Released in The Interline’s DPC Report 2024, this executive interview is one of a nine-part series that sees The Interline quiz executives from major DPC companies on the evolution of 3D and digital product creation tools and workflows, and ask their opinions on what the future holds for the the extended possibilities of digital assets.
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Key Takeaways:
- The business case for 3D/DPC is stronger than ever, offering tangible benefits in speed-to-market, sustainability, and cost reduction while driving new revenue through digital assets.
- Style3D’s ecosystem approach transforms 3D assets into universal connectors across the entire workflow, bridging gaps between creative and technical teams.
- AI integration through the ‘AI+3D+AI’ strategy is revolutionising both customer-facing applications and internal processes, from concept design to virtual photography.
In a difficult climate for fashion (and retail in general) new and ongoing investments in tech and talent-intensive initiatives like digital product creation can be harder to justify. Do you believe the business case for 3D/DPC is strong enough? And how is that business case evolving to meet a changing industry?
Especially, in this difficult climate, the business case for 3D/Digital Product Creation (DPC) is more compelling than ever. While upfront investments in technology and talent are significant, they are offset by tangible, long-term benefits that address critical industry challenges. In an era where speed-to-market, sustainability, and consumer expectations are paramount, 3D/DPC offers solutions that are impossible to ignore.
In recent months, we even see the business case evolving. Beyond reducing costs, accelerating time-to-market, and reducing physical samples, 3D is now driving revenue. High-quality 3D and AI assets are increasingly used in consumer-facing channels, such as e-commerce and virtual try-ons, where they enhance the shopping experience and drive engagement. Additionally, they open opportunities for innovative approaches like digital showrooms and B2B sales tools, creating new value streams.
At Style3D | ASSYST, we focus on creating an ecosystem where 3D is more than just a design tool—it’s a connector across the entire workflow, from concept to consumer. By integrating with legacy systems and emphasizing scalability, we make the transition to DPC more accessible, ensuring brands can achieve both immediate efficiencies and long-term innovation. In today’s market, the case for 3D is not just strong—it’s essential.
While a lot of the success of DPC to date has come from single-department use cases, the untapped potential lies in using it to connect creative users with technical teams, and to bridge the gaps between design, development, and manufacturing. Why do you believe that value has been left on the table for so long? And how are you approaching the task of making the 3D asset the common reference frame for that full workflow?
The industry is evolving rapidly. Not only in Europe also in Asia and in the US, many fashion brands are beginning to recognize the high cost of data silos. For years, single-department use cases like design or prototyping provided measurable wins, but these successes rarely extended across the entire product lifecycle. Bridging the gaps between design, development, and manufacturing has been hindered by legacy workflows, lack of standardization, and resistance to change in adopting shared digital assets.
Unlocking the value of digital products across all areas of the business not only reduces costs but also drives growth and innovation. It’s an exciting time for the sector, and embracing these tools is becoming increasingly essential.
At Style3D | ASSYST, we recognize that 3D assets are not just design tools—they are the cornerstone for collaboration. Our approach centers on transforming the 3D asset into a universal reference that seamlessly connects creative and technical teams. By integrating our platform with existing tools like 2D CAD systems and incorporating AI-powered enhancements, we ensure that data flows effortlessly from concept to production to selling. This unified framework reduces miscommunication, minimizes errors, and accelerates decision-making across departments.
This way, we empower brands to unlock the full potential of DPC—delivering efficiency, scalability, and innovation for the entire product journey.
On top of the 3D asset itself, there is also the platform question to consider. Having a 3D asset serve as the anchor for that unification of creative and technical processes is a big part of the puzzle, but there’s still an open question for a lot of organisations around where those assets live, how they should be shared, and what it means to communicate with them and around them. What’s your strategy for building a cloud-based asset library and collaboration platform to answer that question? And how do you think that framework is going to change the way brands and their partners work together?
The question of where 3D assets live, how they are shared, and how they facilitate collaboration is central to the future of Digital Product Creation (DPC). As mentioned above, we view 3D assets not just as design tools but as critical data points that unify the entire supply chain. To realize their potential, we’ve built a cloud-based platform that serves as a centralized, accessible library for storing, sharing, and collaborating around these assets in real-time.
Our strategy is twofold. First, we ensure 3D assets are compatible with multiple systems and formats, making them usable across departments and partners. This avoids the siloing of assets and ensures that a design created in 3D carries its integrity through to development, manufacturing, and even e-commerce. Second, we focus on collaboration. Our platform integrates tools for communication, annotations, approvals and cloud design enabling seamless exchanges between internal teams and external partners.
For example, we enable manufacturers to share digital garments with their customers—and vice versa—using a QR code linked to an interactive product catalogue. Scanning the code allows customers to adjust colours or fabrics in real time while accessing detailed material information. This level of digital transparency enhances traceability across fabrics and trims, ensuring accurate sourcing data. Any updates made online are instantly reflected across the platform, streamlining workflows and fostering seamless collaboration.
By centralizing assets in this collaborative way, we’re making it easier for brands and their partners to work seamlessly together, reduce misunderstandings, and accelerate decision-making. This framework not only improves efficiency but also fosters innovation by enabling more dynamic and interactive ways of working. It’s a game-changer for how brands connect with their partners and customers.
AI has become one of the foundational pillars of your approach to DPC, with the “AI+3D+AI” strategy. The most visible applications of AI in that workflow are at the beginning and the end of the new product lifecycle, with AI deployed in early concept design and then all the way downstream, where it’s used to enhance virtual photography deployed in B2B and B2C selling. There’s potentially much more happening more quietly in the middle, though, in terms of using AI to automate, connect, and augment human skills. How big of a shift do you believe combining AI and DPC is? And how much of that shift is coming from the outward-facing use cases compared to the internal transformation?
The integration of AI and DPC represents a profound shift for the fashion industry, fundamentally redefining workflows both internally and externally. Our “AI+3D+AI” strategy emphasizes the transformative potential of AI across the entire product lifecycle, from generative ideation to consumer-facing applications.
AI’s role in rendering is crucial for promoting ideas. It makes 3D designs more realistic and authentic, providing the right background and avatar models to complete the product vision—without requiring advanced skills in rendering tools. This is a big change because it democratizes product presentation and market access. Now, any company—regardless of size—and any designer with great ideas can create impressive, high-quality results. It’s about putting the focus back on ideas and concepts, which I think is the truly exciting part of Artificial Intelligence.
While the most visible impacts are in early concept design and downstream virtual photography for B2B and B2C, the real game-changer is the quieter revolution happening mid-process.
AI in the middle of the DPC workflow automates and connects traditionally fragmented tasks, streamlining processes such as stitching of patterns to connect directly to the 3D. AI can also emphasize layering or how a fabric can drape, enabling faster iterations and more precise execution of the final visual.
As we’ve seen in our designer profiles this year, where two of our creators had their visions brought to life in Unreal Engine, 3D assets can have a huge amount of storytelling potential when they can be brought into other tools and environments – especially real-time ones. How is Style3D helping users to meet the growing demand for new content and immersive experiences through existing and emerging consumer channels?
Style3D | ASSYST empowers users to meet the demand for immersive, real-time content by creating highly detailed, production-ready 3D assets that integrate seamlessly with platforms like Unreal Engine. Our tools enable brands to craft virtual environments, showcase interactive product visuals, and deliver engaging consumer experiences across B2B and B2C channels. By combining AI, 3D precision, and flexible asset interoperability, we support dynamic storytelling that connects creators, brands, and audiences effectively.
To realize the long-term vision for a complete “digital twin,” it should be possible for any decision across the extended product lifecycle to be made based on a digital representation of the physical asset, with total trust. Which of those decisions do you think meet that high bar today? And which do you believe has the furthest distance to travel?
The concept of a “digital twin” is transforming decision-making across the product lifecycle by providing trusted digital representations of physical assets. Today, decisions around design iterations, prototyping, and virtual sampling meet this standard effectively, offering precision and reducing the need for physical samples. Similarly, AI-enhanced 3D visualizations enable confident choices in marketing and sales to use these said assets to enhance consumer engagement events before a sample is made allowing insights into potential product demand.
However, areas like supply chain management and post-consumer sustainability have further to evolve. Integrating digital twins into predictive demand modeling, and circular fashion workflows still face challenges, such as data standardization and seamless interoperability across systems. Bridging these gaps requires collaboration, technological advances, and an industry-wide commitment to leveraging digital twins as a unified framework.
At Style3D | ASSYST, we are redefining the possibilities of the digital twin with cutting-edge advancements like real-time rendering, soft-body avatars, and ultra-accurate garment simulations, achieving unparalleled speed and precision—and this is just the beginning. Stay tuned for the next wave of innovation that will shape the future of fashion.