Gonçalo Cruz, the dream maker
He’s an industrial engineer and a real business designer. Gonçalo Cruz grew up professionally with José Neves, the founder of Fartech. Together they took the first steps, but Gonçalo Cruz has long since carved his own path.
Gonçalo Cruz is co-founder of Platforme, a technological and operational platform producing a technology that allows large luxury brands to digitally customise their products.
There are nearly 500 clients — mostly American, British and Middle Eastern — who have already bought and customised products on Platforme. All first-class and world-renowned customers. The process is relatively simple, but requires a lot of procedural engineering. Taking a handbag as an example, the Platforme 3D team makes a three-dimensional model of the object. Each element is modelled, digitally reproducing the real product in detail, including seams or textures. In the end, a digital sculpture is made, with the possibility of simulating a customisation that seems real. As a result, it is possible to interact with the product, choose the materials and colours, make the product as unique as it is exclusive.
Gonçalo Cruz’s vision is controversial. Customisation is just the ‘tip of the iceberg’. The industry is badly formatted; it produces on a large scale and, when it doesn’t sell its products, it resorts to sales, which means it loses profitability and devalues its own brands. For Gonçalo Cruz “the consumer of luxury products doesn’t mind waiting. Fashion will be, in the future, like the automotive industry: first the customer chooses, then pays and only after that will the customer receive the product. We can already see this phenomenon in Gucci, for example.”
