Black Swan Textiles

In the late 1980’s, many apparel brands shed their backwards integration to exploit the low cost labor markets emerging in developing nations. They shuttered their own factories and worked through agents and contract manufacturers with little or no visibility into the tiers of the supply chain. 

Today, most apparel designers know little about manufacturing and most manufacturers don’t understand what drives product design. Labor costs, turnover and unrest are on the rise. Environmental compliance has become costlier to monitor. All of this has eroded the value of the futures model. Apparel brand leaders are actively seeking change, but “what’s next” is unclear.

 The goal of the Digital Twin is to digitally connect a fragmented supply chain and return the feedback loop through the Digital Thread. To model the advantages of the old vertical models into a digital enterprise, two Digital Twin models are required — Product and Production.