When Betabrand recognized that knitwear was becoming a popular look in running shoes, the company asked users of its website what kinds of footwear they liked. Using their answers, the clothing manufacturer had its version of the shoe available on the website in just one week. What the users saw was a three dimensional (3-D) picture of the running shoe. The image had height, width and depth. Yet no such footwear existed yet.

Normally, it would take six to nine months to create a traditional prototype, or model, of the shoe. By waiting so long, the company might have missed out on the interest in the knitwear.

“The web attention span is short,” noted Chris Lindland, chief executive officer (CEO) of Betabrand. “So if you can develop and create in a short time, you can be a real product-development machine.”

Buyers still needed to wait a few months for the real shoe to be manufactured. Yet the use of digital technology in designing and selling means new fashion products are getting to people faster than under the old system.

Aliqismet BADALOV,
“Khalq qazeti”