Discussing DPC with Mike Mannering of THREEDEEMEE

Released in The Interline’s DPC Report 2023, this executive interview is one of a sixteen-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.

For more on digital product creation in fashion, download the full DPC Report 2023 completely free of charge and ungated.

---

What do you believe are the greatest opportunities that are realistically achievable, in 2024, through investment in DPC talent and tools?

Over the past few years intellectual and financial investment into DPC tools and talent have extended beyond integrating such concepts into educational institutions as the source for the next generation of talent. Now accessibility across teams is enabling more widespread implementation of DPC technologies for those working in the field, which allows for greater integration and cross team collaboration. Integrating these new tools into the supply chain and process however is still evolving, albeit, slowly. Early adopters are however becoming the rule, rather than just the expectation, which is fantastic to see.

The greatest opportunities now are to focus on how to make the DPC processes more automated and applicable to the goal of reducing costs, improving sustainability, and increasing brands’ profit margins. With the use of technology, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), this really opens the door to these possibilities. Realistically what is achievable is the high rate of AI/ML technology adoption will be making DPC tools more applicable to achieve these goals quicker.

Your vision statement is to deliver a future where “fashion fits all”. What does that mean from both an inclusivity perspective and from a practical angle? What do you see as the ideal future state for sizing and fit?

Incorrect sizing and fit has been an issue in fashion since the beginning. Brands currently struggle to produce a standardised cross-industry size guide. Brands that target ages 15-25 and those targeting 40-50 will have a different sizing based on average size demographics, and changing size standardisation is a massive cost. All bodies are created differently, and one standard fit is not consistent with the wide array of shapes and sizes in our society.

Different sizes and fit for different brands make it increasingly difficult for consumers to confidently purchase clothing online. Uncertainty of what size is correct in different brands, leads to “wardrobing”, the act of purchasing multiple sizes of one product, knowing you plan on sending multiple items back. Research has suggested that 53% of consumers in the UK would be willing to try Virtual Try-On (VTO) technology while online shopping.

By capturing consumers’ accurate body shapes and sizes with scanning measuring systems, the industry can understand the wide spectrum of shapes and sizes of their consumers in a more realistic manner. By receiving such data to improve size and fit, brands can align their specific size and fit to each customer of their consumer base, rather than generalising from target demographic and sizing charts.

A key goal in our technology development is to provide a reliable size and fit solution for brands with enhanced 3D VTO technology. TDM Avatars* are 3D digital twins that are realistic and articulated and can be dressed virtually with associated garment dynamics. Measurement accuracy is 1-2% in line with bespoke tailoring.

TDM Avatars* are a true digital representation of the customer with identical body, facial, skin/hair/eye colour and features and enables realistic garment suitability as the customer’s avatar walks, poses, and sits, all with associated garment dynamics. This enhances consumers’ current e-commerce experience with the ability to accurately see themselves when shopping online with a realistic digital avatar. As mentioned above, generating accurate size recommendations through precise body measurements that are directly linked to brands sizing charts, means fit and visualisation will be enhanced, reducing the need for “wardrobing” and the associated costly returns.

For ready to wear garments, we cannot fully eliminate the concept of standardised sizing, but we can offer an innovative solution for enhancing size recommendation/visualisation and building consumer confidence when shopping online. In short, a hope of a future where brands can provide sizes and fit that does indeed “fit all”.

Virtual try-on is one of the most hotly-contested use cases for digital assets. What makes your approach different from the way other technology providers have tried to tackle the problems and the possibilities?

The competitive landscape for VTO technology can be split into three main categories. First, size recommendation applications. These applications do not provide a VTO experience or 3D product visualisation. The second is 2D VTO which uses two photographs to take key body marks creating a 3D model and 2D image overlays. These do not have any 3D movement or 3D visualisation of the product. The third and final category is avatar creators. These companies create avatars that are not currently used for fashion VTO but for pure gaming purposes, with an image of your face placed on already created body shapes. Obviously, these gaming avatars do not currently include accurate body dimensions or features.

What makes our approach different is bringing together three aspects, avatar creation, accurate size recommendation and garment physics. To our current knowledge TDM Avatars* bridges the gap between VTO experience and the physical fitting room. A realistic articulated avatar with a customers’ exact measurements from a simple 10 second video, taken in the customer’s home. TDM Avatars* allow for 3D avatar movement and realistic garment dynamics in any virtual environment.

TDM Avatars* is a solution that provides a more enhanced experience rather than 2D visualisation of products; creating the most realistic, fully automated avatar, that enables a customer to dress themself virtually and view themself online as if they were in a physical fitting room. It is a DPC technology offering that blurs the line between being in a physical store and shopping online. And therefore, a reduction of garment returns due to highly improved visualisation of the product in a dynamic and less static manner. Consumers can view themselves on their screens when shopping online as if they were physically trying on a brand’s garments and viewing themselves in a store’s fitting room. Such experiences can also be shared with whomever the customer desires. Bringing DPC technology to the e-commerce experience enabling a highly personalised experience.

Your goal is to deploy technology to make returns a thing of the past. Tell us how big of a hit returns currently have on brands’ and retailers’ bottom lines, what kind of environmental impact they’re responsible for, and what you believe technology can do to mitigate and eventually eliminate those.

TDM Avatars* aims to be the solution that reduces retailers’ current returns rate and, in the future, make returns a thing of the past.

Currently over 40% of shoppers expect to return at least one item when online shopping with 66% of those consumers citing incorrect fit as the main reason. The main challenge is addressing incorrect sizing, with most customers relying on self-measurement for most size recommendations. In addition, e-commerce’s current limitation is the 2D visualisation of products. Not allowing for customers to visualise what a garment will actually look like on them when purchasing clothing online.

Getting garments returned from customers and back into a retailer’s inventory is a case of reverse logistics which is both costly and environmentally damaging. Retailers must consider transportation, processing, and customer care during the returns process, resulting in the creation of a costly reverse transportation chain, doubling emissions. Returns require fault checks, cleaning, restocking in the warehouse and associated employee time. Often this process is uneconomical, and items returned are thus frequently sent to landfills, or are incinerated.

The cost of processing returns began to rise in 2020 as the pandemic accelerated e-commerce trends. Also, geopolitical crises since have caused fuel prices to rise, increasing transportation costs. With the value of UK clothing and footwear returns likely to reach £4.4B in 2026, the returns issue is likely to impact retailers’ EBIT margins by at least 3% points. Retailers suffer approximately US$ 166M in returns for every 1 US$B in sales. Optoro stated that the total cost of every apparel returned to cost the retailer between US$19.25-US$49.50. Due to this high cost retailers must find a solution to reduce the amount of returns they are facing, which were once considered a given cost to endure. In 2023, the average cost per item for retailers to procure and process returns rose 22 percent year on year to US$33, according to a study from returns software firm Narvar.

While economically costly, the environmental impact is staggering and is an issue that is not uniformly recognized yet by consumers. Optoro estimates returns generate 15 million metric tons of CO2 emissions, with 50% of returned garments not being restocked. In 2022, in the UK alone, the returns process produced 750,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions. With returns causing 5 times as much CO2 as the original purchase. Due to the economic cost of restocking returned items, retailers end up sending stock to landfills. The British fashion council highlighted that 23 million items of returned fashion were sent to landfill or incinerated in the UK in 2022.

VTO technology that is currently available can reduce return rates by 20%. We believe at THREEDEEMEE* our technology, TDM Avatars* can be a solution that enhances this reduction and increases sales by providing a VTO solution that gives a realistic visualisation of a garment on a digital twin of the customer using the customer’s exact derived body measurements. Therefore, providing a more accurate size recommendation. TDM Avatars* are a solution to the two main causes of returning a garment. Incorrect size and fit as well as poor visualisation of the colour and style of the garment and what that will look like on your skin tone, body shape and hair colour when shopping online.

Moreover, our goal is to aid fashion retailers in measuring their return rate and impact on sustainability goals as required by imminent EU legislation. Our technology provides the data that brands currently lack, in order to understand their environmental impact with a reduction in returned goods.

TDM Avatars* is disruptive as it differs from competitors that lack the interactivity and immersion and allows for full 3D avatar movement in any virtual environment, bridging the gap between size recommendations and VTO experiences. Now is the perfect time for an enhanced offering because retailers are embracing work process digitisation and struggling with the cost of returns, opening the opportunity for enhanced VTO. Gap and Zolando are trialling and experimenting with VTO technology into their e-commerce platforms. Therefore, we are seeing a shift in what larger retailers are searching for in technology for their online stores as well as customers’ desire to see themselves realistically in online environments.

How would you describe the ideal 3D / DPC pipeline – category-specific or generalised – and what barriers are currently preventing it from being built and widely adopted? What pieces still need to be put in place for fashion to stand the best chance of achieving what you define as the full-scale vision for DPC?

Previously, tools and access to 3D design was a key barrier as it was complicated, and few understood how to use the digital tools available. As things progress and these tools become easier to integrate and education in 3D design grows at leading universities, these barriers are disappearing. However, the view that 3D or DPC has limited use is still a barrier for some elements of the garment value chain. While this impression is slowly shifting, progress is slow and fragmented throughout the entire design, sourcing, manufacturing, marketing and sales processes.

Digital and 3D design, encompassed in a digital technical file, can be utilised throughout the product journey, across teams and departments. Once the hurdle of adoption is tackled at the initial stage, the use of these digital assets will be fully realised across the value and supply chain.

Realistically, further financial investment into 3D/ DPC departments is still needed. Some brands have full teams built for this integration, which takes significant time and investment on their part. However further financial investment is required beyond awareness and education for the use of 3D assets, and to take these concepts beyond just design teams’ benefits. A restructuring of how fashion views their processes and how products are brought to market is still needed. Hence, while it is coming, further investment will be needed to achieve a full-scale vision of DPC.

Specifically, only when investment is across departments (e.g., research, design, sourcing, manufacturing, marketing, sales and customer facing experiences etc.) and not only in one section of the product journey, will the industry be able to enjoy the full value that 3D design holds. Moreover, further investment into these technologies are needed to increase accessibility even further. Automation will accelerate this, such as automated 3D digital assets through AI and ML. As larger brands continue to implement DPC strategies we will start to see more alignment and a clearer vision for full value chain DPC deployment. Which, here at THREEDEEMEE* we are excited to see. Moreover, as the use of avatars become more integrated into marketing and sales processes, they can move further up or down the supply chain covering more processes than just during the first steps in the design process or the last process of sales with VTO applications.

When we talk about avatars, we’re simultaneously talking about both a digital substitute for real, physical fitting and try-on applications, but also the base for dressing in a range of potential real-time experiences. What do you think about avatars that can transcend channels? Is this a route to bringing digital and physical closer together?

Our team at THREEDEEMEE* firmly believes that the future is progressing towards being phygital.

Our technology, TDM Avatars*, initially focuses on VTO capabilities, introducing digital twins into the realm of fashion e-commerce. However, TDM Avatars* are not limited to this purpose alone. They extend their functionality to all virtual environments, whether it’s virtual fashion shows, immersive fashion experiences, virtual meetings—be it for business or social purposes—where customers seek realistic avatars that authentically represent their appearance or desired image in virtual spaces.

As our lives increasingly transcend the confines of the physical world, the importance of digital identities continues to ascend. Just as we carefully craft our identities in the physical realm, we are seeking tools and services to mould our digital identities. At THREEDEEMEE*, we recognize the parallels between virtual worlds and the societal norms and behaviours of the physical world. With younger generations placing more emphasis on their digital personas and possessions, sometimes even above their physical counterparts, it raises the intriguing prospect that the boundaries between the digital and physical realms will eventually merge into a singular ecosystem.

With this in mind, the options are endless.

*Trademark Registration Pending.