Coats Group plc, the world’s leading industrial thread and consumer textile crafts business, is launching CoatsMatch, a revolutionary colour solution for the sewn products industry. Targeted at the colour supply chain, it reduces lead times and the high costs associated with the colour design and approval processes.
CoatsMatch builds on the success of Coats Colour Express, the award winning thread sampling service from Coats. Like Coats Colour Express, CoatsMatch has a highly portable and user-friendly colour-reading device and in addition it connects via Bluetooth to two mobile Apps – Coats Colour Select and Coats Colour Compare.
Rajiv Sharma, CEO, Industrial, Coats Group plc said: ‘CoatsMatch is another clear example of Coats using its global expertise to deliver customer led innovation. Every year a substantial amount of money is wasted through inefficiencies in the colour supply chain within the sewn products industry. CoatsMatch helps reduce downtime and waste, resulting in lower costs for customers.’
Once a colour has been captured using the CoatsMatch device, it is instantly loaded onto the Coats Colour Select App. This digital representation of the colour can then be accurately compared to the Coats Colour Atlas with its comprehensive set of more than 7,500 colour standards or a customer’s own colour library. The selected colour reference can also be transferred within seconds to other users along the supply chain eg fabric manufacturers, saving significant time and increasing accuracy.
In addition a colour can be captured and referenced in the Coats Colour Compare App. This App allows colour supply chain stakeholders to share measured colour standards; set tolerances within which a colour is acceptable; and compare physical fabric with their chosen colour for accuracy.
When fashion designs are currently created, designers find, and buy, items that inspire them. They take those physical samples and search through colour reference libraries to try and visually identify the closest colour match. If they are unable to find a suitable match, further time and money is spent creating a new unique colour. This process is time consuming, costly and does not result in the most accurate colour selection. Using the CoatsMatch device the designer can capture the colour from their physical inspiration (for example an autumn leaf) and instantly identify the closest colour match on the Colour Select App. This colour match would be more accurate because it is an objective digital representation of the colour rather than subjective through the eyes of the person looking at it.
In addition the App could highlight if the designer has used the colour before in previous collections (preventing duplicate development) and can also identify the closest colour match for the thread, zips and trims to accompany the fabric.
A further example of the benefit of CoatsMatch is during the approval process for a fabric sample before production. Currently many iterations of sampling between the fabric mill and design office are required before the colour is approved – this process is highly time consuming and costly. Using Coats Colour Compare, the manufacturer can check the colour accuracy before sending it for approval. This would reduce the number of iterations and hence deliver significant time and cost savings.
To find out more about CoatsMatch and view a video demonstration go to www.coatsmatch.com
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To download a high resolution image go to: www.coats.com/imagelibrary