GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — August 13, 2018 — X-Rite Inc. and Pantone LLC today announced that Epic Games’ Unreal Studio 4.20 natively supports the Appearance Exchange Format (AxF™). Developed by X-Rite, AxF is a vendor-neutral format that enables the communication of all aspects of a physical material’s appearance — color, texture, gloss, refraction, transparency, translucency, special effects (sparkles) and reflection properties — in a single, editable file to improve design virtualization. AxF allows Unreal Studio users to load physically-accurate digital material files, convert them to Unreal Engine materials for a consistent look across platforms and use them in a real-time workflow to enhance VR and AR experiences. X-Rite is showcasing the AxF integration with Unreal Studio 4.20 at SIGGRAPH 2018, August 12-16 in Vancouver at booth 401.

AxF is the foundational component of the X-Rite Total Appearance Capture (TAC™) ecosystem, a solution that brings a new level of accuracy and efficiency to the capture, communication and presentation of physical materials in the virtual world. Traditionally, the capture and rendering of complex materials such as special effects paints, meshes and synthetic fabrics have been time-consuming and manual processes. TAC addresses this challenge with a new level of precision in material scanning coupled with an ability to share the resulting data, via AxF, across an expanding set of tools, such as the Unreal Studio real-time visualization solution.

“Integration of AxF in Unreal answers the need of taking physically correct materials into real-time visualization,” said Dr. Francis Lamy, executive vice president and chief technology officer, X-Rite and Pantone. “The TAC ecosystem and AxF allow Unreal Engine users to visualize their creations using physically correct digital materials, providing a new level of realism that results in even more immersive AR and VR experiences.”

“Our customers who want to achieve the highest fidelity to real-world materials can now use the AxF format and scanners from X-Rite to bring measured materials into their UE4-based visualization process. The combination of Unreal Engine and AxF means customers can now better match the virtual world to the real world to make better design decisions,” said Ken Pimentel, Unreal Studio product manager, Epic Games.

Unreal Studio is a collection of targeted resources that accelerates adoption of Unreal Engine and new VR and AR experiences by simplifying workflows and optimizing data, delivering industry-relevant training and assets and providing timely support methods. The latest Unreal Studio 4.20 release focuses on a streamlined workflow that maximizes ease of use and compatibility through the Datasmith plugin. Users can now load X-Rite’s Appearance Exchange Format (AxF) files for an elegant conversion to Unreal Engine materials, resulting in a highly accurate, consistent look of materials across platforms.

AxF is a binary digital file format and is not restricted to a specific device or measurement geometry, spanning single spectrum to full BSSRDF. It is designed to compress raw data from terabytes to megabytes providing third party software applications, such as Unreal Studio, with efficient access to a full set of material appearance characteristics without compromising performance.

TAC Captures Physical Material Appearance at SIGGRAPH

SIGGRAPH 2018 attendees can see a demonstration of X-Rite’s award-winning Total Appearance Capture (TAC) ecosystem and the AxF integration with Unreal Studio at the X-Rite booth 401. Attendees will see how AxF files can be used within Unreal Studio software and applied to photo-realistic scenes and immersive AR and VR experience.

The TAC ecosystem is comprised of the TAC7 scanner, PANTORA™ Material Hub desktop application, and Virtual Light Booth (VLB). Physical material samples are scanned using the TAC7 scanner, which captures appearance properties digitally to create AxF files that store appearance data. The files are stored, managed, viewed and edited in the PANTORA desktop application. The AxF files can be shared with Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Computer-Aided Design (CAD), and state-of-the art rendering applications including Allegorithmic Substance Designer, AMD Radeon™ ProRender, Autodesk VRED™ Professional 2018, Chaos Group V-Ray, Epic Games Unreal Engine, Gerber Technology YuniquePLM and AccuMark, Human Solutions Assyst Vidya, Lumiscaphe Patchwork 3D, Luxion KeyShot®, Material Exchange platform, Next Limit Maxwell, and NVIDIA Iray®.

The Virtual Light Booth is the industry’s first immersive 3-D visualization environment for evaluating material appearance. It allows users to accurately compare physical samples and digital renderings side-by-side under the same perceptual conditions — from illumination to contextual to observational factors. This helps ensure consistency between digital prototypes and final physical products and empowers designers to make more informed material selection decisions reducing approval cycles and accelerating time to market.

Posted August 13, 2018

Source: X-Rite Inc.

DENVER – August 13, 2018 – VF Corp. — one of the world’s largest apparel, footwear and accessories companies and owner of outdoor brands including The North Face®, JanSport® and Smartwool® — is moving its global headquarters to Denver.

“We are thrilled to welcome a new partner that embodies the values that define Colorado,” said Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper. “VF’s move underscores the critical driver that the outdoor recreation industry plays in our economy where business meets lifestyle.”

VF Corporation becomes the latest Fortune 250 to call Colorado home.

“Colorado is an area with an unrivalled heritage and culture of outdoor and activity-based lifestyles, as well as a thriving business environment,” said Steve Rendle, VF’s chairman, president and CEO. “It is a great strategic fit for our business, and we are excited to be relocating our headquarters and several brands to the metro Denver area next year. We believe that the creation of our new headquarters in the area will help us to unlock collaboration across our outdoor brands, attract and retain talent, and accelerate innovation.”

Rendle added: “We are grateful to Colorado for the job growth tax credits that represent a long-term commitment to our company and we want to make a long-term commitment to the people of Colorado. For every dollar of job growth tax credit that we receive and use, we will match that dollar in a donation to the VF Foundation and designate those funds to support the charitable interests of the citizens of Colorado. VF’s Purpose Statement declares that we will power movements of sustainable and active lifestyles for the betterment of people and our planet. We will demonstrate that commitment to the Colorado community.”

About 85 VF leaders, including members of the company’s U.S.-based senior leadership team, will move to Colorado beginning in Spring 2019. Over the course of the next two years, several of VF’s Outdoor brands, including The North Face®, JanSport®, Smartwool®, Eagle Creek® and Altra® also will relocate to join VF.

In total, approximately 800 employees across VF and its brands are expected to move into the new metro Denver area headquarters beginning in mid-2019, including about 70 from the Smartwool® brand, which already calls Colorado home and is currently headquartered in Steamboat Springs.

“This project is strong validation of the State’s role as a leading attractor of industry and it is especially heartening that it comes with VF — a company whose brands and culture align with Colorado’s core values,” said Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade Executive Director Stephanie Copeland.

VF has nearly 70,000 employees worldwide and operations across more than 170 countries. The company’s portfolio of brands also includes Vans®, Timberland® and a stable of workwear brands, including Dickies®, none of which are involved in the relocation to Denver. The company’s 2017 global revenues were $11.8 billion.

Posted August 13, 2018

Source: VF Corp.

LOS ANGELES — August 11, 2018 — Tukatech has launched clean air filtration and lowest energy consumption TUKAcut cutting systems, certified by the TÜV SÜD Italia Machine Energy Protocol MEP. The Italian-made machines are customized with Tukatech’s software, and mechanical and electrical specifications to ensure TUKAcut is an unmatched cutting room solution.

TUKAcut machines for lingerie, denim, and universal fabric cutting are available in custom widths and heights. These machines are designed to give the ultimate performance at the lowest running cost. Though cutting productivity is at least 20-percent higher than other models on the market, the energy cost is 50- to 70-percent lower, which is a great benefit for users in countries where energy cost is a major consideration.

Other features include the highest productivity per hour cutting denim with zero buffer, as well as a cut path optimizer that results in 2.2- to 3.6-percent fabric savings compared to other cutting machines and helps to increase productivity. The eco-power vacuum system guarantees considerable power savings at only 5.5 kW, the lowest in comparable industry cutting machines.

The new fabric cutting machines were first installed in Lahore, Pakistan, at Combined Fabrics, the largest supplier of knit garments to Levi’s. Before installation, the cutting room had 90 people cutting 50,000 units in a day. Sheikh Tariq Mehmood, director of Combined Fabrics, explained that the company was already, “very happy users of TUKAcad, TUKA3D, and SMARTmark. Tukatech demonstrated their cutting room expertise by helping us engineer another vendor’s cutting system before we even considered adopting TUKAcut for automatic fabric cutting.”

Implementation included training personnel for raw material handling, spreading, cutting, and bundling. On the first day of installation, 14 people were able to cut the same number of units (50,000), and within weeks the same configuration increased productivity to between 65,000 and 75,000 units per day.

Mehmood continued: “My suggestion is to listen to Tukatech’s expertise. Our expectations for the TUKAcut system were exceeded by far, but they never surprised us with extra hidden expenses.” Tukatech is known throughout the apparel industry for their personal customer service and transparent value models.

Ram Sareen, founder of Tukatech, explains that he chose the same mechanical solutions from Italian fabric cutting machine manufacturer, F.K. Group. Tukatech was the first partner of F.K. Group to take such machines out of Italy in 1995. Many of the machines installed in the US, Mexico, Canada, and India at that time are still running and producing high quality cuts. The new TUKAcut machine is a Tukatech original cutting solution and allows Tukatech to offer garment manufacturers reliable fabric cutting machines at competitive prices. “Similar to engineering companies like AMG partnering with Daimler-Benz to offer an amazingly high-performance vehicle to drivers who appreciate the engineering, we offer just the same with our partnership with F.K. Group,” comments Ram Sareen.

Posted August 11, 2018

Source: Tukatech

ASHEBORO, N.C. — August 10, 2018 — Asheboro Elastics Corp., a producer of knitted and woven narrow fabrics for the apparel and bedding industries, has retained Equity Partners to find new money, either debt or equity, or a strategic partner, to complement the company’s growth strategy.

Charles Adams, CEO of AEC, stated, “We have been working hard over the past three years to strategically position the Company for growth in existing markets and to capitalize on opportunities in new markets. AEC has a great history and reputation within the narrow fabrics sector and our incredible team has put AEC on a trajectory for sustainable and significant growth. In order to realize these opportunities, we need to bring in fresh capital, either with a new lender or if there are strategic advantages, with a partner. We have retained Equity Partners to help us explore these options on an expedited basis.”

Founded in 1986, AEC enjoyed steady, organic growth for almost two decades. Through both internal growth and acquisitions, AEC expanded its offerings to include elastic inserts for apparel, rigid mattress tape, and rigid seat belts. As relationships with major apparel customers grew, the company developed elastic underwear straps that could be used for decorative branding to include a customer’s logo. With manufacturing facilities and research and development operations in the U.S. and Central America, the company is a global leader in knitted, woven, elastic, and rigid narrow fabrics for the apparel and bedding industries.

According to Matt LoCascio, a managing director at Equity Partners HG: “We are excited to work with AEC as they begin a new chapter in their impressive story. Management has already made significant expense cuts and streamlined operations with a focus on core portions of the business. In order to continue to support these initiatives and fund sustained growth, we are going to market to explore options that will ultimately allow the Company to be properly capitalized and well positioned to continue serving customers and working with vendors.”

Equity Partners HG, based outside Baltimore provides investment banking services and has completed in excess of 500 engagements throughout the United States since 1988.

Posted August 10, 2018

Source: Equity Partners HG

BELLEVILLE, Wis. — August 9, 2018 — Duluth Holdings Inc. — a lifestyle brand of men’s and women’s casual wear, workwear and accessories — has successfully and fully implemented its new e-commerce platform that significantly enhances customers’ digital shopping experience. Earlier in the year, the company completed the conversion of its order management system. The new e-commerce platform and order management system are strategically important to support the company’s long-term business plans and competitive growth of the Duluth Trading brand across its omnichannel platform.

“We are excited to present our customers with a new website, based on a state-of-the art e-commerce platform, which is now fully operational and delivering enhanced functionality. Our new website provides a better mobile, tablet and desktop shopping experience, more flexible content management and increased ability to personalize outreach to our customers,” said Stephanie Pugliese, CEO of Duluth Trading.

Pugliese added, “I am very proud that our team has successfully implemented two major IT projects since the beginning of this year. In addition to our e-commerce platform, they completed the conversion of our order management system that gives us better customer visibility across all channels and the tools to roll out our ship-from-store, buy online, pick-up in stores, and omnichannel returns programs.  his will benefit our customers with greater flexibility and convenience as well as enhancing our operational efficiency and generating new sales opportunities through improved gift cards and other offerings.”

Posted August 9, 2018

Source: Duluth Trading Co.