Since Gerber Technology first automated the fashion and apparel industry 50 years ago, Gerber Technology’s software and hardware solutions have been helping the world’s leading apparel brands and manufacturers maximize quality and profitability and get their products to market faster, smarter and better. Karsten Newbury, Senior Vice President and General Manager, and Mary McFadden, Executive Director, CAD Product Management, chat with Senior Editor Cary Sherburne, sharing Gerber’s latest developments and his thoughts about the future of the industry.

WhatTheyThink: Karsten and Mary, thanks for speaking with us today. Can you provide, at a high level, an overview of how Gerber is supporting the fashion and apparel industry?

Karsten Newbury: At a high level, we serve customers in industries that handle flexible materials, and especially from a software perspective, apparel and fashion are a primary focus for us. Our view is that, as everyone in the industry knows, there is a significant transformation underway driven by consumers. We are living in an on-demand world where consumers like to have choices in apparel and fashion. They want to be able to personalize their experiences, and speed to market is the primary driver for the brands and manufacturers that are our customers. Cost and quality are important, but more and more our customers are looking for agility and the ability to respond quickly to trends, produce on demand, and be more agile and efficient, shortening the time from consumer request to actual product. We’ve been innovating and automating in this industry for 50+ years, but over the last few years, we have been reinventing ourselves as well as looking at this agility and speed trend and ways to better address it.