Levi Strauss & Co.

Jeff Zens

James Barton Sights

Elizabeth O'Neill

David Love

Christopher Schultz

Jennifer Schultz

Debdulal Mahanty

Benjamin Bell

Sachith Devendra Samarasinghe

Chatura Atukorala

Ozgur Taylan Kuzucu

Leigh Anne Oden

A structure has spaces that can accommodate at least two International Organization for Standardization compliant shipping containers. The structure has studs, joists, and rafters connected together above, besides, between, and in front of the spaces for the shipping containers. The structure provides for an attractive outdoor retail space with shading, allowing for signage, decorations, product display, ergonomics, and other retail design features. In an implementation, the structure is for a mobile retail space that is tailored for customizing and manufacture of the customized apparel, especially the laser finishing of products like jeans. The mobile retail space can be relocated to and deployed easily at various events, such as sports events and music festival venues.

Retail structure with shipping container space

Laser finishing of apparel products allows an operating model that reduces finishing cost, lowers carrying costs, increases productivity, shortens time to market, be more reactive to trends, reduce product constraints, reduces lost sales and dilution, and more. Improved aspects include design, development, planning, merchandising, selling, making, and delivering. The model uses fabric templates, each of which can be used to produce a multitude of laser finishes. Operational efficiency is improved.

Apparel products by using fabric templates and laser finishing

Indigo-dyed garments are treated with an anti-ozone agent to prevent ozone-related degradation of the garments before laser finishing. Without treatment, the garments can exhibit color loss (e.g., color change or fading) from exposure to ozone in the atmosphere. The indigo-dyed garments with anti-ozone treatment can serve as base templates in a laser finishing process flow. The anti-ozone treatment of the base templates can include a rinse including an ascorbic acid or vitamin C constituent during a base preparation process. Then quantities of these base templates can manufactured and stored for periods of time without exhibiting ozone-related degradation effects.

Using ascorbic acid or sodium ascorbate to extend storage life of base templates for laser finishing

Apparel customized by using base templates and laser finishing

Base templates for many finishes by laser

Preventing degradation of stored base templates before laser finishing

A computer system of a finishing center, such as a mobile finishing center, includes a tool that allows a customer to preview or create new designs for apparel before purchase and before laser finishing. Software and lasers are used in finishing apparel to produce a desired wear pattern or other design. Based on a laser input file with a pattern, a laser will burn or ablate the pattern onto apparel. With the tool, the customer will be able to preview, create, make changes, and view images of a design, in real time, before purchase and burning or ablation by a laser. Input to the tool can include fabric template images, laser input files, and damage input. In an implementation, the customer or another user can also move, rotate, scale, and warp the image input.

Laser finishing design tool

A system allows a user to create new designs for apparel and preview these designs before manufacture. Software and lasers are used in finishing apparel to produce a desired wear pattern or other design. Users may collaborate while designing the apparel and designate what items should belong in specific collections. Users may also use an assortment builder tool to search a database of products according to one or more search parameters to select a garment with a finishing pattern.

Apparel collection management with image preview

Outdoor retail space structure

Treating base templates with anti-ozone agent before storage for laser finishing

Anti-ozone treatment of base templates in laser finishing

Custom apparel products by using fabric templates and laser finishing

Multiple apparel products by using fabric templates and laser finishing

Using fabric templates to obtain multiple finishes by laser finishing

A system allows a user to create new designs for apparel and preview these designs before manufacture. Software and lasers are used in finishing apparel to produce a desired wear pattern or other design. The system guides how the user is allocating apparel items in the system, including feedback on what the user may like to change.

Guided allocation in an apparel management system

Growing community of inventors

Emeryville, CA, United States of America

Jeff Zens