With ongoing pressure to improve the bottom line, apparel brands and retailers are beginning to look to virtual prototyping to compress product development calendars and reduce product development costs. Using virtual prototyping to reduce the number of physical fit samples is like removing a few middle cars to shorten the railroad train. According to Gartner Inc. and Apparel magazine, 37 percent of companies surveyed in 2013 reported spending 30 or more days on color and fit sampling and approval. Product development time and sampling expense (along with market risk of introducing new fashions in a weak economy) have helped drive apparel companies to use fabric, color and print to change the look of garments year to year, rather than creating new silhouettes. Concept-to-delivery became modification-to-delivery but eventually sales will suffer as consumers tire of simple variations on a theme.
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