Carry Over Styles: The Quick Win for Footwear Brands with Digital Product Creation
Carry over styles are an important part of any footwear brand’s collection. These are products that are based on existing styles, but refreshed each season with new colors and materials. For some brands with a large lifestyle collection and a strong historical catalogue, carry over styles can account for over 60% of their collection.
A case in point is the Jordan brand, owned by Nike. In 2021, the Jordan brand generated revenue of $4.711 billion, with over 90% of that revenue coming from historical models that are carry over styles and are recolored each season. Adidas, too, relies heavily on its carry over styles, with its most successful franchise models, like the Stan Smith, Ultraboost, and Superstar, staying in the range for multiple years. Even for new styles, the lifecycle of key products is getting longer and longer, and brands are looking to build franchise models that consumers keep coming back to. New Balance has the 327, and one of the fastest-growing brands, Veja, has the V-10 model.
Digital product creation offers several benefits for carry over styles. It enables designers to test out new color and material combinations instantly, without waiting for prototypes. 3D-colored and rendered assets allow for more accurate and earlier decision-making in the design process. High-quality assets can be used for digital sell-in, avoiding the need for physical samples and allowing for a faster time-to-market. Digital product creation also allows brands to react faster to trends, ensuring they offer the products consumers want.
From a financial standpoint, digital product creation lowers sample-making costs, lowers drop rate, and improves the efficiency of human resources. It can increase revenue and improve the full-price sell-through rate. Digital product creation tools also offer process automation, eliminating much of the manual data entry and tech-pack preparation needed for manufacturing.
Digital product creation for footwear brands also has the potential to improve sustainability in the industry. By reducing the need for physical prototypes, digital product creation can significantly reduce CO2 emissions. This is because the traditional process of creating physical prototypes often involves air travel and shipping, both of which are major sources of CO2 emissions. By replacing these steps with digital product creation, brands can greatly reduce their carbon footprint. Additionally, digital product creation allows for more efficient use of materials, as designers can test out different color and material combinations without wasting physical samples. This can lead to a reduction in material waste, further improving sustainability.
When implementing digital product creation for carry over styles, there are a few important considerations to keep in mind.
- First, model realism is crucial. The 3D models for carry overs need to prioritize realism over speed. Some CAD systems designed for the footwear industry offer efficiency benefits, but they often lack the realism needed. It is recommended to spend extra effort on the 3D CAD and ensure the models are built by experts with specialist CAD tools.
- Second, the tools used to apply color and material need to offer the same speed and flexibility as the traditional 2D process. If it takes significantly longer to create a 3D colorway than a 2D one, it will add to the workload of the CMF design team and lead to resistance to a 3D workflow. To avoid this, it is recommended to use tools designed for everyday users, not specialist digital artist tools.
- Third, to realize the full benefits of 3D, the ability to automate tech-pack creation and BOM updates is important. This can offer significant improvements in efficiency.
- Finally, the 3D rendered assets should be exportable in files that are compatible with downstream workflows. For example, high-quality files that are compatible with expert rendering tools used to create media content, and lower-quality files that are fast to load in e-commerce or AR applications.
Revobit offers an end-to-end solution for digital product creation that addresses these considerations. Our expert 3D modeling service delivers 3D CAD assets with high levels of realism and ready to support BOM automation. Our platform, Revofim Studio, is designed for everyday creatives who may not be 3D experts. It is easy to use, web-based, and fast, ensuring a smooth transition from a 2D workflow to a 3D workflow.
Additionally, our platform offers full PLM connectivity, ensuring seamless integration with existing systems and workflows. This allows for efficient collaboration and coordination between different teams and departments, enabling them to work together more effectively and efficiently.
In conclusion, digital product creation offers significant benefits for footwear brands looking to achieve instant ROI on carry over styles. It enables designers to test out new color and material combinations quickly and easily, and offers financial and sustainability benefits. To realize the full potential of digital product creation, it is important to use tools that prioritise realism and offer process automation. Revobit offers a comprehensive solution that addresses these needs, allowing footwear brands to take full advantage of digital product creation.
