Vizoo: bringing materials from sample to screen

The digital world has long been running parallel to, and often far ahead of, the physical. From design to sampling, having a dependable, digitized version of both materials and end products is essential to increasing efficiency, speeding up production and reducing waste. Vizoo’s technology aims to make material digitization easy and accessible to people at all stages of the supply chain. Founded in 2013, Vizoo already has 300 clients in more than 40 countries, in industries including automotive, interiors, gaming and entertainment, and of course fashion!
 
Renate, can you please give us a brief outline of how Vizoo was born?
Myself and fellow Vizoo owner Martin were both working at Adidas on a project implementing a scaled creation of 3D samples throughout the apparel supply chain (from supplier to sales and marketing). During this work, we saw that a standardized way of capturing materials is key to a sustainable digital creation process. That’s when Vizoo was born: we set out on a mission to provide the most efficient solution to capturing and digitizing materials.

What innovative factor makes Vizoo’s business model stand out from other existing solutions?
Vizoo xTex was created with the aim of enabling industrial mass production of digital fabrics. Our driving objective is to make the creation of digital fabric twins so easy that anyone can do it. At the same time, we guarantee a consistent high-quality output. Having said that, our target clients are fabric mills and the users might not have had any touchpoints with 3D before operating our tools. For the fabric manager, the speed of the technology and a fast-learning curve are key; for the brand receiving the digital fabrics, the most important factor is quality. Our solution finds its strength in the satisfaction of all of these requirements.

Would you say Vizoo is particularly interesting for bodywear (intimate apparel ad swim ) ?
Absolutely. Our system is designed to be extremely accurate in capturing transparency as well as structures such as embroideries. While we already have several success stories in the lace and intimate apparel area, I still see much more potential for us in this field. In my opinion, the lingerie and swim industry is still new to 3D. To date, some of our clients from the lingerie and swim industry include Forster Rohner, Clover Group, Hämmerle & Vögel, Van de Velde, MAS Intimates, American Phil Textiles, Delta Bogart, Lee Tai Sang Swimwear Factory-

Elasticity is a crucial topic in bodywear… how do you address this issue?
First and foremost, our system covers the visual aspects of the material. We also have a solution in place to provide mechanical properties like elasticity. However, the garment simulation of those fit-relevant aspects is not covered by our technology. This is where our material is fed into a third-party 3D simulation software like Browzwear or Clo3D, where it is applied onto a pattern. Here, the interaction of the bodywear with the 3D body avatar can be experienced. There are promising developments like “soft body avatars” which will especially cater to the needs of the lingerie area.

How do you see the future of 3d design?
3D Design is becoming more and more established in the fashion & lingerie industry. The scaling of 3D processes increases the demand for digital assets. Therefore, brands are onboarding their fabric mills to have direct access to digital materials. Digitization will soon become an inline task for a fabric mill as their ROI for digital materials is increasing. And it is not only the fabric design process where many iterations can be covered digitally. Another example I would like to mention is material sourcing, where material selection is already supported by digital twins. For example, in our cooperation with the functional fabric fair Performance Days we make digital materials available for the exhibiting mills. Thanks to this initiative a vast number of suppliers understand the importance of digital materials and how to enhance the customer experience with digital files. In any case, digital assets will be an integral part of the brand and supplier conversation. Relying on and sharing high-quality assets will result in increased sustainability and speed gains on both sides.

What is the next big challenge Vizoo is working on?
Of course, we are constantly developing our technology to meet clients’ needs. However, the current challenge does not lie in technology enhancements, rather in implementation. Defining the right workflows and quality standards is the area in which clients ask for our expertise. Thus, we as Vizoo are also acting as consultants. Suppliers like MAS Intimates (Sri Lanka) show that the topic is not only pushed by brands, but also from the supplier side. This turns the tables and puts responsibility on the brand to commit to sample reductions and faster decision making as they promised. In my opinion it is now time to deliver and commit to the promises the brand make towards suppliers when it comes to sample savings and speed gains. Let’s start leveraging the foundation we have built over so many years by also putting trust in digital swatches.