4T2D, the sustainable apparel company, has selected Centric Software®’s Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to plan, design, develop, source and sell products such as apparel, footwear, sporting goods, furniture, home décor, cosmetics, food & beverage and luxury to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.
4T2D (pronounced ‘fortitude’) is an apparel startup, founded in January 2021. Jordan Leach, Brand and Operations Manager says, “We’re a little over a year old, and launching our first line this fall. We are an every-wear brand, where you can go from work to play; you can wear our pieces at any time, any-wear.”
Leach explains why they have chosen to implement PLM at the inception of their company. “Currently our team is small. Our focus has been on sourcing and product development which is where we found the need for PLM.” She continues, “We needed something that would make our process more efficient and give us visibility, so we can focus on making great products. As a small team, we wear many hats and needed a solution that allows one person to perform many roles. Secondly, a solution that could integrate with our manufacturing facility and use across multiple brands. Our Centric users will be divided between 4T2D and Fourbital Factory.”
The factory was founded by 4T2D. Leach enthuses, “It’s about 600 feet down the road from 4T2D headquarters. It’s an innovative apparel manufacturing facility for small brands like us who have a focus on sustainability. They will provide design services, manufacturing training certifications, host educational classes and have space for pop-up retail opportunities. The factory’s goal is to be 100% circular. We’re building a department where all waste fabric will be reduced to fibers and turned into yarn for beanies or felt for a variety of uses.”
4T2D evaluated several PLM providers. Leach says, “I looked at Centric first, and was really blown away. It checked all the boxes. We looked at a few others but they were not small-business friendly. We considered using the ERP Fourbital Factory is using which has PLM aspects, but it wasn’t the perfect solution for us. Inevitably, we circled back around to Centric. At the end of the day, I didn’t want to invest in a program that might solve our current problems and costs less, but then later have to migrate to something more robust as we scale.”
Leach is anticipating multiple benefits from Centric PLM. “We have plans to integrate our PLM with Fourbital Factory’s ERP. It’s going to streamline our development process and hopefully reduce the amount of back-and-forth and potential errors in communication. We expect it to help us to bring our products to market faster.” She concludes, “We are focusing on being a digital-first brand, from factory machinery to development software, it enables us to stay agile, maximize efficiencies and ensure long-term growth.”
President and CEO of Centric Software, Chris Groves, says, “It is heartening to see a young company implement Centric PLM right from the start, to set themselves on the true path from day one. We are happy that another business with a sustainability focus has chosen Centric to spur on their eco-mission.”
