stichd gains Simplicity, Efficiency, Accuracy and Measurability with Centric PLM™
CAMPBELL, Calif., August 25, 2020 — stichd, the global licensee that partners with renowned A-brands to produce exceptional products in sport, lifestyle and fashion categories, has successfully implemented Centric Software®’s Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Centric C8. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to fashion, retail, footwear, outdoor, luxury, home décor and consumer goods companies to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.
Based in the Netherlands, stichd was founded in 1979, initially known as Dobotex. Acquiring the sports merchandising company Brandon in 2015, both were combined under one umbrella as stichd in 2019, and now manages approximately 30 collections per season of varying sizes, with around 800 styles including both NOS (never-out-of-stock) and seasonal styles.
The company specializes in understanding and translating unique brand DNA in the design and marketing of legwear, bodywear, swimwear and fanwear. stichd connects brands, retailers and consumers to create experiences that matter. It does so successfully for clients including PUMA, Tommy Hilfiger, Levi’s and HEAD by investing in its brand partners — from product innovation to marketing and digital solutions — to ensure a seamless experience across all consumer touchpoints.
In addition, stichd applies their expertise of translating brand uniqueness into product in the fast-paced world of Motorsports. Besides working closely together with teams like BMW Motorsport and Porsche Motorsport, the company designs and develops licensed merchandise products for the biggest Formula 1 teams like McLaren Racing, Mercedes Motorsport, Scuderia Ferrari, Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing too.
After experiencing incredible growth in the past 40 years, parts of the processes and IT blueprint needed modernizing to support its expansion and to empower its design and product development teams to excel.
Bart Speet, responsible for the stichd PLM project management, explains, “We used to capture product data on local and shared drives, share it via email and FTP servers, which wasn’t a future-proof way of working. We started the search for a PLM solution to replace the old way of working and secure a single source of truth.”
“Centric ticked all of these boxes well ahead of its competitors. Not only were we able to do a reference check on the features and benefits, but we also found that Centric had extensive market-specific knowledge, with matching company sizing, and a local implementation team”.
The main objective for stichd in employing Centric PLM was to “do things right, and do things once,” as Speet says. The biggest advantage for stichd is being able to capture the entire design and sourcing part of the value chain in one system that always contains the latest input, can be accessed by all stakeholders, and accurately captures the business’s global oriented development efforts.
The Centric PLM implementation project was given its own acronym ‘SEAM’, which stands for Simplicity, Efficiency, Accuracy and Measurability. stichd refers to these four key pillars as guidelines every time a big PLM decision, such as data structure, is made.
stichd has completed a rollout of the software to product managers, design teams, developers, packaging engineers and quality assurance teams, with extremely satisfied users in every department. They’re now able to save time with a user-friendly, centralized system. “Centric PLM is the truth! We no longer need to question whether the product information is correct, it is all in there. This is the biggest change we’ve gone through,” says Speet.
“Now we have an IT backbone in place that we can benefit from for years.” When looking towards the future, Speet adds “We foresee Centric Software continuing to support us as a trustworthy partner who will develop the PLM system to our future standards, including alignment with other digital tools such as ERP.”
“We are thrilled to announce that stichd has successfully gone live with Centric PLM,” comments Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric Software. “We look forward to continuing to partner with stichd long into the future.”
Stay on Top of The Game with Centric Fashion PLM Across the world, buying behavior has changed and consumers expect more seasons per year and more new products per season. At the same time, competition has intensified with the addition of many new brands and retailers, giving consumers greater choice than ever before. Fashion companies increasingly need to offer more innovative products, quickly. Speed to market, market responsiveness, an efficient development process, organized asset management and true collaborative sourcing are key to remaining competitive. Centric Fashion PLM software solutions address all of these challenges and more with intuitive, configurable, easy to use, mobile and cloud-based PLM platforms for businesses of all sizes. Ground-breaking features such as the Adobe® Illustrator Connect tool enable streamlined collaboration across multiple digital environments. Combining the best of Silicon Valley innovations and industry best practices, Centric Fashion PLM is fast to deploy and provides a single actionable version of the truth in real time for line planning, product design, product development, sourcing, production and retail teams.
Learn more about Centric Lifestyle PLM
stichd (www.stichd.com)
Established in 1979 and now with over 550 employees, stichd is a licensee that partners with leading brands in Lifestyle, Fashion and Motorsport sectors to translate the brand’s DNA in its categories of Legwear, Bodywear, Swimwear and Fanwear.
Investing into its brand partners – be it in product innovation, marketing or digital – stichd ensures a seamless brand experience across all its consumer touchpoints.
The brand portfolio includes PUMA, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Levi Strauss & Co., HEAD, BMW Motorsport, Formula 1, HAAS F1 team, McLaren Racing, Mercedes Motorsport, Porsche Motorsport, Scuderia Ferrari, Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing.
Centric Software (www.centricsoftware.com)
From its headquarters in Silicon Valley, Centric Software provides a Digital Transformation Platform for the most prestigious names in fashion, retail, footwear, luxury, outdoor and consumer goods. Centric’s flagship Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) platform, Centric 8, delivers enterprise-class merchandise planning, product development, sourcing, quality and collection management functionality tailored for fast-moving consumer industries. Centric SMB provides innovative PLM technology and key industry learnings for emerging brands. Centric Visual Innovation Platform (VIP) offers a fully visual, transformative experience via large touch-screens and mobile devices, revolutionizing group decision making and creative collaboration while dramatically condensing time to market and product innovation. Centric Software is majority-owned by Dassault Systèmes (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), the world leader in 3D design software, 3D Digital Mock Up and PLM solutions. Centric Software has received multiple industry awards and recognition, including being named by Red Herring to its Top 100 Global list in 2013, 2015 and 2016. Centric also received various excellence awards from Frost & Sullivan in 2012, 2016 and 2018.
Centric Software is a registered trademark of Centric Software Inc. All other brands and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
