A new apparel product development framework for performance clothing industry

Abstract

New Product Development (NPD) and innovation strategies have merged in contemporary contexts to produce more commercial products in the apparel industry. Performance clothing category is evolutionary, yet current research on the principles employed in the NPD process is inadequate. This study constructs a conceptual framework based on the best-practices for the development of performance clothing category within the broad spectrum of apparel-based products. Qualitative research methods were utilised to construct the conceptual framework by collating the results of the extant literature and ten in-depth interviews carried-out at five leading apparel product development centres in Sri Lanka. The key product engineering variables of performance clothing development were identified based on the interview data and presented in a logical framework to optimise the NPD process of the clothing category in concern. This study can be used as a theoretical guide for future researchers to develop novel apparel product development systems to improve consumer responsiveness and reduce the NPD related cycle time.