A New World Has Emerged For The Fashion Industry

There are currently a lot of major strategic partnerships happening within the intersection of fashion (at all levels of the cycle) and technology.  For example, Dessault Systemes has just announced it will acquire a majority stake in Centric Software.  For those of you unfamiliar with Centric...just know that recently this company has been quickly and aggressively carving a significant stake for themselves in fashion PLM.  Another strong player in the fashion PLM software business is PTC.  PTC's emphasis is primarily focused on retail PLM while Centric's PLM focuses on fashion brands and manufacturing.  

PTC has most recently landed a $1 billion dollar partnership investment from Rockwell Automation...all I can say is the impact of these types of partnerships spell out "bigger things to come" for the apparel industry especially when it comes to technology.  

What we can definitely glean from these mergers and partnerships is that the landscape for connected manufacturing and retailing (insuring faster, leaner, cheaper...and yes, if the commitment is made, more sustainable production, distribution, and sell of apparel products) is becoming much bigger. There are a lot of buzzwords floating around...Blockchain, A/R, A/I, ioT, and circularity...to name a few...and companies are preparing to capitalize on these opportunities. What steps have your organization began to take to stay or become more competitive as we enter this new frontier? #thefutureisnow.