For designers and product developers, technical specifications for knitted products can be time consuming. Miscommunication during the prototype phases of design development is not uncommon. Knitted stitches can be misinterpreted, stripe lay outs misaligned, and garment measurements altered due to fabric weight and gauge. These variables cost time and material resources. Where protos arrive with errors, more materials are required and wasted, and more carbon emissions are used to transport second, third and fourth protos back and forth. During their webinar, Shima Seiki proposed their solution to this, utilising their SDS-ONE APEX design system.

Apex is a design system unique to Shima Seiki, used in fashion and other industries for 3D virtual sampling to create realistic silhouettes based on patterns and textures created from real scanned yarns. Designers can now output this information into specifications, and auto generate design and specification pages. During the second webinar of their series, Shima highlighted this potential for linkage between design and production to realise more accurately knitted samples.

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