. Pierre was finishing the cy and confidence to the team, which at 46 employees, the company last section of a 700-mile hike be- Schafer —who’s come out of retire- is “growing exponentially,” says low the rim of the Grand Canyon, ment twice — proudly describes as Schafer. “We’re seeing our packs which Schafer says is such a rare the most diverse and dynamic he’s in use all around the world. Our feat that more people have walked ever worked with in his more than product is everywhere, from all the on the moon. 40 years in manufacturing. major long-distance hiking trails to No Hyperlite packs have been “Building [the product] here Mt. Everest. I have even seen pho- seen in orbit yet, but the company is critical to the rebuilding of our tos of our packs on the back of a yak is just getting started. community and to bringing back in Nepal.” And as of this writing, — Jordan K. Speer Superior Glove Acton, Ontario, Canada | www.superiorglove.com NOMINATED BY: Simparel | www.simparel.com do Honda, Toyota, NASA and Whole Foods W have in common? They’re all customers of Supe- rior Glove, the provider of protective, cut-resistant work gloves and other goods founded in 1910. Created on the premise that companies should protect “the most im- portant commodity there is” — hard-working men and women — Superior Glove has weathered continuous change in the apparel manufacturing industry and re- mained a global go-to source of industrial work wear. With the “lion’s share” of the Canadian work glove business locked up, the company has been seeing ro- bust growth in the United States over the past five years, and products including its high-quality premium leather goods in addition to its best-known Canadian- made cut-resistant gloves are among the items driving the business. The company operates four manufactur- ing facilities, including three in Canada that produce 5 million pairs of gloves annually and an overseas joint venture plant. Faced with new operational challenges as its busi- ness expanded, Superior Glove sought out a business platform that could meet its current and future needs our new computer system from placing an order to pay- — and found its solution in Simparel Enterprise. The ment,” Bentley adds. With Simparel, the company will comprehensive platform, purpose built for the needs of greatly reduce the amount of work that is duplicated apparel companies, eliminates numerous outdated and while increasing transparency and visibility across the unwieldy, customized systems — some of which were enterprise. What’s more, centralized data will help to no longer supported by the vendor, according to mar- drive better-informed business decisions. keting and communications manager Julie McFater. Superior Glove aims to go fully live with phase one “Crafted specifically with businesses like ours in of the implementation by July, and phase two, integrat- mind, this computer system will revolutionize the way ing the PLM and shop floor functionalities, is sched- that we report on, input, access and view data about all uled to begin in September, notes Bentley. The Sim- of our products,” says senior project manager/business parel deployment eventually will touch virtually every analyst/IT manager Rhonda Bentley. area of the business, including sampling, purchasing, The implementation began in September 2016, and manufacturing, quality assurance, distribution, cus- in December, key stakeholders participated in the first tomer service, financial and marketing. pilot. “We were able to see and review all the steps in —Jessica Binns

apparelmag.com MAY 2017 49 TOPINNOVATORS Timberland Stratham, N.H. | www.timberland.com SELF-NOMINATED nswer: It has resulted in A 765,280 plastic bottles recycled, 30,521,203 gallons of water saved, 15,305 pounds of pesticide not used, 77 income opportunities created in Haiti, $2,295 in revenue generated for Haitian bottle collectors and col- lection centers and $14,540 in rev- enue generated for Haitian recyclers. The question: What is the result of Timberland’s new partnership with Thread B? At a time of rising awareness and concern among consumers about en- vironmental stewardship and social justice, Timberland has hit the ball out of the park with an innovative partnership that is fostering a healthi- er community in Haiti by both clean- ing up the outdoors and providing income to many of its residents. Timberland has a long history B Corporation that takes trash from to 50 Haitian-owned and operated of caring for the environment and the streets of the developing world collections centers, which then sell working to create products using re- and converts it into fabric — and the sorted plastic to Haiti Recycling cycled, organic or renewable (ROR) also dignified jobs — which it then and Environmental Cleaning Solu- materials. Since 2009, the company sells to companies that value envi- tions S.A. in Port-au-Prince. has given the equivalent of 233 mil- ronmental and social justice, says There, the production line washes lion plastic water bottles new life in Colleen Vien, director of sustainabil- and shreds the bottles into raw mate- footwear. In 2015 alone, the brand ity for Timberland. Thread’s Ground rial called “flake,” which is then sent used one million pounds of recycled to Good™ fabric isn’t just about the to U.S.-based factories that melt and PET — the equivalent of 47 million environment; it’s also about improv- shape the flake into a fiber that is wo- plastic water bottles — in Timber- ing the lives of citizens in various ven into fabric. Timberland purchas- land footwear. regions around the world. es the high-quality fabric and uses Striving to take its use of ROR This spring, Timberland unveiled it to create durable bags and boots, materials up a notch, Timberland a collection developed with Thread culminating in the Thread X Timber- recently partnered with Thread, a fabric that was created by harvest- land Collection. ing plastic bottles littering the streets Each yard of Thread fabric is and landfills of Haiti, said Vien. Tim- tracked at every step of its journey, berland is the first major brand to providing transparency not only launch a collection with Thread, for to all companies along the supply which it purchased 76,528 yards of chain, but also to the consumer, who Thread fabric (vs. 100 percent con- can tap into the stories and metrics ventional cotton). behind each product that they pur- How does the process work, spe- chase, explains Vien. This allows cifically? In Haiti, more than 1,300 them to understand how they “are local residents collect the plastic bot- making a positive difference in other tles that are developed into Thread peoples’ lives,” she concludes. fabric. The collectors sell the bottles — Jordan K. Speer

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