Stio Bolsters Growth, Powers Sustainability and Ensures Compliance with Centric PLM

Stio isn’t just building outerwear – it’s building a movement rooted in mountain life, technical performance and responsible growth. As the brand rapidly expanded into new categories like kidswear, footwear and accessories, its legacy PLM system couldn’t keep pace with the complexity, compliance demands and sustainability goals ahead. In 2021, Stio made the switch to Centric PLM™ for emerging brands, seeking an actionable solution to unify product development, track material impact and support its mission to protect the places it plays.

Today, Centric PLM is fully embedded across Stio’s product creation process. The team has unlocked new levels of visibility into materials and compliance, streamlined development across growing categories and scaled sustainability reporting with ease. “At this point, PLM is crucial and it’s hard to measure the ROI because it’s so high,” says Sandy Flint, Senior Materials Manager at Stio.

Centric PLM is the platform for growth  

“When we launched the brand in 2011, we started with spreadsheets and then used another PLM system that was not nearly as robust as Centric,” says Flint. “Today, Centric PLM is so much a part of how we run our company, and I can’t imagine how we would do it without Centric.”

Over a decade later, Stio has dramatically expanded its categories and customer base and grown from a small Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) brand to a midsize company with 13 owned retail stores and an expanding wholesale business.

Seamless category expansion powered by next-gen tech

Stio’s growth strategy included expanding its categories from men’s and women’s apparel to include kidswear, footwear and accessories. The leap increased product complexity and demand for cross-category alignment.

To bring its kidswear category to market, Stio relied on PLM to execute a line takedown strategy (shrinking the sizes of its adult lines) and ensure compliance with stringent safety requirements contained in the Consumer Product Safety Information Act (CPSIA).

“For kidswear, all of our tech packs and BOMs are streamlined through PLM and one of the biggest timesavers in PLM is with the size charts,” says Flint. “There are so many opportunities to save time by building out BOMs and tech packs in PLM.”

Faster sampling and supplier alignment with 3D

Stio rolled out Centric PLM’s 3D Connect, which integrates with tools like Browzwear and CLO 3D, allowing teams to design in their native platforms while syncing directly with PLM. The result? Faster iterations, fewer samples and improved vendor communication.

Stio is known for its vibrant and unique colors and the materials library and reporting functions have transformed sample development and lab dip tracking.

“We do a ton of color reporting on the material side and track between 2,000 – 3,000 lab dips,” says Flint. “That’s a huge part of making sure every single color is dipped and approved on time and another large report we track in PLM, along with sample turnaround time.”

The journey to sustainability

Sustainability is a core value for Stio and PLM is powering their journey to protect the planet for future generations. Stio eliminated PFAS (forever chemicals) across its product line, a major compliance milestone made possible through Centric PLM’s material traceability. Stio is on track to produce 75% of its products with environmentally friendly materials by the end the year.

“There have been a lot of compliance changes in the industry over the years,” shares Flint. “A critical part of having Centric PLM is knowing exactly where materials come from for every style. This would have been impossible to do with spreadsheets.”

Stio also partners with the Textile Exchange and the TCCP, to measure carbon footprint tracking as part of its sustainability priorities. PLM has fuelled their visibility and reporting capabilities to achieve targets.

“With the Textile Exchange, we do a preferred materials benchmark every year. It’s simple to pull data from Centric PLM and roll that up into reports,” says Flint. “We also work with the Climate Change Project (TCCP) and generate a company-wide carbon footprint every year.  Centric PLM’s Wordly material sustainability index connection streamlines that reporting for us.”

Stio is actively preparing for the incoming EU Digital Product Passport (DPP), set to launch in Europe in 2027, by working the product development requirements into PLM.

“We know we’ll need a data solution for the DPP and that will flow through Centric PLM and the Higg connection,” says Flint. “Stio doesn’t sell in Europe currently, but as we look at expansion opportunities, we want to be prepared.”

A bright future with Centric Software

After five years of innovation, growth and enhanced sustainability with Centric PLM, Stio sees a clear path ahead and an evolving partnership with Centric Software®. Flint concludes, “We’re always thinking about how we can flex even more with PLM. I can’t emphasize enough how invaluable the transparency and visibility that you get with PLM are.”