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US 11,702,793 B2Granted
Online ordering and manufacturing of apparel using laser-finished fabric rolls
AssigneeLevi Strauss & Co.
InventorsJennifer Schultz, Benjamin Bell, Debdulal Mahanty, Ozgur Taylan Kuzucu, Christopher Schultz, James Barton Sights
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An on-demand manufacturing of apparel system includes online customization and ordering of garments, previewing of the garments, manufacturing including laser finishing of garments, and delivery to the customer. Laser finishing of apparel products reduces finishing cost, lowers carrying costs, increases productivity, shortens time to market, be more reactive to trends, reduces product constraints, reduces lost sales and dilution, and more. Fabric templates can be used to produce a multitude of laser finishes. Operational efficiency is improved.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- providing a fabric roll of woven material comprising a warp yarn comprising indigo-dyed cotton yarn, wherein the fabric roll corresponds to a base template;
- using a digital design tool, selecting a base template from a plurality of available base templates and selecting a finishing pattern to apply to the base template, wherein the selected base template and selected finishing pattern comprise a garment design created using the digital design tool, and the digital design tool comprises a preview tool;
- using the preview tool, showing a preview image of the garment selected finishing pattern on the base template, wherein the preview image represents the garment after laser finishing;
- at a laser finishing facility, receiving an order corresponding to the garment design created using the digital design tool, and using a laser, creating a finishing pattern on an outer surface of the fabric roll that corresponds to the selected base template using a laser input file comprising the selected finishing pattern,
- wherein based on the laser input file, the laser removes selected amounts of material from the surface of the fabric roll at different pixel locations;
- cutting panels for the garment design from the laser-finished fabric roll;
- assembling the laser-finished panels together into a sewn garment;
- and
- washing the sewn garment according to a base wash recipe to obtain a finished garment having an appearance represented by the preview image.
6 more elements
A method comprising:
- using a digital design tool, selecting a base template from a plurality of available base templates and selecting a finishing pattern to apply to the base template, wherein the selected base template and selected finishing pattern comprise a garment design created using the digital design tool, and the digital design tool comprises a preview tool;
- using the preview tool, showing a preview image of the garment selected finishing pattern on the base template, wherein the preview image represents the garment after laser finishing;
- generating the preview image comprising
- generating an adjusted base image from the selected base template without the selected finishing pattern,
- generating a pattern mask based on a laser input file associated with the selected finishing pattern,
- for a pixel at a pixel location of the preview image, obtaining a first contribution by combining a first value associated with a pixel of the pattern mask at a pattern mask pixel location that corresponds to the pixel location of the preview image and a value of a pixel of the selected base template at a base template pixel location that corresponds to the pixel location of the preview image,
- for the pixel at the pixel location of the preview image, obtaining a second contribution by combining a second value associated with the pixel of the pattern mask at the pattern mask pixel location that corresponds to the pixel location of the preview image and a value of a pixel of the adjusted base image at an adjusted base image pixel location that corresponds to the pixel location of the preview image, and
- combining the first contribution and second contribution to obtain a combined value for the pixel at the pixel location of the preview image, wherein when the pixel of the preview image is displayed, a color of the pixel corresponds to the combined value;
- creating an order corresponding the garment design created using the digital design tool and shown in the preview image by the preview tool;
- and
- sending the order corresponding to the garment design created using the digital design tool to a laser finishing facility.
8 more elements
A method comprising:
- providing a first fabric roll of woven material comprising a warp yarn comprising indigo-dyed cotton yarn, wherein the first fabric roll corresponds to a first base template;
- providing a second fabric roll of woven material comprising a warp yarn comprising indigo-dyed cotton yarn, wherein the second fabric roll corresponds to a second base template;
- using an ordering tool, coupled to a network, comprising a digital design tool, selecting a base template from a plurality of base templates comprising the first base template and second base template, and selecting a finishing pattern from a plurality of finishing patterns based on laser input files, wherein the digital design tool comprises a preview tool;
- using the preview tool, displaying a preview image of the selected finishing pattern on the selected base template;
- and
- using the ordering tool, generating an order corresponding to the selected finishing pattern on the selected base template.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.