BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to textiles and, more specifically, to techniques for various aspects of laser finishing of apparel products including designing, developing, planning, merchandising, selling, making, and delivering of such products. These products include denim apparel such as jeans, shirts, shorts, jackets, vests, and skirts, where laser finishing is used to produce a faded, distressed, washed, or worn finish or appearance.

In 1853, during the California Gold Rush, Levi Strauss, a 24-year-old German immigrant, left New York for San Francisco with a small supply of dry goods with the intention of opening a branch of his brother's New York dry goods business. Shortly after arriving in San Francisco, Mr. Strauss realized that the miners and prospectors (called the “forty niners”) needed pants strong enough to last through the hard work conditions they endured. So, Mr. Strauss developed the now familiar jeans which he sold to the miners. The company he founded, Levi Strauss & Co., still sells jeans and is the most widely known jeans brand in the world. Levi's is a trademark of Levi Strauss & Co.

Though jeans at the time of the Gold Rush were used as work clothes, jeans have evolved to be fashionably worn everyday by men and women, showing up on billboards, television commercials, and fashion runways. Fashion is one of the largest consumer industries in the U.S. and around the world. Jeans and related apparel are a significant segment of the industry.

As fashion, people are concerned with the appearance of their jeans. Many people desire a faded or worn blue jeans look. In the past, jeans became faded or distressed through normal wash and wear. The apparel industry recognized people's desire for the worn blue jeans look and began producing jeans and apparel with different wear patterns. The wear patterns have become part of the jeans style and fashion. Some examples of wear patterns include combs or honeycombs, whiskers, stacks, and train tracks.

Despite the widespread success jeans have enjoyed, the process to produce modern jeans with wear patterns takes processing time, has relatively high processing cost, and is resource intensive. A typical process to produce jeans uses significant amounts of water, chemicals (e.g., bleaching or oxidizing agents), ozone, enzymes, and pumice stone. For example, it may take from about 20 to 60 liters of water to finish each pair of jeans.

Therefore, there is a need for improved techniques to accommodate laser finishing for jeans and other apparel, which will reduce environmental impact, processing time, and processing costs, while maintaining the look and style of traditional finishing techniques.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

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 be produce a multitude of laser finishes. Operational efficiency is improved.

In an implementation, a system includes a first garment product, second garment product, digital design tool, and a laser finishing machine. The first garment is identifiable by a first product code identifier. The second garment product is identifiable by a second product code identifier. The digital design tool is used to generate or produce one or more laser files, including a first laser file for a first finishing pattern. The laser finishing machine receives as input the first laser file that is generated by the digital design tool.

When the first garment template is used as a target garment for a laser head of the laser finishing machine and the first laser file controls operation of the laser head, the laser finishing machine burns the first finishing pattern on the target garment, which results in the target garment becoming the first garment product. When the second garment template is used as the target garment for the laser head of the laser finishing machine and the first laser file controls operation of the laser head, the laser finishing machine burns the finishing pattern on the target garment, which results in the target garment becoming the second garment product.

In an implementation, a method includes: providing a first garment template washed using a first base wash recipe; providing a second garment template washed using a second base wash recipe; providing a first laser file including a first finishing pattern; and inputting the first laser file to a laser finishing machine to burn the first finishing pattern onto the first garment template to obtain a first finished garment.

The method further includes: indicating the first finished garment as a first garment product, identifiable by a first product code identifier; inputting the first laser file to the laser finishing machine to burn the first finishing pattern onto the second garment template to obtain a second finished garment; and indicating the second finished garment as a second garment product, identifiable by a second product code identifier, different form the first product code identifier.

Other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings, in which like reference designations represent like features throughout the figures.

