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When Brand Archivist Laura Pike joined Fossil in 2011, two unmanaged collections had no records, no inventory, and no consistent system. Soutron gave her a single platform to catalogue books, periodicals, fabric samples, and leathers archive materials, with a custom gallery view built specifically for creative teams.
Fossil’s collections don’t fit a standard library model. Designers needed to search thousands of bag, fabric, and leather samples alongside reference books and design annuals, with results displayed in a visual gallery rather than a traditional list view. Every other vendor offered off-the-shelf systems that couldn’t meet those requirements. Soutron built a custom solution on a realistic budget, integrated it with Active Directory, and delivered a catalogue that looks and feels like the web.
Fossil is a global retailer specialising in the design, innovation and marketing of fashion lifestyle and accessory products.
Its distinctive modern vintage design brand fuses elements of vintage creative culture, MidCentury Modern design and contemporary fashion.
With over 390 stores worldwide and a strong global e-commerce business, the brand is internationally known for its eclectic assortment of lifestyle and accessory items including watches, handbags and clothing.
Fossil continues to grow as it introduces new designs, stores and product categories. Founded in 1984, the company is based in Richardson, Texas.
When Laura Pike, Fossil Brand Archivist came onboard in June 2011, she was introduced to the two collections that needed managing:
The samples were a special challenge. There are thousands of these items, and they all needed to be photographed, labelled, catalogued, properly stored and made accessible to search and discovery processes.
For both collections, there were no records, no inventory and only a rudimentary and inconsistent organisational system. It was difficult to locate materials and even harder to keep track of them when they circulated. The collections were therefore underutilised and often lost.
Delivering results for fashion design and brand heritage corporate teams like the Fossil Group.
Fossil needed to find one system that could accommodate all these different types of materials, a functional ILS that could also provide non-MARC records and materials. Laura researched systems tailored for special/corporate libraries.
Furthermore, the designers were seeking a very specific results display; they wanted search results of books and samples to appear in a gallery view, displayed in horizontal rows.
There was no out-of-the-box system designed to meet Fossil’s needs, and Fossil needed a custom design on a budget. Of the various vendors Laura spoke with, Soutron Global was the most flexible and reasonably priced.
Laura also loves the look of the catalogue and Soutron Global’s responsiveness to OPAC developments and trends. The custom data templates were easy to implement and use. Fossil is a fashion/design company, and its library has to appeal to creative, artistic people. Soutron Global’s appearance and functionality fulfils this need.
Fossil chose to install Soutron Global in-house, integrating it with an existing Active Directory configuration to simplify user access.
Fossil easily customised the search results template to create a visual result view that is appealing and useful to designers.
Since implementation, the Fossil library has delivered measurable cost savings across the collections. Designers can check existing samples before purchasing new ones, reducing duplicate buys, while centralising book and journal holdings has cut both acquisition and magazine subscription costs. Items that previously went missing are now tracked and recoverable.
The platform fits naturally into Fossil’s creative environment. Soutron is fully Mac-compatible, the interface looks and feels like the web, and the reviews module gives designers a way to leave notes and feedback on samples directly within the system. The administrator backend is straightforward enough for Laura to manage without outside support, and the catalogue can be customised as the collections and workflows evolve.
To find out more about Fossil in the USA visit: www.fossil.com
To find out how you can migrate to a fast, secure, cloud-based library and archive management system to support your fashion design and brand heritage, book a 20 minute discovery call with us today, see below.
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The first step is to learn more. Here's how we can answer your questions:
Yes. Soutron's flexible database supports non-MARC records alongside standard library materials, making it suitable for collections that mix reference books, periodicals, and physical items such as fabric and product samples. Fossil Brand Archivist Laura Pike used Soutron to catalogue over 2,000 books and thousands of bag, fabric, and leather samples within the same system.
Yes. Soutron's search results templates are fully customisable. Fossil required search results to display in a horizontal gallery view rather than a standard list, so designers could browse books and samples visually. Soutron built and implemented this custom display as part of the solution.
Yes. Soutron integrates with Active Directory and is fully compatible with Apple Mac environments. Fossil integrated Soutron with their existing Active Directory configuration to simplify user access, removing the need for separate library login credentials across a creative team that works entirely on Mac.
Yes. Soutron can manage brand archive materials including catalogues, annual reports, advertising collateral, posters, and ephemera alongside a standard reference library within the same platform. Fossil used Soutron to bring their entire designer reference library and physical samples archive under a single catalogue with consistent search and discovery.