Tech Companies Find the Way to Quick Color Management
Getting the right color on a garment has long been a time-consuming and painstaking step in apparel manufacturing, but that is changing. A number of technology companies are trying to speed up the color management process with a little help from the Internet.
Typically when a retailer or manufacturer picks a color for a garment, the garment has to go through a myriad of mills, fabric suppliers, dyers and specifying agents before it ends up on the selling floor. In between those steps, the retailer or manufacturer usually has to make numerous swatch inspections before the end color matches the prototype. The lab dip process has been known to take up to 12 weeks, which is almost a lifetime in the apparel industry. Advancements in Internet technology, however, are narrowing down that time frame to a few days.
Traditional color services companies, including Lawrenceville, N.J.–based Datacolor and New Windsor, N.Y.–based GretagMacbeth, have helped by providing hardware such as the spectrophotometers that read color formulas. They have also developed e-mail– based color approval systems that have shaved at least half the time off the manual process. The latest player joining the field is eWarna.com International Ltd., based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and founded by former Coats Ltd. executives Richard Lawn and ManHon Shiew.
EWarna is applying the collaborative technology found in enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications pioneered by software giants SAP A.G., Oracle Corp. and J.D. Edwards& Co. to color technology.
Instead of using e-mail, partners within the supply chain connect to the Internet via eWarna’s XMatch application and a central server/database to post color swatches and make necessary approvals or rejections. A company spokesperson said eWarna, which has gained a worldwide patent for the concept, has the formula to compete with the market leaders.
“The apparel industry isn’t in one spot anymore—it’s all over the world,” said Frank Breek, eWarna’s Los Angeles–based representative. “If you’re two shades off on a color, it could take weeks to get it right. At a dye house in China, the water could be different from one in India and result in different shades. This system puts everybody in synch.”
Breek added that typical color swatches get rejected 80 percent of the time during the first round of color approvals. EWarna’s approval rate is 99 percent and color approvals happen in days, not weeks, he said.
In addition, Breek said the system gives clients control over the process by allowing them to keep an eye on what is happening all the time. That is not always the case with stand-alone or e-mail–based systems, he added. He said that while other systems have buy-ins of about $60,000, eWarna is licensing its technology at $1,000 per year for a two-seat station.
While eWarna has the patent for its collaborative system, it does not hold one for the machine that reads color, the spectrophotometer, which is a must for all mills and production facilities. So the company has become a reseller for some of its competitors. It is using the machines at Tukatech Inc.’s Tuka- Centers around the world so small companies and independents can get color readings at $10 a piece and tap into eWarna’s collaborative products.
Having attracted clients such as Li & Fung Ltd. in Hong Kong, Perry Ellis International Inc. and others, eWarna hopes to have a big impact on the American market.
Market leader Datacolor has also made inroads in the apparel and textiles industries. It recently integrated its color tools into CAD company Lectra’s U4ia textile design package to create uniform control over color palettes. Lectra has a centralized palette of reference colors to which all screens and printers are calibrated. The colors can be exchanged with outside partners to eliminate paper palette exchanges.
“You can apply textures on screen, and that helps you see a twill, for example,” explained Karen Gaskins, Datacolor’s strategic accounts manager. “You can also design in true-color mode.”
Datacolor’s color approval solution, Colorite, has also gained ground. Eight out of the top 10 apparel manufacturers and retailers now use the system, Gaskins said.
