Keeping it Real in 3D

PixelPool Explains how 3D helps to plan and sell your designs faster and more efficiently than ever

3D technology in apparel is inevitable. As we head into the future, international laws concerning environmental issues will be more regulated. Even from a sustainable solution standpoint, 3D will be more influential in the apparel business.

Today, we are in a ‘rethink physical’ moment where the virtual world is enticing brands to rethink showrooms, samples and even garments. Fashion brands are learning to take advantage of the 3D and virtual solutions that are replacing older, traditional ways of going to market with faster, more sustainable methods and tools.

PixelPool has always believed in a 3D future. Each year we engage with leading brands on digital transformations and share our experience of over 20 years in 3D to enable successful changes. Here we share the journey of one client who was able to scale quickly in 3D by leveraging 3D catalogs and virtual environments from our digital platform, Dtail.

Our South Korean client, SAE-A Trading, is a supplier that provides a fully complete experience from fabric development to design concept to final product execution. As they entered their 2023 selling season, they needed a platform that would help them enhance customer experience and sell to their large apparel brand base. In the past, SAE-A created designs in 2D, then produced physical samples, reviewed them, and repeated this process until they had a final line. Then they would build out their physical showroom, which is time consuming and expensive. This led their team to research an alternative solution within the digital space and that’s how they came to Dtail.

Going Digital

SAE-A needed to showcase garments with numerous fabric groups. They are now able to use the Dtail platform to create and access garment libraries of 3D styles, which they can color, texture, add graphics to and trim in order to create digital designs. They are building out their own color libraries and by scanning their in-house fabrics created print libraries to leverage with their custom 3D-garment library. Once they have their designs, they utilize Dtail’s array of virtual environment options for their showroom presentations. Once SAE-A has created their product portfolio in Dtail, which includes libraries, product data and high-quality marketing materials that help them elevate their selling sessions, they are able to present brand specific product assortments in customized virtual environments.

We wanted to utilize innovative tools to overcome the traditional screen sharing presentations in an online environment.

Utilizing Dtail allows SAE-A to create catalogs and assortments of high-quality 3D virtual samples that they present to their apparel and retail clients. SAE-A can now present their fabrics in very high quality, without the need to build a showroom or to fly anywhere. Using the virtual showroom tool, Dtail Spaces, SAE-A can virtually walk their customers through a showroom that they can easily create by dragging and dropping fixtures and products into a blank retail space. This virtual presentation is much more engaging and has a higher fidelity than a 2D on-screen presentation. Within the virtual space, SAE- A can demonstrate how products might show up in store. Giving the viewer the opportunity to experience products in a 360-degree view and zoom in on the details, which provide a much more powerful selling experience than using line-art, or even photography.

For Carhartt, we had a very short notice request to showcase numerous fabric groups. The client wanted to see them in garments, and we had less than 10 days to work. The client didn’t specify that it needed to be in an actual garment sample. Therefore, we incorporated all the fabric groups into the silhouettes available in the [Dtail garment] library and were able to present not only the samples, but also all in full showroom form. … Our partnership, as well as total business with Carhartt has grown compared to when we did not use Dtail.

SAE-A and others are using 3D and digital platforms to help plan, merchandise and sell their products because it is more sustainable, faster and can create better buying experiences for their customers. Apparel brands and suppliers are finding that using 3D samples and digital platforms such as PixelPool’s Dtail can speed their time to market, reduce their need for physical samples and visualize lines better than the ‘traditional’ methods.