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Gerber Partners With San Francisco Startup on 3D Simulation

Today, despite its promises of vast efficiency gains in the design process and consumer shopping experience, 3D technology is complex to implement and use. Additionally there’s a wide gap between 3D design and the actual manufactured product. The fashion industry spends billions of dollars annually on physical samples which slows down development and has a negative environmental impact. The majority of these samples could be produced digitally and Gerber Technology has made consistent investments to advance its AccuMark 3D to help customers address this core challenge.

On Nov 2., at its annual ideation conference, Gerber unveiled exciting advances and announced a major partnership with Avametric that positions the company to leap forward and create a whole new dimension in fashion. Gerber and Avametric, an innovator in fabric simulation and 3D consumer applications, are combining forces to offer the first end-to-end 3D platform, from consumer-facing virtual try-on applications to design, development and manufacturing. The joint 3D platform will provide highly realistic 3D simulations that can be used from consumer-side visualization all the way through production.

Avametric’s team is made up of experts from the technology, academic, retail and special effects industry, including two Academy Award winners and six Ph.D.’s. The company’s advances in simulation, combined with AccuMark’s fully integrated 2D and 3D applications, make it a user-friendly option for 3D products on the market and at the same time most sophisticated 3D-simulation engine. Users will be able to move from 2D patterns to 3D digital samples that are production ready, which can result in a savings of up to 50 percent in time and cost.

“You may hear and see many other 3D products on the market,” said Karsten Newbury senior vice president and general manager. “We hear from our customers that most of them are not actually using our competitors’ 3D products because they find them too difficult to use and don’t integrate well with a 2D workflow.”

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Gerber,” said Ari Bloom, Avametric’s CEO. “As we explored our partnership options, we technically evaluated many of the top design and development products on the market. Ultimately we came to the conclusion that Gerber’s strategy and focus on 3D was based on accurate pattern data and on usability, and we believe this is the key to a scalability of applications that meet the core needs of the fashion industry.”

The two partners also have a shared long-term roadmap of providing 3D solutions which span the entire fashion development value chain. While Gerber has solutions focused on the design, sampling and manufacturing side of the value chain, Avametric already has consumer-facing virtual try-on applications that have drawn interest from some of the world’s leading fashion brands, including GAP and Ann Taylor. Combined, these two tech companies are the only providers of an integrated end-to-end 3D platform, and one that easily integrates with Gerber’s widely used AccuMark 2D product.

Customers of both Gerber and Avametric will benefit from the combination of skills and industry knowledge created by this partnership. The first commercially available application will be with the release of AccuMark V11.

SOURCE