IMPETUS Group × DMIx
Increasing efficiency and sustainability by going fully digital.
Increasing efficiency and sustainability by going fully digital.
Leading Portuguese textile manufacturer IMPETUS Group is on a mission to reduce its environmental impact. To accelerate their digital transformation, IMPETUS partnered with ColorDigital GmbH and the DMIx platform, where brands and suppliers across the entire supply chain collaborate in real-time on color, 3D and master data. For their first fully digital product line, a men's organic cotton boxer short, IMPETUS collected comparative data on efficiency and sustainability savings within sampling and prototyping. The results were striking.
Sampling and prototyping for a men's organic cotton boxer short, physical vs. digital.
The digital process implemented at IMPETUS Group
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Nuno Sousa
Graphic Designer, IMPETUS Group
We spoke with Nuno Sousa about IMPETUS' digitalization journey so far. Here's what he had to say.
How did you start your digital transformation with DMIx?
The first step was to add our fabric and material collections to our material library on our DMIx 3D-Library account. Next, we created individual 3D objects and 3D garment designs for direct use with the DMIx tools. We were quickly able to create fully digital fabrics and materials with print pattern designs in DMIx and apply them on the 3D objects.
What impact did you notice during the transformation from physical to virtual product development?
The transformation to fully digital workflows immediately enabled us to make quick changes to colors, prints and fit on a 'real' 3D garment dressed on a 'real' 3D person (avatar). Previously, these checks and changes would have required us to create new physical samples involving weaving, knitting, dyeing and sewing. With garments designed in CLO 3D and uploaded into the DMIx environment, we can apply any digital material, recolor and visualize the final product using DMIx 3D-Magic, at a quality high enough for internal approvals and direct customer presentations.
What made you decide to transform to digital product development?
As for many other companies, it was COVID-19 that really forced us to kickstart our digital transformation. Unable to visit clients and mostly in home-office mode, we used 3D extensively to make internal teams and clients see something realistic through the screen. Two years later, IMPETUS Group has fully transformed its workflows with its own brands and is starting the same journey with our private label customers.
How much has collaboration with suppliers and customers changed since using DMIx?
When a client requests a lab dip to approve a physical sample color that wasn't ready, we've sent digital samples instead. Thanks to the high color standards and photorealistic looks, our clients trust the digital twin and approve the sample. This saves time, cost and resources.
“We now look for fabrics using a 'visual aided search' within DMIx. The drag-and-drop plug-in to CLO 3D is one of the most useful features for us, and is why we were interested in DMIx in the first place.”Sara Araújo · 3D Designer, IMPETUS Group
Benefits seen by IMPETUS team members across departments.
“In the past I spent large chunks of my day in the warehouse asking for the location of certain fabrics. Since I started using DMIx, I can find and check fabrics much faster from my desk.”
“I used to rely on physical stock catalogues that were only updated at the end of every collection, and had to be re-created if lost. Today we have a full digital stocks collection in our IMPETUS environment on DMIx, accessible by anyone.”
“Visual-aided fabric search and the drag-and-drop plug-in to CLO 3D are the features that convinced us about DMIx.”
At DMIx, we're looking forward to continuing our partnership with IMPETUS, accelerating their transformation to digital and helping them improve product transparency and reduce environmental impact. DMIx's mission is to digitally transform supply chains for a better industry: better for brands, suppliers and the planet.
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