Busan City Selected for Ministry of Industry's 'Market-Creating Innovative Design Development Project' Competition!

A Total of 7.45 Billion KRW Invested by 2027 for Development and Demonstration of a 'Customized Style Design Platform'

Project Led by Hyungji Elite with Participation from Five Related Companies and Institutions Including Busan Design Promotion Age

Busan City announced that it has been finally selected in the ‘2023 Market-Creating Innovation Design Development Project’ competition conducted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Busan City Hall.

This competition was held to establish a new ecosystem that stably links digital-based style design capabilities with manufacturing capabilities in clothing and footwear to secure a leading position in the global style tech market.

Globally, style tech demand is rapidly increasing not only in manufacturing but also in various industries such as information and communication technology (IT), distribution, entertainment, and healthcare.

It is expected that if technologies from various fields such as design, artificial intelligence, materials, and eco-friendliness are converged, it will drive the creation of added value in new markets.

Style tech is a new business field that creates new value by integrating technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) in style-related areas such as fashion and beauty.

StyleTech Value Chain.

Following the selection in this competition, the city will invest a total of 7.45 billion KRW, including 5.15 billion KRW in national funds, city funds, and private contributions, over 53 months from August this year to 2027 to develop a ‘customized style design platform’ based on ‘data mining’ and conduct demonstrations for future market services.

Data mining refers to the process of discovering useful hidden correlations among large amounts of data, extracting actionable information for the future, and using it for decision-making.

This platform is a ‘digital framework’ that covers the entire lifecycle of style products throughout all processes including user data collection, style generation, product purchase, manufacturing, distribution, logistics, and sales, and is a market-customized platform.

It supports local small and medium-sized style manufacturing companies by collecting and processing style data for footwear, clothing, etc., proposing styles optimized to users’ demands (needs) through an automatic style generation model, and enabling autonomous manufacturing processes.

By using this platform, it is expected that style products preferred by customers such as clothing and footwear can be produced and supplied in a personalized manner.

The city will promote this project by forming a consortium of multiple institutions and research and development organizations.

The project is led by ‘Hyungji Elite,’ a KOSDAQ-listed company with market competitiveness, while ‘Busan Design Promotion Agency,’ which led project planning and the formation of a competitive R&D consortium; ‘Christine Company,’ a strong small and medium enterprise in the southeastern region that developed a smart footwear manufacturing platform; ‘Infinix,’ an AI R&D specialized company; ‘Busan Fashion Biz Center,’ a one-stop support facility for Busan’s fashion apparel industry; and ‘G Emotion,’ which develops a 3D fashion simulation engine with excellent technological competitiveness, are jointly participating.

The city plans to establish a testbed centered on ‘Busan,’ which possesses all systems for clothing and footwear manufacturing, to conduct demonstrations.

This aligns with the detailed promotion project of the 8th municipal administration’s pledge, ‘Advancement of the Textile Fashion Industry Based on Metaverse,’ specifically the ‘Digital Transformation Platform and Production Process Digital System Construction’ project, as well as Busan’s mid- to long-term plan for fostering the design industry, making this competition project a core future initiative for the city.

The economic effects expected from this project are estimated at 360 billion KRW in production inducement, 1,720 jobs created, and 104.7 billion KRW in added value (based on the R&D plan).

Lee Kyung-deok, Director of the Future Industry Bureau, stated, “With the promotion of this project, the digital transformation of Busan’s design industry will accelerate, and its global competitiveness will be further enhanced. We will continue to do our best to support the design industry so that digital-based style design technology can be integrated into traditional style manufacturing sectors such as fashion and footwear, establishing a new regional style tech industry ecosystem.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.