IT’S EASY BEING GREEN WITH CENTRIC PLMTM

A SUSTAINABLE FOOTWEAR COMPANY LEVERAGESCENTRIC PLM TO FACILITATE SUSTAINABILITY.

© 2022 Centric Software Inc. All rights reserved.

“Centric allows you to eliminate the documents and spreadsheetsthat everybody’s updating or forgetting to update, because they
live in one central source.”
Heather Howard, COO at Rothy’s describes the improvements
after implementing Centric PLM. “From a human perspective,
Centric PLM makes life much easier for our people in design,
product development and manufacturing. We’re able to workdirectly with our factory... and eliminate the countless othermanual steps that existed before Centric.”
Rothy’s was founded with eco-consciousness baked right into
their DNA. Having efficient workflows make their mission ofsustainable footwear manufacturing easier to manage.

AN IDEA COMES TO FRUITION

The company, headquartered in San Francisco, was foundedin 2012 and launched in 2016. Roth Martin and Stephen
Hawthornthwaite came up with the idea one night at a dinner.
The two wanted to create a company and decided on shoes.
Says Howard, “They learned how much waste exists in thefootwear industry and asked, ‘how can we do this differently andin a sustainable way?’” Initially working with OEMs, the pair could
not get the final product they were after and finally decided tojust do it themselves, building Rothy’s wholly-owned factory inChina. Today, the company makes everything it sells, offering
stylish, comfortable and sustainable shoes and handbags
through their online site and stores in select cities.

TOTAL CONTROL					Owning the factory gives the company advantages that theywouldn’t otherwise have. Howard says, “We can really own ourproduction. We can do things just-in-time, we can plan out in thefuture and through this chaotic supply chain. The last two years,
we had 98% on-time delivery and the 2% that was late was due
to port delays. We’re in constant contact with our factory anddon’t have to compete with other companies for production.
And we kept our factory workers safe with our COVID protocols;
we didn’t have to shut down even for one day.” The factoryalso serves as proving grounds for R&D trials of ideas for new
footwear product development and improvement. Howardstates, “We want to do things right...We launched with just twosilhouettes, The Flat and The Point. And we didn’t go to market
until we were ready. We’re always thinking about how we do thisin the most sustainable way versus retrofitting something later.”“...IT’S BEEN TRANSFORMATIVEFOR THE TEAMS. IT TAKES

HARD WORK TO DO THIS AND
CAN BE PAINFUL, BUT ONCEYOU GET TO THE OTHER SIDE,THE FACT THAT YOU CANELIMINATE THE 14 DIFFERENTPLACES THAT EVERYBODY’SCHALLENGESHAVING TO UPDATE, AND HAVEONE CENTRAL SOURCE OF+ Fast growth

TRUTH THAT CAN ALSO THEN

+ Supply chain woes

FEED YOUR OTHER SYSTEMS,+ Ambitious eco goals

IS AMAZING.

“© 2022 Centric Software Inc. All rights reserved.

JUST LIKE BEING THERE										The pandemic has put a damper on visiting assets overseas. Howard says, “Normally we would be traveling to our factory, but like most,
we have not gone over in the last two and a half years. This makes it more important to be organized and working from the same sourceof truth as your production.” She also mentions that people don’t think twice to work from home with Centric PLM in place. It similarly
lends itself to going completely remote. “We have had a few people move out of California that are still with us and it’s working reallywell.”		

GREEN THROUGH AND THROUGH 								Taking a closer look at Rothy’s revolutionary processes gives some insight how committed they are to keeping waste down. Beginningwith the thread that is formed from plastic water bottles—125 million and counting—to 400,000+ lbs of recycled ocean plastic. Thethread is made directly into shoes using an innovative 3D knitting technique that took 3.5 years to perfect, avoiding the waste generated
from the more traditional cut-and-sew methods. Other components are made from bio-based materials like wool, rubber, sand, corn,
hemp fiber and castor beans that can be easily tracked through PLM.
Rothy’s talks about circularity as a “continuous loop that renews itself, from material and manufacturing to product and recycling. The
vision is to use twice-recycled materials in new products—to close the loop, like nature does.” Pioneering PLM solutions integrate
this closed loop model into managing each aspect of product development from manufacturing, supply chain, through to returning,repurposing and recycling the product.

GAINING EFFICIENCY											Howard explains that they decided to go with PLM to gain efficiencies in their process. “When we partnered with Centric Software about
three years ago, we were young and growing so fast that we weren’t using all of Centric PLM’s capabilities. In this last year, we made aconscious effort to redo our processes and take advantage of its full capacity. It takes hard work to do this and can be painful, but once
you get to the other side, the fact that you can eliminate the 14 different places that everybody’s having to update, and have one central
source of truth that can also then feed your other systems, is amazing. We’re at about 97% and it’s been transformative for our teams.”

ECO-CONSCIOUS CUSTOMERS									Rothy’s customers come from two places. Some are drawn in by the beauty of the styles. Howard says, “When someone tries our shoe
on for the very first time, the universal reaction is ‘oh, these are so comfortable!’ They then quickly learn what our mission is and how
the shoe was made and get excited around that. Then you also have the converse, where the customer is of the mindset: this is how I
want to shop—I want to support brands that are being sustainable and thoughtful in the work that they do.
It’s great either way—it creates this incredible flywheel of word of mouth. Our customers learn not only do we make this beautiful,comfortable shoe, but it’s durable, washable and sustainable.”

PACKAGING AND HAPPY RETURNS								One of the first and more obvious places that companies look to improve environmental impact is packaging. Since Rothy’s was createdexpressly with sustainability in mind, that wasn’t the case for them but still an area of focus. With direct-to-consumer sales soaring since
the pandemic started, shipping has come into the spotlight. Howard says, “We use 95% recycled packaging materials and we ship in our
shoe boxes straight from the shelf—we do not ship a box in a box.” By having the material data tied directly to each packaging code in
the BOM, determining the percentage of recycled material is simple.
She continues, “Further, as we all know, there’s a whole reverse logistics side to returns that has increased immensely over the last twoyears because everybody was ordering online. We’ve partnered with Happy Returns, a company that has return bars all over the UnitedStates. It eliminates customers having to do returns the old-fashioned way where you print out a label, tape it to your box and take itin. Now you don’t even need to have the box. For instance, you can return your shoes to a Paper Source [which hosts return bars].”Customers are refunded in 60 seconds on the spot. Howard notes, “The return bars employ reusable shipping containers. That has
saved something like 54 tons of cardboard for every million returns. It’s incredible to be able to reduce that footprint on the cardboard
front.” Tracking those returns as they come in, is straightforward via a central, digital hub.

© 2022 Centric Software Inc. All rights reserved.

NOT READY TO LET GO										Rothy’s is continuously improving their eco efforts. Howard says. “As we’ve grown in 2021, we began exploring the next frontier insustainability and design and the end-of-life solution. Though our shoes and bags are designed for durability, eventually a sustainable
solution for unwearable products needs to exist. The first initiative toward that was our pilot recycling program. We had people bring intheir shoes to our stores. We actually struggled a little because people weren’t ready to give up their Rothy’s. Their attitude was: ‘theseare still in great condition. I can wash them and I’m not ready. I’m not letting go.’ That was a great learning.”“The work that we’re doing on how to deconstruct our shoes leads to the next initiative: twice recycled materials,” says Howard.
“Because everything in our shoe is natural or recycled, it’s easy to repurpose those components. We’re deconstructing and reclaiming
these twice recycled materials to create something new.” Companies can manage end-of-life within PLM, adding circular labeling ortags within the Bill of Labor (BOL) such as ‘return’, ‘deconstruction’, ‘chopping / shredding / grinding’, for example.

ZERO WASTE						Howard mentions the next initiative: zero waste factory. “It’s super exciting,
and we’re one of the first in the industry to do this. Our factory will achieve
LEED status and true zero waste certifications this year, validating that
we’re operating with green building practices. And last but not least, isfull circular production. Rothy’s 2023 goals are our most ambitious yet!
Not only will our products be crafted with majority twice recycled andbiomass-based materials, but every Rothy’s put into the world will have anend-of-wear solution.” Tracking the certifications, regulations andrequirements is key to maintaining status, which Centric PLM does
alongside all the product development information. For companies
that do not own their own factories, tracking certifications of OEMs andsuppliers becomes even more critical to their sustainability pursuits sincecertifications expire and need to be managed.

PARTING WORDS						For businesses that need to draw up a sustainability roadmap, Howard
offers some advice to those looking to embrace sustainability more
fully. “Start by breaking things down because if you go after everything,
you’re going to be overwhelmed and end up doing nothing. Take it caseby case: supply chain team, let’s take a look at our packaging. What are
we doing? What could we do differently? Hey, materials team, where are
there places where you can reduce waste... and go through each teamthat brings something to the table to move that needle forward, I think isthe best approach.” And of course, implement a modern PLM for design
and manufacturing to tackle the complexities that go along with being
green.

© 2022 Centric Software Inc. All rights reserved.

RESULTS+ More streamlined processes+ Visibility into factory via PLM+ Ability to track certifications, 		% recycled materials+ Eliminated 14 different sourcesof data for ONE centralized
locationABOUT ROTHY’S (www.rothys.com)									Founded in 2012 and launched in 2016, Rothy’s is committed to constantly optimizing our sustainable efforts. From our planet-friendly
materials to the way we treat our team members, we consider sustainability every step of the way. And we’ve been that way since thevery beginning. We make everything we sell, offering stylish, comfortable and sustainable shoes and handbags through our online siteand stores in select cities.

ABOUT CENTRIC SOFTWARE (www.centricsoftware.com)					From its headquarters in Silicon Valley, Centric Software® provides a Product Concept to Consumer Digital Transformation Platform forfashion, retail, footwear, luxury, outdoor, consumer electronics and consumer goods including cosmetics and personal care and foodand beverage. Centric’s flagship Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) platform, Centric PLMTM, delivers enterprise-class merchandiseplanning, product development, sourcing, quality and product portfolio optimization innovations specifically for fast-moving consumer
industries. Centric Visual Innovation Platform (CVIP) offers highly visual digital board experiences for collaboration and decision-making.
Centric Retail Planning is an innovative, cloud-native solution powered by Armonica Retail S.R.L., that delivers an end-to-end retailplanning process designed to maximize retail business performance. Centric Software pioneered mobility, introducing the first mobile
apps for PLM, and is widely known for connectivity to dozens of other enterprise systems including ERP, DAM, PIM, e-com, planningand more as well as creative tools such as Adobe® Illustrator and a host of 3D CAD connectors. Centric’s innovations are 100% marketdriven with the highest user adoption rate and fastest time to value in the industry. All Centric innovations shorten time to market, boost
product innovation and reduce costs.
Centric Software is majority-owned by Dassault Systèmes (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), the world leader in 3D design software, 3D
digital mock-up and PLM solutions.
Centric Software has received multiple industry awards and recognition, including being named by Red Herring to its Top 100 Global listin 2013, 2015 and 2016. Centric also received various excellence awards from Frost & Sullivan in 2012, 2016, 2018 and 2021.

www.centricsoftware.com© 2022 Centric Software Inc. All rights reserved. Centric is a registered trademark of Centric Software Inc.
All other brands and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.