The apparel industry has spent years trying to automate a manufacturing process still heavily dependent on manual labor. CreateMe Technologies is now adding commercial and operational leadership as it moves its AI-assisted robotics platform from technology development toward scaled apparel production. The company has appointed John W. Jacobson as vice president of commercialization, Leslie Lambert as vice president of people and business operations, and promoted Ashley Nicole Stickler to vice president of marketing and partnerships.
Automating apparel manufacturing is considerably harder than automating the production of standardized industrial components. Fabric moves differently from rigid materials, garments require precise assembly, and traditional sewing processes can involve numerous manual operations.
CreateMe Technologies is pursuing a different approach. The company combines robotics, artificial intelligence and digitally controlled bonding to automate parts of garment production, and it is now reshaping its leadership team around the next challenge: turning the technology into a commercially scalable manufacturing business.
CreateMe announced three senior appointments as it enters what it describes as its next phase of commercialization. John W. Jacobson joins as vice president of commercialization, Leslie Lambert becomes vice president of people and business operations, and Ashley Nicole Stickler has been promoted to vice president of marketing and partnerships.
The changes are notable less for the individual titles than for what they say about the company’s priorities. CreateMe is moving beyond proving that automated garment assembly is technically possible and toward building the customer relationships, manufacturing infrastructure and organizational capabilities needed to deploy the technology at larger volumes.
Jacobson will lead commercialization strategy and work with brands and retailers to move programs from development into scaled production. He previously co-founded Luminara Worldwide, which the company says reached more than $100 million in retail revenue and 30,000 outlets worldwide within six years.
For CreateMe, that experience addresses a challenge common to industrial AI startups: demonstrating a technology is one thing; persuading established manufacturers and consumer brands to redesign production around it is another.
Lambert brings more than two decades of experience in people and operations across manufacturing, retail and consumer brands. Her role will focus on building the workforce, organizational systems and operational infrastructure required as CreateMe expands.
That is an important component of the company’s strategy. Robotics can reduce manual manufacturing tasks, but an automated factory still requires engineering, maintenance, quality control, production planning and other specialized functions. Scaling automation therefore changes the composition of a manufacturing workforce rather than simply eliminating the need for one.
Stickler’s promotion gives CreateMe broader leadership across marketing, communications and partnerships. Her background includes work with global brands including adidas and Calvin Klein. She has also been involved in positioning CreateMe at the intersection of apparel, robotics and advanced manufacturing.
That positioning could become increasingly important as fashion companies look for alternatives to conventional global supply chains.
CreateMe’s technology is based around digital bonding, a manufacturing approach that joins apparel components using controlled bonding processes rather than relying exclusively on conventional stitching. When combined with robotics and digital production controls, the approach has the potential to make garment assembly more programmable and consistent.
The company is now beginning to test that proposition commercially.
In 2026, CreateMe announced a partnership with UNTUCKit and Supima to introduce commercially available digitally bonded garments, with plans to scale production to as many as 50,000 bonded T-shirts annually.
That volume remains modest relative to the global apparel industry, but the significance lies in the transition from prototype or demonstration to products intended for commercial sale.
CreateMe has also expanded the technology beyond garment assembly. In June, it launched Seed to System with Avalo and Laguna Fabrics, bringing together climate-smart cotton, domestic textile manufacturing and robotic garment assembly in an AI-assisted U.S. apparel manufacturing ecosystem.
The initiative reflects a broader trend toward reshoring and digitizing parts of manufacturing that have traditionally depended on geographically distributed supply chains.
AI is playing a growing role across that transition. NVIDIA, Microsoft and other technology companies are building the computing and software infrastructure behind industrial AI, while robotics manufacturers are increasingly combining machine vision, machine learning and automation to handle tasks that previously required human judgment.
But apparel presents a particularly difficult robotics problem because the material itself is flexible and variable.
That means CreateMe’s commercial opportunity depends on more than robotic hardware. The company needs its bonding processes, software, manufacturing workflows and automation systems to operate reliably enough for brands to incorporate them into real production schedules.
This is where the new leadership structure becomes strategically relevant.
CreateMe’s next hurdle is likely to be manufacturing economics and repeatability, not simply technological novelty. Brands need predictable quality, production volumes, turnaround times and costs. They also need confidence that an emerging manufacturing platform can support their product roadmaps over multiple seasons.
For enterprise apparel companies, automated manufacturing could offer several potential advantages: shorter production cycles, greater domestic manufacturing capacity, digitally controlled processes and potentially less dependence on labor-intensive assembly.
There are also unresolved questions. The economics of digitally bonded garments at large volumes, the range of fabrics and garment constructions that can be handled reliably, durability compared with conventional construction and the capital required to deploy automated production systems will all influence adoption.
CreateMe’s leadership expansion suggests the company believes the technology is sufficiently mature to move those questions from the laboratory to the commercial market.
As Cam Myers, founder and CEO of CreateMe, put it, the company is now focused on putting its manufacturing model “to work at scale.”
That shift—from developing automated apparel technology to building an ecosystem around it—could prove more important than any single robotics demonstration.
If CreateMe can demonstrate repeatable commercial production, the company would be competing not simply as a robotics startup but as part of a larger transformation in AI-powered manufacturing, digital apparel production and U.S. supply-chain infrastructure.
Market Landscape
The apparel manufacturing sector is entering a period where robotics, AI and supply-chain localization are converging.
Traditional apparel production remains highly labor-intensive, particularly in cutting, sewing, finishing and quality inspection. Companies developing automated alternatives are therefore competing against established manufacturing economics, not simply against other robotics platforms.
CreateMe’s differentiation is its combination of digital bonding and robotic garment assembly rather than automation of conventional sewing alone.
Its partnership with UNTUCKit and Supima provides an early commercial test, while Seed to System expands the proposition toward a domestic manufacturing ecosystem spanning raw material, textiles and final assembly.
The broader industrial technology landscape is also becoming more supportive. NVIDIA’s accelerated-computing ecosystem, Microsoft’s industrial AI capabilities and advances in computer vision and robotics are lowering some of the technical barriers to deploying AI in physical production.
The remaining question is commercial: whether automated apparel systems can achieve the quality, flexibility and unit economics necessary for brands to move meaningful production volumes away from conventional factories.
Top Insights
- CreateMe appointed three senior leaders as its AI robotics business moves toward commercial apparel production, adding expertise across commercialization, operations, talent, marketing and partnerships.
- Digital bonding and robotics form CreateMe’s core manufacturing approach, aiming to automate garment assembly while giving brands a more digitally controlled production process.
- UNTUCKit and Supima partnerships provide an early commercial test, with CreateMe targeting production of up to 50,000 digitally bonded T-shirts annually.
- Seed to System broadens the strategy, connecting climate-smart cotton, domestic textile manufacturing and robotic garment assembly into an AI-assisted U.S. production ecosystem.
- Enterprise adoption will depend on manufacturing economics, including quality, durability, production volume, flexibility and whether automated systems can compete with established apparel supply chains.
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