Esmetex, a fabric producing leader, has launched Frontier, an online platform to digitize the fabric supply chain from creative fabric development, to the inspection process, and 3D garment design.
The new tool cuts the creative development cycle by more than two weeks, effectively collecting and organizing information from the supply chain. Its AI capabilities lets the fabric designer and developer to image search and find similar items by description, blend, colour, end use, pantone colour number, pattern or weight. The resulting search includes all fabric details and available sample yardage, which can be ordered directly from the platform via a mobile device.
The environmental aspect, is another advantage of the system, as it let reuse the fabrics that already exist, rather than manufacturing unnecessary yardage, reducing the use of harmful chemicals and dyestuffs, saving precious resources. The application also allows QC to capture record and share an inspection report in the field; such quality data is compiled into a scorecard and directly helps a brand to consolidate their factories. Additionally, the inspection report provides defect distribution to reduce consumption for garment factories.
“We aim to simplify the fabric development process; no more looking through swatch boxes and shipping swatches back and forth. It’s not practical for a designer to search through 18,000 fabric swatches when Frontier® can search based on whatever criteria the user is interested in, and return all relevant fabric information on one page. This can be done on a desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone by accessing our website or by installing our app.” – Victor Chao, Founder, Esmetex and Esmetex Frontier
Moreover, the platform contains database of more than 18,000 fabrics from Esmetex’s own mill and the 25 mills under their management making it one of the largest of searchable online fabrics in the world. Moreover, its growing at 1,000 items per month, with expected exponential growth with every brand that joins the digital community. Prior to the solution, Esmetex used the database internally. With this introduction,the company plans to work with national brands and retailers to add their fabrics from additional mill partners, creating an integrated solution where all customers’ vendor fabric collections and libraries are available in one place digitally at the click of a mouse, according to Esmetex.
“Software solution companies tend to stay away from factories, but Esmetex sees it as a unique opportunity. We offer the fastest way to move suppliers’ items online, and intend to occupy this foundational industry position so other applications can be built on top – like the basic infrastructure of a city,” said Chao.
