The Online Connection

Gerald Tan looks at how technology can help expand the brick-and-mortar experience by offering a deeply intuitive interaction for today’s savvy consumer.

- Gerald Tan

When Joachim Hensch, Managing Director of HUGO BOSS Textiles, was in Berlin earlier this year, he chanced upon a pop-up store that melded technology, retail and services perfectly. The subject of his praise? Adidas’ “Knit For You” project, an ambitious undertaking by the German sportswear giant that offered customers the chance to design and purchase their very own sweaters in a matter of hours. How Adidas achieved the feat was nothing short of genius: The customer first walks into a dark room within the pop-up, where camouflage-like pattern projections on the body can be adjusted according to their preference with simple hand gestures, thanks to sensors that pick up every movement in real time. A laser body scanner records the customer’s measurements to ensure a good fit. Once the colour combinations are finalised, the computer then feeds the information to industrial knitting machines that go to work producing the sweater inside the store. The finished piece is later washed and dried by hand. “You also receive a QR code on a card that contains all the documentation and information you need,” Hensch recalled as he spoke to fellow industry players at Fuze Fashion Technology 2017, Singapore’s first summit dedicated to the fashion technology landscape.“I’ve never seen anything put together so seamlessly before.”