Last week we shared the story of the first ASAP users, Lands’ End, led by Carol Revels. To continue our celebration of ASAP’s 10th birthday, this week we are highlighting another longtime user, Under Armour.
Shortly after Lands’ End, Under Armour adopted ASAP, led at that time by Keith Hoover. They onboarded all of their suppliers and currently require all component suppliers for UA Apparel and Accessories (including both fabric mills and trim suppliers) to use ASAP.
Today the team is led by Director of Color + Print, Marielle Newman, who was also on the Under Armour color team when ASAP was introduced and has been a great champion for natific supply chain solutions.
“Not having to use email and Excel spreadsheets for everything – being able to use ASAP to capture and communicate color development data has been so critical to streamlining our process.” – Marielle Newman
With ASAP, the entire color development process can be made digital. Brands send color requests through the system where they are received instantly by the assigned mills. Mills in turn upload their submissions to ASAP, eliminating days or weeks from the development calendar.
The change to a digital process has had a huge impact on Under Armour’s color team. Like Lands’ End, Under Armour benefits from PLM integration with ASAP.
“Being able to capture and communicate color development information seamlessly is my favorite part! With our PLM integration, lab dip requests and cancellations are automatically sent to the suppliers without any human intervention. Color approvals and comments are sent automatically whenever they are entered into ASAP, and then are stored securely for historical reference.”
We also spoke to Johnson Liu, the color coordinator for Hung’s Fortune Int’l Co. Ltd, a supplier that has been working with ASAP for Under Armour for 5 years. He agrees that ASAP is simple to use and makes it easier to control and manage lab dips.
Johnson’s favorite part of working with ASAP is the ease of self-approval. This is a privilege earned by those high performing mills who are granted the ability to approve in-tolerance samples themselves. This optimizes the development process for brands and suppliers.
A side effect of a more efficient workstream is the ability to use newly available time to work on other issues or priorities.
As Marielle explains it, “We used to be a team of 3 who spent all day either in the lightbox or sending emails. Now we can be more impactful across business, working on a ‘higher class of problems.’“
Lands’ End and Under Armour are two of the most longstanding ASAP users, however, several other brands, retailers, and suppliers have onboarded over the years. We continue to develop new functions and features to improve color development for the entire supply chain.
Contact natific at sales@natific.com to get more information and a personal tour of the system!