Read up before you reach out.
Answers, results, and, for the curious, the mathematics that power Shapeshifter.
Questions our customers have asked.
How much does Shapeshifter save on fabric?
Shapeshifter typically reduces fabric consumption by 1–3% through optimized markers at the costing and buying stage. Because fabric is one of the largest costs in a garment, that saving usually amounts to a multiple of the subscription fee.
How much faster does cutting get?
Smart cut plans with fewer cuts typically deliver 10–15% faster cutting — more throughput from the machines and shifts you already have.
Is Shapeshifter a fit for a smaller factory?
Shapeshifter fits operations where fabric spend is significant and orders are frequent. If you cut a handful of simple styles a month, the engine may be more than you need — talk to us and we’ll tell you honestly.
How long does Shapeshifter take to implement?
Most customers run a structured pilot on live orders within a month, with rollout following agreed success criteria. There is no hardware to install — Shapeshifter is fully cloud-based.
Does Shapeshifter integrate with our CAD/CAM and ERP systems?
Yes. Shapeshifter works in your native CAD formats and integrates with your ERP via secure REST APIs, so orders and plans flow without re-keying.
Do we have to replace our current tools?
No. Shapeshifter is an optimization layer that works alongside the systems you already run — it automates the marker-making and cut-planning work around them.
How is Shapeshifter priced?
Shapeshifter is a subscription scoped to your operation’s size and customization requirements, with unlimited usage and no per-marker fees. Pilots run at a fraction of the full fee so results are proven before commitment.
Results on real factory floors.
In-depth stories, built together with our customers.
The mathematics of the impossible.
Marker making is a 2D bin-packing problem — a class of problem mathematicians call NP-complete. This is the corner of the site where we tell you what that actually means.
The combinatorial explosion
“As you add more pattern pieces, the number of possible combinations doesn’t just grow — it explodes exponentially.” No algorithm can find the mathematically perfect layout in reasonable time, even with supercomputing power. The craft is in getting provably close, fast.
Why generic AI isn’t a silver bullet
Neural networks are pattern-recognition engines, not logic solvers for rigid combinatorial constraints. A layout can look efficient while leaving 2–3% of material on the table — in high-volume manufacturing, the difference between profit and loss.
Aesthetic Intelligence
A technically efficient marker can still ruin a garment: mismatched floral patterns, misaligned grain lines and panel shading. Shapeshifter translates the judgment of master cutters into data constraints the geometric solver respects.
The hybrid engine
The Infinity Engine pairs a mathematical layer — metaheuristic and genetic algorithms working the NP-complete geometry — with an AI layer enforcing aesthetic and fabric-specific rules. Rigor where rigor wins; learning where judgment used to be the bottleneck.
Shapeshifter: Fabric & Resource Hyper-automation
Shapeshifter is a cloud-based platform designed to reduce fabric consumption and improve cutting-room productivity in apparel manufacturing. Starting with purchase-order quantities and existing CAD patterns, Shapeshifter automatically generates production cut plans and markers for costing, fabric purchasing and production.
The presentation filmed at H&M’s supplier conference, explains why conventional cut planning can leave savings unrealised: factories typically create one feasible cut plan, even though many different combinations of sizes and markers could fulfil the same order. Shapeshifter evaluates a much wider range of possibilities, identifying combinations that deliver superior marker efficiency and lower fabric consumption.
The presentation concludes by outlining factory-specific configuration, trials and pilots, before introducing forthcoming developments designed to streamline implementation.
Hamish Dean, Founder & CEO · Watch on YouTube →
Who are the Winners in the AI Revolution?
The first factories in the world were cotton mills, so this apparel industry didn’t join the industrial revolution, it started it. Filmed at H&M’s supplier conference in Shanghai, Shapeshifter Head of Engineering, Scott Camp argues that the winners of that first revolution were the adopters, not the inventors and that the same choice now faces garment manufacturers with AI.
Shapeshifter finds the lowest-cost cut plans for a factory’s orders, weighing fabric saved against cutting time. It reaches the best plan by scoring thousands of alternatives for every order so the system doesn’t just know the final answer, it knows why, and that depth of data is what makes AI genuinely useful.
No two factories cut the same way, so almost everything in Shapeshifter is configurable: block fusing, ratio matching, width batching, and a long list beyond. Scott shows two initiatives: an AI onboarding agent that reads a factory’s existing files to work out which of those automations it needs, and operational insights drawn from the factory’s own production history.
Scott Camp, Head of Engineering · Watch on YouTube →