Spyder, the innovative performance apparel company, has selected Centric Software®’s Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution. Centric Software provides the most innovative business solutions to plan, design, develop, source and sell products such as apparel, footwear, sporting goods, furniture, décor, cosmetics, food & beverage and luxury to achieve strategic and operational goals of digital transformation goals.
Founded in 1978 and headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, Spyder apparel and accessories can be found worldwide in over 40 countries. Spyder builds technologically advanced gear for elite athletes and modern consumers. A sponsor of the US Ski Team since 1989, Spyder describes themselves as fusing technology, form, function and fashion. Steve Chastain, VP of Global IT at Liberated Brands, Spyder’s parent company, says, “We were very excited about having Spyder join the Liberated Brands family and an important part of that integration was to modernize Spyder’s IT landscape and bring their systems up to speed.”
Spyder had previously been working with the same legacy PLM system that Volcom had used before they switched to Centric PLM. Knowing firsthand from their own experience how the Volcom teams had benefited from Centric, for example, being able to enter a style 7 times faster than previously in their old system, they were convinced about the fast ROI.
The aim of replacing Spyder’s former system was to modernize the brand’s IT technology and increase user adoption. The company wanted to expand the scope of PLM within product development and improve efficiencies. Says Chastain, “We’ve had great success with Centric PLM over at Volcom (also under Liberated Brands) and are looking to align our brands on one single platform. Centric has advanced technical design and constantly updated features that will streamline Spyder’s workflow, improve visibility and eventually merge seamlessly with the rest of the company systems.”
In spite of limited time to dedicate to the implementation due to business demands, the project was completed in just 6 weeks and was on time and on budget. The sourcing, style, materials, costing and sampling modules were launched, with the merchandising module in the works. User adoption and feedback has been positive with increased efficiency and communication.
Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric Software says, “It is a pleasure to welcome such an innovative company like Spyder into the Centric family. Besides bringing modern functionality to Spyder, Liberated Brands will benefit from managing data on one single platform and gain synergies by doing so.”
