February 2nd, 2017

Marine Layer Has Soft Spot for Centric SMB

CAMPBELL, Calif., February 2, 2017 – Marine Layer, the San Francisco-based premium casual apparel brand specialized in soft clothing, announces a successful go live of their Centric Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) project. Centric Software is the leading PLM solution for fashion, retail, footwear, luxury, outdoor and consumer goods companies.

Founded by Mike Natenshon and his best friend Adam Lynch in San Francisco in 2009, Marine Layer makes clothing to suit a ‘seven-day weekend’ lifestyle. Marine Layer’s custom fabric, made from a recycled beechwood fiber and cotton mix, is used to produce incredibly soft, wearable apparel with a laid-back feel. Most of Marine Layer’s clothing is made in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and the business is rapidly growing. They have 23 stores across the United States, eight of which opened in 2016.

In the midst of this rapid growth and change, Marine Layer needed a PLM solution to help manage data from product development through to retail. “The biggest challenge we were facing was keeping track of shared information,” says Megan Eddings, Director of Design & Product Development at Marine Layer. “We needed to get everyone on the same page, as so much time was wasted searching around for information in different shared drives, documents, and spreadsheets.”

“There was a big push this year to get a PLM system,” recalls Eddings. “I was looking at different options and fortunately someone from Centric reached out to me about seminars they were doing in the Bay Area. I went along and it was great to hear people’s personal experiences and ask questions. It was very friendly and inviting. Centric seemed like a good fit, so we requested some demos and went from there.”

Marine Layer kicked off their Centric SMB implementation in September. Even though travel commitments paused the roll-out process for three weeks, the core modules of Centric 8 and associated mobile apps were fully live by November 2016.

“I think Centric SMB having the ability to scale is really important,” continues Eddings. “The functionality within each segment of Centric was also something that we were looking for. It has to work for different teams, so you need to be able to configure what someone is working on or how they’re using it based on their role – whether that’s more visual for design, or more number-centered for planning.”

After this speedy go-live, Marine Layer anticipates future efficiencies with Centric.

As Eddings explains, “We are expecting to see time savings of about 10-15 percent per user, just by getting our information on a centralized, shared software system. With everyone working from the same shared information, we’ll also cut down on mistakes and have the visibility to catch them earlier.”

“We are delighted to have been selected by Marine Layer, a young apparel company that is growing at an impressive rate,” says Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric Software. “Centric’s team worked closely with Marine Layer to make sure that the go-live went smoothly, and we look forward to supporting them further as they continue to scale up.”

Marine Layer (www.marinelayer.com)

Marine Layer locally designs and manufactures its own line of casual apparel. We sell through our website and our retail stores throughout the US of A. We are a fast‐growing company whose success has been built on a small, passionate team that works hard and has a lot of fun.

Centric Software, Inc. (www.centricsoftware.com)

From its headquarters in Silicon Valley and offices in trend capitals around the world, Centric Software builds technologies for the most prestigious names in fashion, retail, footwear, luxury, outdoor and consumer goods. Its flagship product lifecycle management (PLM) platform, Centric 8, delivers enterprise-class merchandise planning, product development, sourcing, business planning, quality and collection management functionality tailored for fast-moving consumer industries. Centric SMB packages extended PLM including innovative technology and key industry learnings tailored for small businesses.

Centric Software has received multiple industry awards, including the Frost & Sullivan Global Product Differentiation Excellence Award in Retail, Fashion and Apparel PLM in 2016 and Frost & Sullivan’s Global Retail, Fashion and Apparel PLM Product Differentiation Excellence Award in 2012. Red Herring named Centric to its Top 100 Global list in 2013, 2015 and 2016.

Centric is a registered trademark of Centric Software. All other brands and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.